#Tour

TrickyKid – Ween – Texas….The Oneness (Summer/2010)

Ok so this was one of those mini-tours that have been the M.O. as of late in the Ween camp where just do 3-4 shows in a row and that’s that. After a crazy night in Tulsa that I might blog about at another time (I’m just focusing on the Texas theme here) headed to my hometown of Dallas, TX for a sold out show at the House of Blues.

Ween – August 27th – House of Blues – Dallas, TX  

 We pull up to the ol’ HOB in downtown Dallas, after checking into the W Hotel across the street, which for this camp is way too freaking fancy and not the vibe at all. The last time I was here with Ween was in 2007 and I snuck over to see Rush right before the show.
Actually had an opener for once on this leg, as the Meat Puppets  who were great every night. After they were done Kurt Kirkwood, Claude and I are standing outside smoking and I swear every person that walks by is someone I haven’t seen in 10 years, so every 5 minutes is another High School reunion.
We chill out upstairs for a bit, and Aaron is showing us a video of this crazy talented girl from Austin that sent him a video message via Facebook of her singing What Deaner Was Talking About. And says that he was so impressed that he invited her to come sing tomorrow night when we get to Austin. Someone is about to shit themselves.
Finally its showtime and the band hits stage –

During the show sidestage, I was joined by a motley little crew – as one of my best friends (and hands down the best guitar player I have ever seen) Neil and his fiancée came (I’m DJ’n their wedding next week) as well as my buddy Ziggy who I had hired to pass out fliers to the crowd promoting Claude’s upcoming Amandla dates here in Texas in a few weeks.
The band played a great (and long) show –

Pork Roll Egg And Cheese
Exactly Where I’m At
Spinal Meningitis
Gabrielle
Transdermal Celebration
Wavin’ My Dick In The Wind
Mr. Richard Smoker
Take Me Away
Bananas and Blow
Buckingham Green
Did You See Me?
Tick
Wayne’s Pet Youngin’
Sketches of Winkle
Object
What Deaner Was Talkin’ About
Roses Are Free
She’s Your Baby
Learnin’ To Live
My Own Bare Hands
Your Party
Let’s Dance (David Bowie cover)
Pandy Fackler
Ocean Man
Polka Dot Tail
The Mollusk

Encore:

Fiesta
You Fucked Up
Touch My Tooter
Homo Rainbow

Afterwards, we all headed to the upstairs dressing room sans Neil and his gal as they had to bail before the last song.
We hang up there for awhile before Gabe (Claude’s drum tech) comes with the van to take everyone to the hotel. We get there and everyone comes to Claude’s room. Mickey, Dreiwitz, this really hot, tattooed MMA fighter (that’s designing the cover for the Amandla record) and her boyfriend, and about 10 others. I plug in my Ipod, crank up the Prince and the party is in full swing. So much so that less than an hour into it, security is knocking on the door telling us to get out. Mickey is insisting that we all go to his room and keep rawking. You would think this kid had never seen a mini-bar before haha, he was like a kid in a candy store! – Asking for drink orders and just having a great time and things were starting to get a little out of hand. Not long, once again hotel security is bouncing us from the room. Some people we had just met invited us to their room as they had a large suite so we all proceeded to go there, only once we get there, they can’t gain entry as apparently their friends had locked them out. So upstairs to the pool it is (which Mickey turns into a race!)
Everyone jumps into the pool with their clothes on, on the 20th floor of the W Hotel at 5am. Everyone that is, except for me, Claude and a few others. This one girl was innocently chatting Claude up when he calls for my attention and insists that I meet her. I realize soon that she’s the girl who’s room we tried to enter but could not.
We have a nice conversation, but its clear that this girl is quite intoxicated, so much so that she is in total crisis mode of how she is going to get back into her room as just the task of going down to the lobby and asking for a new key was too much to undertake (in her opinion) in her current condition. So she asks for my help and I oblige her. This is where shit gets downright comical. I walk her down to the lobby and she is holding on to me for support but if I was the clerk I would have thought that someone was holding this girl at gunpoint. The whole thing felt so suspicious, and he was asking her basic questions to verify her identity to which she was so fucked up, she temporarily didn’t know the answers to. I was just trying to improvise as everytime he would ask her a question, I would try to answer, though I had no clue what the answers really were. This girl’s eyes were about to roll back in her head, but somehow, the clerk, exasperated, gave up and gave us the key.
We go back up to her room, when she discovers that now, she has lost her purse. This girl is a disaster I’m thinking! but she was nice and I wanted to make sure she made it to her room ok. We finally get there, to discover a small, but pretty wild party in full swing, and their room was RIDICULOUS, I’d never seen anything like it, their balcony, no shit was larger than the previous entire room. I didn’t stay long, as it was really late, and had to get to Austin the next day. This crew was going as well, so we all exchanged numbers with plans to meet up in Austin.

Ween – August 28th – Stubb’s BBQ – Austin,TX  

So in a flash, cause I don’t even remember the ride,make it to Austin, and before I can say poof the Meat Puppets are already onstage.

Since this was the last night, I had picked up a rental car cause I was gonna stay in Austin for a few days as Amandla was going to have rehearsals here before that tour starts in a few days.
Ween at Stubb’s has become more than a concert, as it is a right of passage – it really does boil down to this. Their is something about the Austin sensibility and the Ween irreverence that have conjoined as one and they are bigger in this town than anywhere else they play, even in their own hometown. They have several live albums that were recorded here, as no fan base for this band in any other city is more rabid. Its really just become a part of the landscape, an exclamation point at the end of the sentence, so it goes without saying that their is a certain pressure when playing here, that at the same time is met with an overwhelming excitement that seems to relieve it.

My buddy Sam who is from Austin but now lives in Los Angeles and where I stay when I’m out West came as well. Tonight my hetero-lifemate Matt and his friend were on Amandla flier detail, and speaking of Sam, I hadn’t seen him since April when I took him to Coachella, where he introduced me to a friend of his, and when he couldn’t go the second day (technically the 3rd) I gave his pass to her and we hung out all day and had a great time.
The band takes stage and the place goes absolutely batshit! The special-ness was in the air and you could feel it.

To get to this perspective, you have to walk upstairs in this tunnel that is literally pitch black, can’t see your hand in front of your face. and then their is a small opening that people crowd to be able to see. Right next to us was this girl, that was overtly excited and I quickly learned why as THIS was the girl that Aaron had shown us the video of last night in Dallas. He calls her out to sing Freedom of ’76 which she nails perfectly! A great moment for her and yet another notch in the annals of storytelling of Ween at Stubb’s. The anticipation for a “moment” was high and here it was.

The HIV Song
The Golden Eel
Baby Bitch Play
Bananas and Blow
Piss Up A Rope
Learnin’ To Live
With My Own Bare Hands
Take Me Away
Transdermal Celebration
Gabrielle
Stroker Ace
Voodoo Lady
Kiss (Prince cover)
Mutilated Lips
Buckingham Green
Booze Me Up & Get Me High
Touch My Tooter
Mr. Richard Smoker
Johnny On The Spot
Even If You Don’t
Freedom of ’76 (with Sarah Jones)
Let’s Dance (David Bowie cover)
Your Party
Woman & Man
The Mollusk
Spinal Meningitis

Encore:

Fiesta
Sorry Charlie
Ohio (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young cover)
Roses Are Free

The end of the show comes, and its right at midnight which meant it was now Claude’s birthday, and I thought Glenn was gonna play him out with some Happy Birthday on the keyboards, but he didn’t do it (or forgot).
We goof off for a bit with some of the dudes in the Moistboyz who are hanging, before heading off to the Parish. The guy that owns it, is a good friend of ours and promised to keep it open for us for Claude’s birthday.
So we make the trek and I text everyone to meet us there and while sloshing thru the madness of 6th street Saturday night, I run into a girl I hadn’t seen in years and her friends who I didn’t even know were into Ween, let alone so much so that they had come all the way down from Dallas to see this show. I tell her where we are going and why and invite them to join us. This was a good decision as they basically were the party and the ones that administered Claude’s birthday spankings.
They close us down, but Claude wants to keep rawking. These 5 dudes had been up on his nuts all night, one of them looked like David Cross, they were offering us all this awesome shit, to any sober person, sounded like a pile of bullshit. Claude was in no shape to make these deciphers so as they are giving us all these directions I”m yeah, yeahing them trying to lose them, but David Cross insists on riding with us to ensure that we don’t lose them (namely him). We get to my rental car and I give Claude his birthday present, a bad ass Miles Davis boxset.
Come to find out Cross and his friends live way out past Parmer and the awesome night of hi-jinx they promised, turned into us sitting around this dilapidated apartment drinking actual moonshine mixed with apple juice out of mason jars, while this dude is breaking off a large piece of hash to pass around. Thankfully for Claude I don’t partake as he would not have had a ride home this evening.
I wanted to leave the minute we got there but Claude was enjoying himself and it was his birthday so I let it go. Finally at almost 6am, I made a move for the door as we headed back downtown for the hotel. He and I had one of our deep conversations that can only seem to take place in those wee hours at night.

Claude Coleman Jr’s Birthday Bash – Lustre Pearl – Austin, TX – August 29th

So after trying to recover from the debauchery of the last 3 nights, we get an early start on the action as Mr. Coleman is celebrating his birthday (which is actually today, though we got a head start last night) today at this fun little spot in Austin, that has a great courtyard in the back with ping pong tables and stuff. Drewitz and crew came on thru as well as the Moistboyz and we enjoyed a lazy day catching a day buzz, playing ping pong and telling great stories.

We have a fun day, and laughing and quoting Eastbound & Down, but now we are hungry.  Matt and I are the only ones it appears ready to eat. He suggests this ill little Indian place across the street.
He and I go to eat, and then their is another spot on the way that he wants to stop off and have a drink,  We hang out there waaaayyy too long before Claude calls me and asks where I am. I tell Matt we gotta split and that takes forever, and then we make it across the street and retrieve Claude.
I tell him whether he likes it or not, that we are going dancing and that’s that. The last several times I’ve been in Austin, Matt has taken me to Barbarella where consistently, we have had the most unforgettable times so naturally I wanted to go there. He warned that Sunday night it would be super dead and it was. So we opted for the Elysium where it was 80s Goth Night haha, you should have seen Claude’s face.
I tried to hang with him at the bar, but he just seemed to be in a funk and a bit loaded. Fuck it, Matt and I hit the dance floor. It gets close to closing time, when Matt suggests that we hit Barbarella right before closing. We grab Claude and get over and we are the ONLY people there. So a request won’t be hard to get right? I tell the DJ to rawk Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall as it was also MJs birthday today and I know that all 3 of us love that song. The minute the first beat hits, I can’t fucking believe Claude after refusing to dance, comes running out on the dance floor and starts finally loosening up for his birthday. We got the DJ to do whatever we wanted after that – we ran Hall & Oates You Make my Dreams and tons of other favorites and had the occasional straggler that mosied on in out there with us till the place closed down.
Now sometimes Claude gets these bizarre ideas in his head that you can’t talk him out of. His fierce independent streak and stubbornness will having you throwing your hands up in defeat, as we were leaving the club he his fucking fixated on getting some money out of an ATM – why? I have no idea, it was after two and nowhere to go but to call it a night. So we stroll towards 6th St, and he spots one in front of Emo’s. As Matt and I are just chatting while he’s getting his money, I hear him cursing at the machine like Yosemite Sam, so I look over to discover Claude urinating on the ATM machine in retaliation!!

Ok I gotta get this kid to bed before anything else happens. We make it to the car and he’s screaming that he’s hungry so we hit the Taco Cabana off Guadalupe and head to drop him off at the hotel (I’m staying at Matt’s tonight) when we get to the hotel, he has no idea why we are there and suspects that we have another party to get to and seems disappointed to be at the hotel. I finally get his ass inside and say goodnight. We go back to Matt’s place and hang, play records, watch Beverly Hills Cop and just have a general fucking blast. At the end of the evening, Matt goes outside to get his cat in for the night, when he comes rushing in like he just saw Jason fucking Vorhees, with his face flushed, he says “your not gonna believe what the fuck I just found outside in the woods!!” and holds THIS up –

Amandla – September 3rd  – Double Wide – Dallas, TX

So Chip and “Pistol” Pete Kaufmann, who round out Amandla, came into Austin for a few days of rehearsals, while I retreated to Dallas, to attend and DJ a friend’s wedding and chill for a few days before the next leg began. I meet the gang at the venue for soundcheck. I was excited about tonight because now it was just the four of us and it always feels special. I had put this whole tour together and it was starting tonight in my hometown with all my friends there and I enlisted some great people to join us. Opening were Here Holy Spain and Record Hop, two of my faves and who’s members are some of my best friends.

First was the ‘Spain who killed as always –

followed by Record Hop whose drummer Tony Wann is one of the best I’ve ever seen and is also one of my oldest and dearest friends, so having us all together was a great moment for me.

That vibe continued as Claude, started the set with a really nice shout-out to me, and extended genuine gratitude about our friendship and the work I had done to get us all here.
Then he got the show rolling and it was a great start and was happy that so many people had come out to support and see what I have been talking about for almost four years.

We had 230 people thru the door and was a great night. I get everyone back to the hotel and say goodnight – first night down. Here is a great poster of the event designed by John Paul Hossley –

Amandla – September 4th  – Haileys – Denton, TX

 Claude and Pete showed up at my house (Chip was hanging with a friend and was meeting us in Denton later tonight) early enough. We had a fun day of lounging around, watching documentaries on the Police, napping and when they woke up, treated them to one hell of a meal. They were in my family’s home in my hometown and I wanted to give them a meal they would remember, so I rustled up a righteous crawfish boil, complete with shrimp, potatoes, corn and sausage, the works. We then slept that off and headed to Denton.
Ok, so I had pretty big hopes for this show, as since Denton suffers from Austin envy, and Austin worships Ween, their was a good chance that their was gonna be alot of love at this show. It was a Saturday night, no one in Denton owns a fucking car so I know that they were not at the show last night in Dallas, so this was gonna be good right? Dead fucking wrong, and the temptation to burn this place to the ground was almost too irresistible. One fuckup after another by this place and suddenly I would go into a trance a la Drew Barrymore in fucking Firestarter. Let’s go thru everything that went wrong with this show and this club –

1) They didn’t do anything to promote this – not even put the name on the marquee, on their website – nothing.
2)  The soundguy was TWO HOURS LATE!!
3) Out of spite or some other agenda, someone here had told our openers that the show was canceled.

This was only the beginning of the insanity – let’s start with securing the openers:
Before the Ween tour started I flew into Fort Worth a few weeks back for a memorial for an old, dear friend of mine, Kelly Parker, whose influence on the local music scene here had become legendary over the years, so it was a who’s who of musicians at his remembrance. I run into an old acquaintance, Quincy from a popular local band Dovehunter and offer him the slot right their on the spot. He calls me a few later, very excited about doing the show etc, only to call me just a few days before the show to tell me that they can’t do it. In his defense, he had referred several people to me to pick up the slack. After going thru no less than five more confirmations, then cancellations, I get a call from Daniel Huffman who’s all keyed up about doing the show with his new outfit, The New Fumes.  I meet him  at the Amandla Dallas gig, where he tells me (the night before the show) that he can’t do it as, his new project isn’t quite ready yet, but he too has some sure-fire replacements. Regina Challew calls me up by Daniel’s recommendation and is interested in playing. I had remembered seeing Regina play with Ruby and a few local favorites like Captain Audio, who became the Secret Machines of Captain Audio, and then without her, just the Secret Machines, who went on to global acclaim (a point that I’m not so sure she has entirely reconciled). Anyway, hey it was somebody and someone I had heard of so I told her to bring it on.

As I was having a smoke outside, she arrives, with this girl in-tow and Regina was really cool too, so my mood began to lighten. I helped them load in, and they were not only commiserative of the misgivings of the club but also supportive of my intent to burn it to the ground. So sisters-in-arms as it were and we certainly had plenty of time to hang and shoot the shit as I previously mentioned the soundman’s unacceptable tardiness.

After waiting over two fucking hours after the show was supposed to start the soundman finally arrives and the show starts with one of the dudes from Dovehunter doing a cool, noisy little solo thing.

It was now Regina’s turn and Jenn was going to sing backup on a few songs. Regina does a couple of numbers that I thought were cool and then Jenn joins her but I couldn’t hear her voice…like at all…so the next time its her turn to sing I listened intently and still nothing. She comes up to me after, while Regina is still onstage playing and says, “I don’t think that mic was on at all”. I head to the soundbooth to confront this tardy motherfucker and drum…roll…please…, the motherfucker was SLEEPING!!! – I am not kidding and gawd I wish I had taken a picture. I was filled was visions of arson and pillage. I went to retrieve the production manager/bartender and led him to what we saw so he could see firsthand that the guy was asleep. He wasn’t embarrassed, made no apology and even seemed amused that this had happened. Burn Motherfucker Burn.

So it was finally our turn to get up there, as it was well after midnight and their was seriously something like 20 people there. Claude is good at making sleepers like this pretty fun and uses them as just a live practice. He’s got that in-between-song stand up comedian thing down flat and its easier with a small intimate group, and the ones that were there, were very appreciative.

Pic of Amandla in Denton

Then after the show, the club does NOTHING to offer us any sort of compensation for them dropping the ball so hard on us, not one dime. We all head back to Fort Worth to crash.

Amandla – September 5th – Rudyard’s – Houston, TX – 

Just when I think last night’s shit couldn’t get any worse, the depression was just starting to get deep. We wake up, and my family treats us all to wonderful brunch. It was great to see Claude talking music with my mom and them laughing together. Chip was still at a friend’s house. Now Houston is my least favorite city in Texas (and one of my least fave in America) so going there is never really anything anticipatory. We also had a few planning issues as the car Claude had rented for the drive up from Austin and to do the tour in was too small to fit everyone in with the equipment I had rented. So I had to call down to Houston and secure some more equipment so we could all make the trek. While I was busy with this, their was some confusion as to when we were going to pick up Chip as we really couldn’t until the equipment was secured. Once that was done I drove 90 mins round trip to retrieve him, and let me tell you the ride back was pretty tense. He had been waiting for almost 2 hrs in some pretty severe heat, so I don’t blame his temper.
So we are all together and are off to Houston. This ride wasn’t much more comfortable than the ride with Chip, I guess last night’s bullshit was still ringing,
We get to Houston and get checked in and head to the venue – to discover that they had not used any of the posters I had sent (I actually found them behind the bar) and they had booked two DEATH METAL bands to go on before us, one of whose equipment we were gonna be using.
This place we discover is largely a restaurant and the owner, at the very least, treated us to dinner, which we knew was going to be the only highlight of the evening. During dinner I look in the paper to see that they had made a mistake and listed us as playing here tomorrow night – I can’t catch a fucking break.
And now we had to sit through two shitty Metal bands (one had a really insane name that I wish I could remember).
By the time Amandla gets on their is less than 15 people in the room, most of whom I recruited from downstairs to come watch. Just depressing.

Their were two cute foreign exchange students that sat with me during the show. They could barely speak English and were only being polite but we had fun talking with them after the show. The one that could speak a bit of English was from Peru, and the other I think from Korea, who couldn’t speak any English, and had just arrived in the States, and now she’s hanging with these freaks. So we sat and had the kind of conversation you would expect, observations about the difference in our cultures, etc. Some people showed up and recognized Claude and some said they thought we were playing tomorrow and others didn’t know we were playing at all, which I have no choice to take some responsibility for. We get back to the hotel after unsuccessfully trying to find something to eat and crash.

Amandla – September 6th  – Beauty Bar- Austin, TX 

Ok so this should be an easy day as its a quick jaunt over to Austin and though sadly its the last day of a holiday weekend and everyone has to be at work tomorrow, we were still hoping for a bit of a turnout. Also our buddy Nick Oliveri (QOTSA/Kyuss/The Dwarves/Mondo Generator) was meeting us in Austin too. He’s going to join us for the Moistboyz run we are doing next week.
We get to Austin and get loaded in – I was hoping for a guest tonight, as I had been in contact with Jenn from the Denton show pretty much non-stop from a few nights ago and she said she might come down for the show to see me, but called and said she was unable to make it.
Since we were just here with Ween, I knew the show was fresh in alot of people’s minds so I was confident that we would have a good show tonight.
I forget the openers’ names, but they were good and really cool, and the staff at the Beauty Bar treated us really well, (Matt also works here too). Their was still the situation with the bass amp, and thankfully our buddy Jeff Pinkus from the Butthole Surfers (who is also joining the Moistboyz trek) came thru.
Check out the photo below – I hope that the gravity of two brothers playing in a funk band with a bass amp that says Honky (Pinkus’ other band) on it, isn’t lost on anyone.

This was a good show and was well attended by a very enthusiastic crowd – Austin freaking loves Ween, so it was good to see. Sara Jones, the girl from the Ween show the other night got up and sang Little Jimmy with Claude and it was another great moment. Great having Oliveri, Pinkus, Guy and my main man Steven, all from the Moistboyz there along with about 100 others. Glad that this little jaunt had ended as well as it began.
After the show Sara Jones had invited us to come party at her place – remember the dude I was talking about the night of the Austin Ween show at Claude’s little birthday thing that got in the car with us to ensure that we were gonna hang with him and his friends? Well apparently that dude (as he constantly reminded us) had done a gig on bass for the Moistboyz at some point and he was on us again tonight like white on rice. We went to go drop some stuff off at the hotel first before following Sara to her place and I look over and this dude is following us on his motorcycle…creepy.
We get to Sara’s, who is a gracious host and treats us to some great Scotch. Claude was taken aback as he knows that sipping on straight liquor ain’t really my scene, but this shit was good and he and I had a good time.
The night ends with Chip getting sick and us trying to stay out of the rain and shaking motorcycle dude loose, who even followed us back to the hotel. Chip and Pete were catching a plane back to New Jersey in a few hours, out of San Antonio so we had to get a car service that would pick them up and take them that far. We say goodbye, and tell Claude I will see him in a few days back in Fort Worth.

The Moistboyz  – September 9th – Lola’s – Ft Worth, TX 

Ok so I went to Fort Worth for a few days while the band was rehearsing to complete this trifecta of Ween-goodness and to get ready for opening night. Boy this was fucking easy, when I pulled up to Lola’s I found out the show was already sold out to the max (where were you fuckers the other night in Denton?).
And let me tell you something, the brownest of the brown were out for this show, and the place was fucking moist. Their had been a tornado reported in the area earlier but it did nothing to detract from nor compare to the tornado inside.
I hadn’t really seen Oliveri in almost three years, so it was great that we had a chance to catch up and have some great laughs.
Anyway, its now showtime, and the place is fucking packed. These fuckers are rowdy and ready for the band to bring the ruckus, and that’s exactly what they do.

However, Claude, who is notoriously one of the hardest hitting drummers in the game, is playing on this set that I think his Ween drum tech, Gabe had brought down, but I don’t know where the hardware came from, but the hats were not in good shape and were constantly coming apart (sometimes several times in a song) and suddenly I’m on stage detail putting them back together. Claude and I shared a funny moment when I’m fixing one part of the set, he’s trashing the other and then back again, like an episode of I Love Lucy. I was having to do it from the front of the stage that was packed so it made it a little difficult. Also theirs a dude, that I can oddly say that I equally know and don’t know at the foot of the stage being totally annoying. Meaning that, this kid and I have because of growing up in the same small town, interested in the music scene, crossed paths at least 3 times a year for the past 15 years.
Well here is how our rapport usually goes: (this is largely pre move to NYC)
I go to a show – I see him from across the room.
I prepare for his eventual hello and do my best to keep it brief and spare myself his ramblings.
I resign myself that I have no real control over this matter and its only in the fate of the level of alcohol he has consumed that evening.
I spend good portion of show with him talking in my ear, only to later wonder what keeps me from telling him to fuck off.

On this evening his alcohol consumption made this task easier to do, but even more painful to endure, especially when this little snot was actually taunting Guy. If you have seen Guy, let alone know him, its almost immediately clear that this is an unwise thing to do especially for this little piss-ant who I’m praying that his folly I’ve been the victim of for over ten years will suddenly come to a crashing halt by one swift impalement from Guy’s mic stand.
Well Bozo the Clown takes it upon himself to try to take Steven’s boom mic stand and address the band. I was standing right next to him and immediately diffused the situation, again somehow without my fists (or Guys’) coming into play.

The show was a fun, raucous affair and the after-party was even more of a cluster-fuck.
Some guys at the show had promised us some after-hours speakeasy kinda shit, that turned into a convoy circling downtown Fort Worth on a wild fucking goose chase, that almost ended in a fight, us against them.
When we finally made it to a friend of Oliveri’s, it was the funniest yet most pathetic thing you could picture. All of us sitting on the porch of this rundown house eating Jack N The Box tacos out of the sack, and this really heavy-set girl that was as drunk and country and she was fat was the entertainment. Apparently she had taken a real liking to Pinkus, who is one of the funniest motherfuckers I know, and the laughter was uproarious. Just those weird things that happen on tour. Claude found a book on Astrology that he and I were taking turns improving the words from and inserting our own prophecies in hilarious detail much to the delight of our closely knit court. Good times.

The Moistboyz  – September 10th – Red Eyed Fly- Austin, TX  

So the crew get to Austin first thing in the morning but I don’t get there till late afternoon. I went back to my family’s house last night, to get some sleep and to retain a bit of my sanity. I meet up with the gang and we decide on Stubb’s for dinner which is across the street. Oliveri and I had another great talk and we all had a great meal and told a bunch of fun stories. We make it to soundcheck and immediately the club is giving us shit about the guest list and a slew of other unnecessary things. Austin is one of the most hospitable towns and not to mention largely the hometown of 3 of these 5 guys, so I had no idea where this shit was coming from, and they basically gave us an ultimatum that they cut our list or our pay, so their were a lot of people we invited that we had to embarrassingly tell that we didn’t have a list.
The bartender wouldn’t even give us drinks, and I was standing right next to the stage and he didn’t trust that I was giving the drinks to the band, just that kind of shit all night from these dudes.
But the place was another sell out and the full house was ready to rawk, and you could tell this being hometown for Stephen that he was ready to make an impression.

Pic of Moistboyz in Austin

Some friends of mine from Dallas had come down to see Sleep, who were playing a few blocks away and came over after to hang with me. All night long my phone was doing weird shit, and at one point it just froze, produced a weird screen I’d never seen before that I couldn’t alter no matter what I tried. I had half of the club and everyone in the band trying to solve this fucking mystery with no results.
Afterwards again we all went in a different direction with most going to Pinkus’ place. I was exhausted and went to Matt’s place for a party.
Look at how disabling nostalgia can be –

The Moistboyz  – September 11th – Numbers – Houston, TX  

This show was a crazy sell out and a befitting end to a short but sweet little run – for Claude and I, it concluded a month of shows in Texas with three different bands, tons of friends, lots of laughs – and years off our lives.

Photos –

Roy Turner
Jeff Barringer
Nicole Laca
Matthew Beamesderfer

On Tour w/ Clutch & Never Got Caught (Dec/2009)

Sun Dec 27th

So it was bittersweet as I said goodbye to my family to fly to Charlotte, NC today. I’m normally home at least until the 30th so it felt strange to be gone so soon cause I knew once I stepped on that plane, essentially for me, the holidays were over.

 Charlotte, NC – Day 1

I landed in Charlotte around 2pm and made my way to our hotel and checked in. The guys in Never Got Caught were driving with the equipment from Boston and would be here in a few hours so I had time to make some calls and send emails.
The band shows up and I’m introduced to the sound and merch dudes that round out our crew. We opt to go ahead and go to the venue, Amos Southend, a few miles away.

We get to the place and load in starts immediately. Alot of touring is the “hurry up and wait” kinda process but we got the ball rolling right away. Their are four bands on this tour so to get everyone loaded in and sound checked is a bit of an undertaking. Here is the lineup:

Never Got Caught
Lionize
Doomriders
Clutch

Now for a bit of a backstory:  Never Got Caught and I have a long storied history with the guys in Clutch, but in two completely seperate capacities. Bryan and Billy Hinkley (singer-guitarist and drummer of NGC respectively) used to be in Boston Hardcore legends, Tree back in the day and toured with Clutch many times under that moniker. That relationship materialized into a Stage Management position for Bryan with Clutch, a position he held for many years, circling the globe with the band just up till last year when he decided to concentrate on NGC full time. Bryan and I actually met at a Clutch show in NYC two years ago and that’s how we started working together ironically.
My tenure however is much less dignafied haha. I was a writer for a publication in Dallas as far back as 1994 when I interviewed their singer Neil Fallon the first time. In the 90’s the band would tour relentlessly and visit Dallas several times a year, usually resulting in me interviewing Neil. Through this he and I formed an odd friendship that was lamented by their legendary manager, Jack Flanagan, who’s folly I became the constant victim of for the remainder of the decade (all in good friendly fun).
I was working at Sony around the time the Elephant Riders came out on that label in 1998 but Neil and I still maintained our once a year interview. By 2003, we had done 11 of them, the fourth of which was the first to feature them on a cover of any publication circulating anywhere in the Southwest (I’ve thought to collect all of these in unedited book form…what do you think?).

So now you know our place here, you will now get to know some of the usual suspects. After meeting the guys in the other two opening bands I see Clutch’s long time tour manager (who shares Mr. Flanagan’s sense of humor) Oscar Hernandez, and the jokes between us immediately begin to fly. Oscar is a king among men and such a pleasure to be working with him so I’m excited about the week ahead.
I’m pulling double duty as Manager/Tour Manager on this trip so their’s alot to do. I get everyone their credentials and help get the merch setup and secure our hospitality rider while the band soundchecks.
Since we are first and this is the first night, their is that jittery feeling of wanting to do well. Another asset on being on this tour is that Clutch’s fans trust and respect them so much that they will get to the shows early to see the openers just because of our involvement by proximity, so the worry of “will anyone show up early to see us” quickly subsided as by the time the doors opened, their was a line stretched around the block.
Now its showtime, and the band is ready to rock:

The pictures you are enjoying are from our merch guy and all around awesome dude, Mike Mancuso, who is also as you can tell a professional photographer, click on his name to check out his site. Well in order for him to take these pics I had to be on merch duty, so after I got the band on stage and no sign of trouble I would relieve him so he could go take pics, and then he would relieve me for load-out after they played.
Their nightly set list was:

Anyway
Pizza Place
Charlotte I
Parasite
Slipping Out
Under Your Skin
Charlotte II

Next up was Lionize, who Tim Sult (guitarist/Clutch) will sit in with when the two bands tour together. Great reggae band also from Washington D.C.

Then after the goodtime feel of some reggae jams, here comes the awesome swagger of Doomriders. Even their crew testing the mic minutes before they went on, was more Metal than most bands you see, as every night when I heard his trademark “HEY!” like a drill sergeant I knew more of the same was soon to folllow. This is the band I got to see the least live as usually during their set I had other pressing matters.

 

So by then I tried to have all of my obligations settled for a bit so I could enjoy Clutch’s set. Though they have done this after-Christmas-to-New Year’s run before, this time they were doing something quite special, by performing their 1995 Self-Titled masterpiece in its entireity. I met people that had literally traveled from all over the world just for a chance to see this, as if your a fan of this band, it really doesn’t get more special than this. In hindsight, I don’t know if it being the first night or what have you, but there seemed to be something really special about this show that other’s, though all had their moments, this night stands out as my favorite. Just the thrill that the machine was moving and we were all together again, and all that we had worked for and had been looking forward to, was finally here.

When Neil grabbed the mic and said “Merry Christmas, how you doing North Carolina?” the crowd let out an emotional release that has stuck with me since that night. They all knew what they were in for and here it was. This band is famous for doing completely different set-lists night after night, but this mini-trek had a mission to deliver the self-titled record while still showcasing their newest effort Strange Cousins from the West. My buddy Will and Agent Ogden were on board filming for the whole tour. They had shot their previous DVD Full Fathom Five  and a finer bunch of gentlemen you would be hard pressed to find. Tim told me later that the idea for this was to capture the “Cousins” record but then the idea of doing alot of the songs from the self-titled was put on the table, then eventually fleshed out to do the whole damn thing. So if the set-list seems similar from night to night this is why, which again for the informed this is not their normal m.o. On this night the set-list if I recall went something like this:

50,000 Unstopable Watts
Struck Down
Minotaur
Let a Poor Man Be
Algo Ha Cambiado

(then the backdrop displaying the Strange Cousins from the West cover, would change to the Self-Titled logo, and the place would go off)

Big News
Big News II
Rock N Roll Outlaw
Texan Book of the Dead
Spacegrass
I Have the Body of John Wilkes Booth
Tight Like That
Animal Farm
Droid
The House that Peterbuilt
7 Jam
Tim Sult vs. The Greys

Encore:

10001110101
Abraham Lincoln
Gravel Road

It was alot of music, but the crowd never tired and was really appreciative that what they have come to expect was for certainly this reason. I don’t know if was some unspoken thing of knowing the work we had ahead but this was also the only night on the tour where Oscar and I really made a point to see the whole set and it was great seeing him being such a fan of the music. I’ve been doing this for so long that I have to remain a fan of something or I’ll go crazy, so it was a relief to see that he wasn’t too proud to show his excitement and what a great time it was and he and I stood behind the amps totally rawking out haha.

For the rest of the tour the minutiate of the everyday tasks, my routine went something a little like this:

Arrive at venue and check in.
> Help load the gear in and then find the production office.
> Introduce myself and get the band paid its buyout/hospitality and find the dressing room.
> Get the merch table set up, get it counted and up and running.
> Go to production office and create and turn in guest-lists.
> Create and print setlists (when available)
> Go to van and get suits.
> Check in with the sound board and mixing console
> Do a quick check to make sure nothing will be tripped on and disperse drinks and setlists.
> Band on stage
> After a few songs, and no sign of trouble, run to merch booth to relieve Mike the Merch Guy/Photographer
> Engage people and try to sell as much as I could.
> Upon Mike’s return check on load out.
> Get the band fed and hydrated.
> Check on the van.
> Go watch Clutch for 45 mins. Then around “Tight Like That” go settle with the club.
> Filling out paperwork and getting the band its money.
> Return and check on everyone.
> Watch the rest of Clutch. During final number “Gravel Road” go to merch booth.
> Stay there till venue merch collector comes by.
> More counting and more paper work
> Collect the band and head out.
> Get to hotel and check in get everyone their room keys and wake up calls.
> Stay up for extra hour doing more paper work and setting van call times.
> Wake up the next day – Repeat

After everything was set we found this really rad little seafood place right next door to the club and had a nice victory lap of a dinner of getting through the first show and then headed to the hotel, excited about the next day’s show in D.C. which is essentially a hometown show for Clutch and Lionize.

Day 2 – Washington D.C.

So after a long stressfull drive from Charlotte where we were stuck in traffic for most of the time and started to worry if we were gonna make load in time we pull up just in time to the famed 9:30 Club. So much history in this town (musically or otherwise) and so many important moments have happened right in this very venue and as sillly as it sounds you kinda feel that when you walk in. Their was a buzz in the air as this was a hometown show for Clutch and Lionize and since it was over the holidays, everyone was in town, including the band’s families.
Now for anyone that’s every played the 9:30 Club you know that its tradition that when you get to your dressing room their will be a half dozen of the most decadent and god-like cupcakes waiting for you with the club’s name in icing on top. I couldn’t get up those stairs fast
enough.
.

The staff that runs this place are a Class A organization and we couldn’t have been treated better. Everything from the production staff to merch is run like a well-oiled machine. Total class, no bullshit.  The place is pretty huge too, so we were pleased that so many people were there early to see us as it was about 3/4ths full when they hit stage. .

I chatted with Neil (singer/Clutch) briefly and if he was nervous at all about his family being there he certainly wasn’t gonna show it. His sister Mary-Alice has gained some fame recently as she is one of the cake designers featured on the show Ace of Cakes so it was kinda funny watching burly bearded dudes clearly recognizing her and bugging out. If Neil had anything to be nervous about, was not only was he about to perform a 15 year old record of really difficult material, some of which haven’t been referenced since, plus it was all gonna be recorded, filmed and released for prosperity as a future live album. (Update: The recording of this show became the recently released Clutch – Live at the 9:30 – also my buddy Will and his crew professionally filmed this entire tour and made a film that is packaged with aformentioned live album called Fortune Tellers Make a Killing Nowadays – check it out its
killer)

After the show their was a brief reception and then we made our way to our hotel which was about 25 miles north outside of Largo, MD.
The guy at the front desk didn’t have his shit together and fucked up our reservation so I perservered and got us a free extra room for the trouble. Long day and it was almost 4am before I got done with paperwork and went to sleep knowing that we had a long drive to Albany, NY the next day.

Day 3 – Albany,NY

I live to go anywhere I’ve never been before and this was gonna be my first trip to Albany but as someone that despises cold, I was a bit apprhensive as this was late Decemeber. My worst arctic fears were confirmed as we pulled into town and the venue was this bingo looking hall inside a strip mall and the whole place looked like Planet Hoth. Teddy who runs this place is a very nice guy, was very good to us and really into the band, but its shows like this where you sometimes scratch your head and think “am I making the right choices by being here?” haha. I know, I know boo-fucking-hoo I get to tour with these great bands and I love that Clutch is a band of the people that will take their act anywhere, and I respect that and was proud we were there, but fundamentally, this show was fucking miserable.

 Our sound guy we had with us, was more than competent as were all of the other band’s sound techs, but no matter what they could do all the bands sounded like they were playing in a tin can (as we basically were). It was -19 outside with the chill factor, no dressing room to hide from the cold and I had to be an asshole just to get something to drink. It was so cold and out of the way, I couldn’t even get a pizza delivered for us. I couldn’t wait to get out here. This was the “backstage” area and the only place you could get cell reception:

Yet still all the bands brought it as hard as they could to a very appreciative crowd. Check out Neil’s Public Enemy shirt: 

So we orginally were just gonna drive to Boston after the show where the guys live since its not that far by comparison but we did just drive here all the way from Maryland and it was late and freezing. So a descion was made to get hotel rooms, but not before one of those funny tour moments could happen. The night before as I had mentioned we were treated like royalty by the wonderful staff of the 9:30 Club and I wish I had a camera to take a picture of my view from the van of watching the guys standing inside the only gas station that was open eating microwave burritos at 2:30am.

Day 4 – Boston, MA 

So I made my way down to the lobby of this popcicle stand hotel in Albany we were in to check out their version of continental breakfast, now I’m the least spoiled person in the world and I don’t want to sound like I am complaining, I just think this stuff is funny and makes for good stories. But this was the most depressing thing I’ve ever seen it was hysterical. Basically you had stale cereal in leaking paper bowls, with room tempertature milk that you had to eat while sitting at a folding card table that I shared with some newlyweds that had the same look of shame on their face that I probably had. I think the cold was starting to get to all of us: Doesn’t this pic look like we are in the arctic (and doesn’t Bryan seem to be saying “Roy could you please stop talking?”) ?

So we make it to Boston in a few short hours and the excitement among the guys is contagious, as this is not only a hometown show but the largest venue of the whole tour. To go on tour and come home to play a sold out House of Blues to almost 4k people was very excting for these guys, and having all of their friends and families in attendance really felt like a victory lap. The venue is on the famed Lansdowne St literally across the street from the crown jewel of American Baseball – Fenway Park. As we were loading in their was some huge excitement going on at the Park and it being December I was confused as to what was going on. I soon found out, as I know literally nothing of hockey, that a major event was taking place in the form of the NHL Winter Classic. I learned that since 2008 the event is held outdoors at one of the teams Major League Baseball fields. 

  So again this was an important night and felt like a real step up in playing in such a legit venue and were treated very well. We shared a dressing room with our pals in Lionize and let me tell you, those guys smoke more pot than Cypress Hill. Talked with JP for a bit for the first time on this tour and had a few laughs with Dan and Oscar and then since we had some time Mike and I went outside to see them setting up Fenway for the big game in a few days and could see the people already lining up.

  There’s this weird feeling when your in the “tour bubble” that you don’t want to stray too far from the venue or from the comfort of the bubble or things get weird. It’s hard to explain unless you have done it. Anyway so now its showtime, I get the band ready and walk them down the hallway to the massive stage below. I got all their families on the list and have them watching sidestage. Before the show I told Bryan, “when the PA stops, say “We are Never Got Caught from Boston, Massachutsetess” and he balked a little in fear of sounding cheesy, but I just had a feeling that the crowd would pop if he did. Well he relented and when he said it the crowd came alive and the band immediately had everyone’s attention. Being from Texas I can appreciate people really being into where they are from.

  While I was releiving Mike from merch so he could shoot there was some drama, as Mike wasn’t aware of the typical policy that you can only shoot the first three songs and apparently he kept going to the ire of the staff and they came looking for him. They were told he was also working merch so when they came to get him they thought I was him since I was behind the table, but I explained to them what was going on and told them I would handle Mike. I’m used to starting fires not putting them out haha.
Okay so all business was taken care of for the time being and I wanted to see as much of the Clutch show as I could. Their was something in the air tonight and was excited for them. They hit stage and the place explodes. I watched as much as I could before I had to go to production and Mike snapped this pic from where we were standing:

    The show was great and a real sense of triumph enveloped us. Clutch had a party in their dressing room after the show. I only stayed long enough to share a few laughs with Tim as we hadn’t talked yet on this tour, because we had a party of our own a few streets over that the local were throwing for Never Got Caught. Always working, I spent most of the party in the other room having a business meeting with another client that lives in Boston and asked them to meet me there as I knew it would be the only time I had. They guys were staying at home so I headed to my hotel room for about four hours of sleep before having to get up for the drive to New Jersey the next day.

Day 5 – Sayerville, NJ – New Year’s Eve

     So we leave Boston to head for Sayerville, NJ which is about 90 min by car from NYC. We basically sat in traffic all day as a 4 hour trip was turning into a 7 hour one and for whatever reason the good cheer we were sharing from the hometown victory lap was nowhere to be seen while we coasted at 30 miles an hour. When we finally pull up to the Starland Ballroom it was already dark and cold, I could see Jack Flanagan’s caddilac with his dog tied to the driver’s side door handle.
Tonight was going to be the last show with Clutch on this special little holiday run of them doing all of the self-titled record. It was also the last day of the year and of the decade and though I was directly dialed into the beverity of this, I seemed to be alone in my excitement, which soon gave way to a feeling of bittesweet surrealism. As on one hand I’m on tour with bands I deeply respect and enjoy, and on the other, I was in this cave of a building out in the woods of New Jersey on New Year’s Eve, arguing with the staff just to simply get towels.
To make it even more special, two more bands were added just for tonight. I don’t remember the name of the first band, but the second was Murder One, which is fronted by Weathermaker Music label manager, Jon Nardachone. Weathermaker is the label that Clutch started in 2008 to house their own projects. While acknowledging the specialness of the evening, Tim and I were smoking on the dock he was telling me hilarious stories of some early Clutch shows at this venue where they would pack the shows with like 6 openers of teenage bands creating Scream-o-Palooza and then Clutch.
As if this night wasn’t special enough, always a band of the people, Clutch had it set up that the first 1k people would receive a free Full Fathom Five dvd, a special commerative t-shirt AND a free shot of whiskey. The next 1k would get the shirt and the shot and then everyone else would still get a shot. How cool is that? The merch table was right by the entrance so I enjoyed seeing everyone’s excitement. I got with Shawn, Clutch’s merch guy and said “dude save me one in small” which being the awesome guy he is, totally delivered.
Now the fundamentals of this show were aggrivating. No internet, printer, our rider was ignored, and shit was just not on point from their side of things. As I was standing by the soundboard with two songs to go, someone yells angrily at me “they’ve got two minutes!!”. As they finish the song, and as murphy’s law would have it, because Bryan barely talks ever, he decides to break that habit by engaging the crowd with a monologue, unbeknownst of the time strain.  I’m screaming “start the next song!!” right as the dude from before says “oh yeah? do they have a 90 sec song?! cause that’s all the time they got!!” Will and Agent were doing a B-Roll of us and we needed this time so Bryan went ahead and they finished the set.
We lost our merch guy in Boston due to some prior commitments, I had’nt realized that was the plan all along and hadn’t prepared for complete double duty.
This proved to be more troublesome than I could have prepared for, as not only was it about a zillion degrees below zero outside and the merch table was right by the entrance so everytime the door opened it was like being hit with an ice blast from Sub-Zero of Mortal Kombat.
Maybe I was just being idealistic, but spending New Year’s Eve with bands I respect and know immensely depsite the New Jersey and cold factors should have been more, I don’t know….awesome. Again how can I complain and maybe since I was in “work mode” and so many responsibilites but in terms of a festive vibe it just wasn’t there. There was a misdunderstanding right before midnight where the club wanted to go ahead and settle so they could usher in the New Year uniterrupted so I had to have Doomriders merch guy look after I stuff so I could go take care of this. So when I returned from the production office  I head Neil on stage actually acknowledge New Year’s Eve during Spacegrass saying “Happy New Year everybody” during the non-lyrical breakdown.
This was kinda par for the course for some reason, so no toast, no Happy New Year amongst friends, but I did manage to catch a bit of the end of Clutch’s set.
                                                                                                                              
and for the New Year they added to the set:Witchdoctor
Sleestak Lightening
Slow Hole to ChinaAfter the show their was a party upstairs in Clutch’s two-room suite dressing room. Now this was fun. A great vibe that we had pulled something off and a wonderful feeling of accomplishment and commaraderie. Oscar pulled me into a sideroom and graciously offered me a toast of some very expensive tequila that was a sign of respect and gratitude that I greatly appeciated. It was funny because unbeknownst to him, I’m not a big drinker at all, but of course there was no way I was gonna refuse his gesture so he said “now this is the good stuff, you don’t shoot this stuff like any old swill” and what do I do?, I down it like it was fucking peach schnapps or something and he looks at me dumbfounded and says “Roy…what part of don’t shoot this stuff did you not understand?” haha. Again par the course I guess.
So we had a good time with the Clutch guys and it was a good way to end the run. At the end of the night Jack asked me if we were staying at the same hotel and if so could we take this couple that he was friends with whom the male half played in Murder One earlier in the evening. Speaking for everyone since he asked me I of course accepted. Well by this time everyone but me was really good and loaded so when everyone got in the van and saw our new companions there was a bit of confusion.
We get to the hotel and most everyone was joined by their wives/girlfriends that had come to spend New Year’s Eve, except for me, so Paul my normal roommate on the tour had his own room, so it was an odd feeling to be sitting alone in a hotel room in the middle of nowhere New Jersey on New Year’s Eve and I couldn’t help but feel a little sad, but as I mentioned before, I’m sure it could have been a whole lot worse.

Day 6 – Jersey City, New Jersey – New Year’s Day

We spent most of the day at a pub watching the hockey game on tv that we saw them assembling in Boston at Fenway Park, since we only had a short drive to the gig that night. Since we were already in New Jersey and tonight was a Saturday I booked a solo club date for Never Got Caught with another Trickykid band who are from Jeresy City, the band Kilsy, to take advantage of the Saturday and having to travel that way anyway. This proved to be a huge mistake and certainly not the way I or anyone would want to start their New Year. Or how the band wanted to end such a succesful run that ended on such a high the night before.
The show was booked at Sinners and Saints and there were problems from the second we got there. I was excited to see the Kilsy guys (and girl) as their drummer Pete is one of my closest friends and the drummer for Trickykid alumni Amandla with Claude from Ween. The band is rounded out by other close friends and ballbusters Dan Riorda formerly of Buzzkill and Dan Green formerly of Amandla and currently with The Honey Brothers with Adrian Grenier, and of course Kilsy.
The chemistry was just totally wrong as the NGC are all business all the time and the Kilsy guys are just very freewheeling, good time party people. Not to mention that this club was a joke that did’nt have their shit together at all. I think the main issue was that going from playing with Clutch in your hometown two nights prior in front of 3,000 people to dealing with such amateurish bullshit was too much reality too soon. It caused me to have a total existential crisis. as I found myself standing outside a shithole in New Jersey on New Year’s Day dealing with some of the stupidest shit I’ve ever had to deal with in my life, having conversations I never want to have again, and never should have had to have in the first place, thinking about that line in Why Georgia Why that says “am I living it right?” .

So after the show I said goodbye to the guys as they made their way back to Boston, and too tired to trek back to Brooklyn, Dan Green graciously offered me to stay at his place for the night, where we stayed up talking and catching up and listening to the Bill Withers remasters he had just got and old Stax stuff. Good times.Photos –

Roy Turner