Postby WildcatOne » Mon Dec 21, 2009 12:56 pm
I've been playing so much, it's turning into a blur in my memory, so I'm going to post something before it all gets lost. Simply put, we're totally rocking out. We're all over the place. We played in Beaumont a couple of weeks ago for a law firm's Christmas party. It snowed and sleeted all the way there (It's about 100 miles or so from where I live). It was cold and dreary but a good party got had and the guy hired us for 2 more gigs coming up in 2010. Playing a gig in Beaumont is pretty much like playing a gig on the East side of town. It's not that far and there's mostly city stuff all the way there and back. The band is pretty much booked solid all the way into 2011 now. Last week we played at Walden on Lake Conroe for another private function...the crowd was a total dud but we got paid scale-times-4...$400 a man...and they just pretty much sat there and watched us play. Last Wednesday morning we played at the Doyle Convention Center in Texas City for Senior Food Day...we played for free...the convention center was packed full, close to 2.000 people were there, and they flipped over us. Pee Wee got 3 gigs out of us showing up and doing that, and the mayor and chiefs of police and fire departments hung out with us. Friday night we got a last-minute gig at Bubba's, a kind of high-class ice house that's off of I-45 to the left of the Galveston Causeway. The place was jam-packed and totally out of control for the last 2 sets we played. People were crashing into us. I got whacked in the mouth 4 times that night with my microphone. The last time, it knocked me silly...I saw stars...had to shake it off before I could play again, but we got through it. We heard after we left that a big fight broke out and the place got trashed. I'm glad we were gone by then. I don't know if we'll go back there; it was not just too crowded and too loud, it was an absolute madhouse. I am approaching total deafness at a kamikaze rate now, but on with the show. Saturday night we played at Capone's, uptown in the Galleria area. We didn't want a Saturday night there because we'd heard that Capone's is a total dead zone on Saturday nights...so we showed up to a standing-room-only crowd...managed to navigate our stuff to the stage, set up and played a powerhouse gig and they went totally nuts. We own Capone's now. This Italian movie star-looking guy was there and he pulled me aside and said 'I'll be back next week, you guys are far and away the finest band in town.' I said well, we'll be back January 15th. He said what? You're not here every week? I said no, man...here's our card...we play all over the Houston area...he said, well, we need to sign you to a contract! I don't want ANYBODY else but YOU in here! Turns out he's one of the owners. He was adamant that we play there more, but we've already committed to 8 gigs there for 2010. Pee Wee can sort it out with the guy, but he doesn't want us to get stuck somewhere and not be able to get around. I completely agree with his strategy. We're spread out over the whole region and it's paying off with good gigs everywhere we play. Yesterday we played in Galveston at a benefit that Frankie put together. Frankie was the drummer in the band when I joined. The benefit also was for the family of Danny Smith and Herby Richter who both died recently and played with Pee Wee's band and vice-versa. Some guys from the Whiskey Saints were there, they were the band I played in when I joined Pee Wee. I brought my DragList keyboard and played keys for this gig. Pee Wee pulled me aside and complimented me on my keyboard playing. That made my day...I'd rather be doing that in the band, but as it is, I am using an ice house-quality rig. If I was going to play keyboards in that band, I'd need to go out and get a first-class setup. This did good for the benefit, but it wouldn't be right for the upscale joints we hit, besides, we have a keyboard guy and I don't want to undermine his gig. He's a great guy and a good friend. I never push my keyboard deal to him, period. I just mind my own business. Anyway, we're playing the Haak Winery on December 26th for Raymond and Gladys Haak's 50th anniversary from 2-5PM, it should be a blast. Everybody have a Merry Christmas! Cheers, WC1
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