BBQ, wild women and fried okra. That pretty much sums up last night!
This was our first time playing at Railhead, my first time to visit the place. I had heard of it, it's hard not to know about it, if you live around the metroplex and / or ever listen to 95.9 The Ranch out of Fort Worth. For some reason, this little BBQ joint has become a hot spot for live music. For example: You Troubador Texas TV show fans will be familiar with a guy who played there on Tuesday by the name of Zane Williams. Anyway, obviously they get some decent names and supposedly it's not too easy to get booked there (thank you, Heath). We were looking forward to seeing what it was all about, for sure.
I'll admit that when I got there, it was not what I expected. No stage. Really? Yeah, really. The bands just setup where it's convenient. Ok, that's how they do, we'll roll with it. We setup in kind of a garage door area that opens up to the parking lot. Heath, Brian and I each had our own door!
When we arrived, we were briefed on band rules from the house staff. Things started to fall into place... I think I now know how they get some of these bigger regional names coming back to play a little BBQ place with no stage. Ummm... they treat the bands really well. Beyond its paying more than most similar venues, they really took care of us. Super friendly staff. Oh, bands also get free dinner and beer all night. When you're doing what we do, a free meal can go a long way... especially when fried okra is on the menu. Thank you, Railhead!
I don't eat before shows, but about midway I placed my order so I could take it and eat afterwards. My plate came with a choice of 3 sides. Well, duh... okra, okra and okra. As much as I love me some fried okra, it's never as good cold. So, I brought it on stage and the four of us had a little fun with it. Heath and I will have Brian and Cisco hooked before too long. BTW, I could care less about receiving tips. In fact, I don't like the whole tipping thing as it encourages requests. But, if you bring me fried okra, it's worth way more than cash :)
Despite having something going on with my middle finger (not sure what it is just yet - it's swollen and hurts a lot), things were fun and went well. Playing guitar last night made it worse, though. Really painful and big today. Anyway, that threw off some of my playing. I had trouble holding the pick and doing the fast strumming I usually do. Must have dropped a good 20 picks. Then, when I would play the keyboards, it was direct pressure on it and really was not fun. Luckily, I didn't screw up the parts too bad and, unless you just know the details of the songs really well, you wouldn't have noticed. I really hope my finger is back to its normal self by the next show!
What happens now? More like what happened next... So, as you guys know, we don't play a lot of slow songs or songs with a heavy message. We like to keep the shows a party and don't want to bring people down. So, we usually limit it to 2 slow songs a night. One of them was What Happens Now.
Wow, talk about getting lost and killing a mood. Yes, I did! But, there was a good reason... so, whether you guys know it or not, bands can see (and do see) most everything you guys do in the crowd. Starting to follow me now? So, there were these three women kind of in front of me, a tad to my right. I explain what the song is about, we kick in and I see one of them pass her phone to the one right in front of me. My direct view was kind of looking down and into her phone... and on her screen... well, let me fast forward to after the show when the one pulls me over and explains that she was trying to find a popular image of a man with a giant rooster on a leash, the image is titled, "World's Largest Cock." So, she Googled just that. Needless to say, her search returned much more than pictures of roosters. They had no idea I could see their screens when they decided to share the images with each other. So, back to the song, I see this going on and start cracking up. I tried to hold back the laughing, but just couldn't. Then, I got lost in the song. So, yes, blame it all on me, I screwed up What Happens Now last night. But, I had a fun time doing it. After that, I pretty much heckled those ladies the rest of the night. Good times.
This was a local show for Heath. I think he lives about 3 miles away from the place and his family lives in the area as well. So, it was Frazierville Pt. 2. Always a fun time when his parents and family come out to one of the shows.
Anyway, it was fun night. The crowd seemed to have a good time and we did, too. Met some really nice folks. Hopefully, we will be back out there again next year.
Next week, I think we're in Ft. Worth on Friday then out to Glen Rose on Saturday. Last Hollywood & Vine show (Glen Rose) of the year for us, which is sad. I like H&V. So, if you haven't been out there all year, now is the time. It's a really neat outdoor stage. Unfortunately, it's getting to be that time of year where outdoor isn't going to work. So, last one - hope to see y'all there. Until then...
Stay gold,
RH
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| Sand Dollar Rodeo @ Railhead - Willow Park, TX |
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