The Sunday Rundown

My hands felt so tired last night that after the last show (the VERY last show) I went to Walgreens and bought some Icy Hot to help with the soreness.


So... here we are on Monday morning and still carrying the SXSW hangover.  Not induced by alcohol but by drumming and lots of it.  If you've been following along I truly appreciate you for reading this and your comments have been most excellent so I thank you.  


This last week has been the busiest SX I've seen in a long time.  Luckily almost everything was running on time (except Sam's... amateurs.) and we all had a rocking good time.
Yesterday was Sunday so that means after 5 hours of sleep it was time to get up although I could hardly move.  After a shower and some breakfast it was time to leave for the afternoon gig out at Jimmy Quill's.  We fought through the midday traffic (on a Sunday?! oh right... Austin...) and drove out to the rural southeast part of town.  I didn't want to say bucolic because that, to me, sounds like it is pleasing to the eye which it is not.  Many trailers and run down homes but hey I guess you gotta live somewhere.  Jimmy's place is a sort of anomaly in this area:  a really beautiful two-story farmhouse with a detached out building which has a recording studio built inside.  The studio is very once complete with a shower, a kitchen and of course the control room.  Out back next to the studio is an airstream trailer which can be used for guests that may be recording for several days at a time.  I guess Blues Traveler was in there this January although I heard a rumor they were just hanging out.


Jimmy is from L.A. as is Mike so there were plenty of L.A. people hanging about.  
Michael Des Barres was the emcee, the Vitamin Water truck was making a delivery,  and the air was filled with the scent of pretentiousness that can only happen this time of year.  So we set up the studio gear to our liking and kicked off the set at 3:30, only a half hour past our start time.  Mike Stinson is a great songwriter and we did our best but I knew I was tired; I tried to put on a brave face.  End result -  not our stellar gig of the week.  Hey you - the extremely tall guy with the rattlesnake boots, leather pants, gray hair/beard playing the harmonica?  Yeah YOU - you are not helping the situation by jumping in on the tail end of "Taking No For Answer" which was definitely a low point in the show.
But we finished and after brief good byes we were out the door and back in traffic this time heading north upon which I fell asleep in the car even though the drive was maybe 20 minutes.


When I got home I crashed hard with Dottie on my lap and had dreamless sleep for about 30 minutes but I woke with a start at 7:00 PM and here is the dialog I had going on in my head:


You're late for a gig!
No... Wait... No we don't play now.
YES WE DO!  Get up - they have already started!!
No... we play at 9:00
Are you sure?
Yes.  Go back to sleep.
OK but I still have the feeling we need to be somewhere.
Would you shut up!


Liz woke me up at 7:40 where she had ordered and I guess picked up food.  I ate in stupefied silence watching "The Return Of The Jedi" on tv.  Then I got in the truck and headed down to the G&S lounge to play the last set.


Rick had emailed everyone earlier that his voice was gone.  He thought he might have blown it during the last song we played at Ginny's the night before.  The plan was for Matt do sing most of the songs and we'd do some instrumentals, "Sukiyaki", "Come ANd Take It", etc...  However upon arrival Rick is speaking fairly clearly, albeit a little hoarsely and the plan is to switch between Rick and Matt singing.  Excellent.  Larry Lange and His Lonely Knights finish up their set of Gulf-Coast R&B and we take the outside stage.  We are the last band to play this portion of the festival and the rest of the music will take place indoors.  This is a Steady Boy showcase in conjunction with the extremely grizzled John Conquest and 3rd Coast Music.  We kick off the set and soon people are dancing and tapping their toes.  It does my heart good to see Grady Pinkerton tapping along and bobbing his head in time.  For the uninitiated: Grady is a badass guitar player in town and a very snappy dresser.


We work our way through the set and things are going well.  Our energy level is rising as each song goes by and we had a great time and great gig.  Matt's borrowed amp totally blew out my right ear but we had a good time and it was great that our fans came out and still had the energy to dance.


Matt's quote of the week, "There were 3 things I wanted to do today: #1 - play this gig; 2 - eat a meal with a fork; 3 - go see the next showcase indoors.  I'm going home so I accomplished 2 out of 3."  Classic.


My next gig is on Thursday at the Highball.  We play from 11:30 PM-2:00 AM so if you're out and about come say hi and maybe take a turn on the dance floor.  And I apologize for my lack of witty rejoinders or insightfulness.  My brain is totally shot of deep thoughts but I expect after a few days rest I will be back to my wise-ass self.  See you soon and thanks for reading.