Well, I meant to get this out yesterday, but it was Easter and... yeah, I was a little more concerned with eating all the great food that was floating around, my friends, Brian & Kristi's house yesterday. I'm only a few hours late of having gotten the post out within a day after the show, right?
Ok, so, I guess I need to set up the when, where, how, why of this "show." First off, it wasn't really an SDR "show" in the traditional sense. This was multi-band deal and the real focus of the day was not the bands, but the BBQ sauce - specifically, Junior's Lone Star Sauce, as they were celebrating their one year anniversary.
I ran into Tex and Chrissie about a year ago when my friend Mike and I were at the Best Little Brewfest in Texas. It was your typical beer fest, but they seemed to be trying to put a local spin on it moreso than the others that I've been to around the DFW metroplex. It was a nice, comfortable fest. Anyway, we're winding our way through the samples and there towards the back was this table with BBQ sauce samples. I'm always game, so we tried and it was amazing. So, we buy a few jars and continue back to the beer sampling... and keep making random comments between ourselves about how good that sauce was.
Fast forward a month or two and Mike and I are discussing the sauce and how we need to find them again to buy more. Checked out their website and, go figure, they lived in the same town as I do... and they were working the beer circuit pretty hard, as were we. A day or two later, Sand Dollar Rodeo is playing a brewery tour (Martin House, maybe?) and look who's there early setting up a table. Needless to say, we spent more on sauce than we got paid and I was able to turn my bandmates onto it as well. I remember Heath fell in love with the stuff. His parents were there and I think bought some and got hooked as well. Years from now, I suspect we're going to see Tex on the news, having been busted for putting some addictive element in the sauce LOL.
We talked with them a bit more and, as I mentioned, he and his wife lived in Roanoke. So, I think one of us said we should go get a beer sometime when neither of us are working on the same weekend. Working on the weekend is par for course, so it's a good thing not to be free on the weekend. After that, we pretty much all became friends on Facebook and, eventually, one night off we were all stumbling around old Roanoke and hooked up for some beer!
I will say something that most of you probably don't know or think about... when you (we) play different places most every night, it's rare to see a friendly face in the venue. It's not like a day job where you're going into an office with the same group of co-workers each day. Our office staff changes every night. That's why, when an employee of a club, vendor or whatever, is friendly to us, we remember. We show up and throw it all out there in front of strangers on a stage. Seeing a familiar, friendly face is a nice treat for us and makes our job easier. Tex & Chrissie are some of those familiar, friendly faces that we get to see every once in a while.
Several months ago, maybe after a night in Roanoke - I can't remember, Tex told me he was planning the party and asked if we would play. Unfortunately, the rest of the band wasn't able to do it. But, Heath and I wanted to be there. You see, when the Junior's folks get big and famous, we're going to get them to make us up some of Sand Dollar Rodeo's Fired Okra Dippin' Sauce. I can already taste it... anyway, jokes aside, we wanted to be there. So, we said it was time to put together an acoustic set, I followed up with Tex and we booked the damned gig!
After the fact, I'm so glad we did. It was a really nice afternoon and I was glad to see so many people come out and support them. Ok, so now to the usual show highlights reel...
We show up around 11, say hello and get these really cool beer glasses! So cool, we had to just fill them up, right?
Along with the party, they were hosting a beard/facial hair competition. That was a lot of fun. I think my personal favorite was this guy and his Easter beard basket:
Although, we were playing while most of the competitors were showing up, so I am sure I missed some good ones. I had no idea what to expect from a facial hair competition, but it was actually a lot of fun. I am pretty sure everyone in the crowd enjoyed watching it.
So, we play...
You can't really tell from the picture above, but we were playing a pretty good sized parking lot. A concrete parking lot. The sun decided to come out. Oh boy, I can tell you that, as I type this, my face is bright red. I got so sunburned, it's not even funny. I wasn't aware we would be outside, so didn't pack any sunscreen. We live and learn, bottle of "just in case" sunscreen going in my gig bag from here on out!
We played for an hour. Highlight of the set was watching some drunk cowboy in a black hat doing a hillbilly rumpshaker dance to Fried Okra. He will remain nameless. Probably the worst version or Fried Okra we've ever played because I could not stop laughing.
After our set, we stuck around and watched the other bands - The Rhythm and Beards and then The Driftin' Outlaw Band. Both were a lot of fun and I recommend checking them out if they're in your neck of the woods.
On a side note, this was my first time visiting Cobra Brewing Company. They had a nice, comfortable, setup. I will be going back again (as a customer), for sure.
My closing comments are 1) a big thank you to Tex & Chrissie for having us 2) if you weren't there, you missed a Hell of a party 3) try their sauce - Junior's Texas Sauce !
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| Roy, Heath, Pitmaster Tex & Chrissie - No actual beer was consumed in this photo... |
Until next time... Stay Gold,
RH
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