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Sqroupies' Journal
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| Saturday, July 15th, 2006 |
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squint The Dirty Dog Austin, TX 7/15/06 Jena and I headed to Austin Saturday night to catch squint and JUNIOR at the Dirty Dog on 6th street. Left College Station right at 7pm - without the road mix CD that we had just worked 20 mins on because JenaÃ?s computer was being weird. It was cool though, because we proceeded to have the weirdest conversation ever to fill the 2 hour drive. Topics included: - The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and how Shredder always got his ass kicked because he was wearing all that damn body armor and the turtles were fighting naked for the most part. Plus, that helmet covered his ears so he was probably deaf and turtles have no lips for him to read - so he had no idea what was going on. - The British suck because we invented the car but they went a screwed it up by making everything backwards. WTF?! - Spongebob Square PantsÃ? ass - Donnie Darko as seen by a stoner - Sponge Bod Square Pants as seen by a stoner - The sounds of The Transformers and who they are By the time we got to 6th street and found a parking spot I was crying so hard from laughing my eye was in a permanent state of leaking. Walked to the Dirty Dog and saw Junior right away. Their website said they started at 9pm (it was about 9:10 at this time) and when we get there we see them LEAVING the bar. Turns out they were not scheduled to start until 11pm..and there were 3 bands before them! So....we were insanely early! Talked to the Junior guys for a little bit, but they were headed to some NAMM meeting thing, so we parted ways. Went inside the club but squint was no where to be seen (because we were so FREAKING early!) so we decided to go get some pizza and a few drinks somewhere. Pizza was awesome, as usual, and we hit up a club that was boasting $1.00 Long Island Ice Teas. I got a double...but I think it was more like DOUBLE the sour stuff that goes in..not the liquor. Oh well. They were playing that new Fast and the Furious movie on the screen in the club...the Tokyo Drift movie. I am not sure how the hell they are playing it considering the movie is still in the theaters...but oh well. We joked about all the Japanese girls in that movie looking like 15 year old school girl prostitutes (yeah, we were jealous)..then decided to leave and hit up another bar that did not make us feel like crap. Heh.. Went down the street a bit to a bar called Bourbon Street that had a cover band playing. They were on DonÃ?t Fear the Reaper and it wasnÃ?t bad...so we stood outside, since Jena was smoking, and listened to the bad. Then the door guy was all you can come inside and smoke on the patio...follow me! So we followed him inside thinking we would be able to see the band better...but the patio was through some doors behind the bad! Jackass! We had some Kamikaze shots while Jena smoked her cigarette and then decided to leave and go back across the street to see if squint had arrived yet. Got into the bar and got a beer and then sat at a table that looked out onto the sidewalk. I was having problems with my chair because it was tall and did not have any of those foot bars so I almost fell off when I went to put my foot on something. Not pretty. Then I stole the chair of the she male that I squished in a door 5 mins earlier. I was afraid she was going to notice...but never did. YAY me. She was scary. Watched out for the random squint guy to pounce on. Saw Matt at the bar so I went to go say hi. Surprised him, which was funny. Turns out he was the driver that night so he was only allowed 2 drinks. He looked pretty sad about it too. I guess being the sober one (not counting Dane) once every 6 months is not bad though. Tote spotted us a little after that, but acted like a dork and pretended like he did not see us even though he made a show about walking past our table at least 3 times. Finally I ended up elbowing him in the stomach (hitting Tote is fun!) to get him to stop. Then we saw Chris outside smoking a cigarette so said hey to him and talked to him and Tote for awhile. Junior went on right about 11pm, as promised, so Jena and I went to the front in our usual place to stand and rock out. Junior rocks so much! It was a typical concert...with only one new song that I donÃ?t remember hearing before. Junior borrowed squintÃ?s equipment for their set and after every song Kylie would stop and rave about how much he liked MattÃ?s guitar. I think Kylie may be in the market for a new guitar soon! squint went on-stage about Midnight and played a GREAT set! I think they sound better when I wait awhile in between each time I see them. For awhile there I was at a show about every 3 weeks. Recently though, it has been almost 2 months since my last show....so I was super excited when they finally started! Dane was all over the stage, as usual. This stage was higher than most I have seen them play on so he was literally towering over me in the audience. Not a bad view! At first, it was only Jena and I, with our friends Rob and Casey. They went a few songs with just us up there - then they played Rebel Yell and more people got up to rock out! By the end of the set there were several people up and rocking out at the front with us. Including an entire bachelorette party for about a song and a half. The bride herself did not seem to into squint, but several of her friends did. Lots of Austin fans were requesting songs but I didnÃ?t bother. I really wanted to hear everything, so I just let them play whatever they wanted to play! I was really aching to hear We All Break the Same but I knew that they would probably end with that song...which they did! I LOVE THAT Song! After a little over an hour squint finally finished their set (BOO!!! Go for another hour! I could name about 10 more songs they could have played!). Got some great sweaty hugs and then everyone just stated mingling. Talked to random squint and Junior guys here and there, hung out with Rob and Casey a little bit, drank some more beer - the usual. The Dirty Dog has an arm wrestling table so Rob and I played. He was about to win when I used both hand to kick his ass! YEAH! I ROCK! Lol...then I bitched at him for not letting the girl win...didnÃ?t he know he was *supposed* to let the girl win! So we played again and he let me win, and I bitched at him for making it too easy! Hahah...poor guy, he could not win for trying! But then again, I get a little annoying when I get drunk so its to be expected. Finally started saying by to squint guys right around 2am...but we did not end up leaving 6th street till 3am. Stood outside on the sidewalk with other drunk people and talked while squint left to get Dane to the airport. Finally got in the car and headed out - only to get stuck in the worst 3am traffic I have ever seen! It was insane...Austin is seriously fucked up! Got through it with several near misses, and then drove home. Jena and I had to swap out half way home because I was falling asleep...but we made it home safely at 5am. Fell into bed. The night rocked! Cant wait to see squint again! |
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| Friday, June 2nd, 2006 |
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squint/Nooner Flannagans Shreveport, LA June 2, 2006 Went to Shreveport to see squint and NOONER! - Got there around 9pm. Met Alexis in the parking lot and began saying hi to all the random band members that were milling around. Jumped Tote and Ben out in the parking lot (Tote was wondering around like a homeless person strangly enough that was NOT odd). Found Dane and Matt inside up at the bar bitching at the TV because Michigan was loosing some playoff basketball game. Tim and Chris and Errol were milling around talking to random people. Chris was the only member MIA though, I did not see him until squint actually went on stage. Hung out some talking to Alexis and Tim. Drank some beer and waited until Nooner went onstage. GOOD STUFF! I was the ONLY one standing up front for them, which felt awkward at first but eventually I just said *fuck it* and enjoyed myself. They sounded super-good which was amazing considering that it was the last night on a hella long tour and they were all beat. Sorocked out some moredrank some beerand decided that I really have to not wait so long in between Nooner shows from now on. I always say that though. I need some more concert buddies! Nooner played about 45 mins and then ended their set. Squint went on next andofcourseall the people that were sitting down before flooded to the front of the stage and took my stop while I was off getting another beer. ARGH!!! That is ok..I weaseled my way back in eventually. There was a little bit of innocent shoving..and I think I bit Casey a few times. Fun stuff. The squint show was greatas usual. The last time I saw squint was about 3 weeks earlier, but one night I completely dont remember and the other night was a 5 song acoustic set. So I was definitely was aching for a rocking squint show. It was very satisfying Squint played a fairly long set. The most impressive thing was Chris. It might be because I am never standing on that side of the stagebut he was really into it and grooving during the set. It was cool to watch. After squint was finished we all just kinda milled around and hung out as usual. The bar was closed and people were cleaning up and we were still just chilling. Finally though, all the equiptment was loaded and it was time to get the hell out of there. Turns out Nooner and squint were staying in 2 completely different places. That was weird..and hard to choose who to hang out with. I ended up going to Caseys with squint because Nooner was tired and said they would probably be going to bed pretty soon. Went to Caseys, ate some pizza, and played some funky lyrics board game of Caseys. I was on a team with Matt and Melissa against Tote and Erin (matts new g/f)....and god damn it if Tote and Erin beat us. Erin rocked at the game - she def. deserved to win, but not Tote. He did not know a damn thing - not even the lyrics to squint songs. ARGH! Everyone soon went to bed after that, so I guess the Nooner after party was not much different than the squint after party. |
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| Saturday, May 13th, 2006 |
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Squintfest 2006 Ok. Figured I should go ahead and write out this blog even though there really is not much to say. I think the best times I had at these shows I cannot remember! Thursday, May 11, 2006 Decided to go ahead and take a few days off work to make the Thursday show at Rabb's. When looking at the line up for all the three dates, the Ruston show def. stood out above all the rest. Junior, squint, The American Tragedy, Built for Speed...thoes bands alone make it worth the trip! Headed out to Ruston around 2:00pm. Was planning on driving directly there to meet up with my friend Haley somewhere between 6 and 7pm. Half way to Louisiana I get a text message from Haley saying that she is puking due to bad chineese food she had for lunch. Damn! So she wont be going. Got to the outskirts of Shreveport around 6:00 and decided to call Casey and see if he had left yet, maybe he would want to get something to eat before he left (because I was getting hungry!). We decided to ride over there together, so I stopped by his house and picked up him and Jennifer, then got back on the road to Ruston. Arrived to Rabb's at 7:30. Went to the front door and Dane was there by the shirts. Turns out I had a free pass waiting for me since I was a sponsor (actually, RandomCaring.com was a sponsor....but he still only gave me one pass, even though several people donated through the site!). YAY! I got to walk about with a cool homemade laminated construction paper looking rectangle attached to my belt buckle! Nothing like an orange pass to make you feel uber cool! ;) We had already missed the first 2 bands unfortunatly. I was sorry about that. Siddhartha was about to go on as we walked in. Not sure how to categorize thier sound actually....they did several extended instrumentals and went over on thier time with eventaully screwed Junior later on in the night. That was all I cared to remember about them. About this time I started in on the first in a long line of Colorado Bulldogs for the evening. The importance of this will be explained later. I love the CB's at Rabb's though...def. the best I have ever had anywhere. What I failed to remember was that a drink at Rabb's is compariable to maybe a double or a triple at the bars I am used to going to on a weekly basis in College Station. Hung out with sqroupies for the rest of the night and listened to the next few bands that went on. The Situation was next, and several people likened them to green day. After them was the Upside Down Disco (show) from Alexis's neck of the woods. They were pretty good from what I remember hearing. Next up was Junior. I LOOOOOOVE me some Junior...so I was super excited to see them again after so long, but because the bands were running over on time Junior got the shaft and the obligation to get everything back on schedule. This ment that they played much less than the 30 mins they were allowed. BOOOOO! They sounded badass though, as usual. Junior left the stage after a few songs and promplty started packing up to leave and head back to Gladewater because of some commitments the next day. Talk to Adam for a little while and got to see thier album that was going to be release in Europe and Brazil the very next day. Exciting stuff. The CD had a lot of red on it..I remember that much! By this time in the night I have had about 5 colorado bulldogs. They were so good I could not stop! Just thought I would remind the dear readers of the current count! I was already feeling tipsy and happy...the usual feeling for a squint show. Built for Speed was also playing around this time. Very awesome band. I caught a little of them in between running back and forth to the bar for more drinks. Saw Nick (the squint roadie from time to time) behind the bar at one point and he made me a ColoradoBulldogExtreme! I saw what went into that one...I should have been scared....but NO! Made it back in time to the stage to see The American Tragedy perform. Staked a place right up front with Alexis and the other fans....right in front of Jackie. Def. the place to be! They tore the stage up. I was really digging thier show..and I do believe the off pitch singing and screaming proved it. It was been MONTHS since the last time I have seen Tragedy...and I was going through major withdrawls. The only thing that I missed them doing was the synchronized jumping. That is always so hot! After Tragedy....all memory just kind of goes to hell. I literally do not remember squint preforming at all. Not even a note. I tried to figure it out the best I could, and I think I had had 8 CB's by this point in the night. Or I was on my 8th, I should say. Apparently I was passing around the 8th like it was a party favor making everyone take a drink. Other things that happened w/out my remembering: Poor Casey...he thankfully drove all the way back to Shreveport in my car. I dont remember leaving the parking lot of Rabb's. Next thing I know I am at his house being ushered into the house and I pass out again on the pull out couch bed. Friday, May 12, 2006 Woke up thirsty as hell and feeling like ass. Took a long shower and brushed my teeth (yes) and then got some water to help with the dehydration. I was supposed to go to Dallas later that day to visit my friend Haley (the sick one). It was still early (9am?) so I decided to chill for a little while until I felt awake enough to drive. WAtched a little Futurama, but for some reason I felt worse and worse. My stomach felt like it was going to kill me! Then I realized it....I was about to throw up! I NEVER throw up! EVER! But....I did this time. I ran to the bathroom and threw up all the water I had just dranken. But it was only water...there was nothing else in my stomach. Figured I was just not ready for water...so I grabbed some sprite, thinking the bubbles would help. NOPE!!! Threw that up too about 15 mins after drinking it. This pissed me off more than anything. I was not drunk anymore..and my body was obviously thirsty as hell, but it was not taking the water. So I figured the best thing to do was just to drink water until my stomach took it. If anything, maybe I could absorb some before I threw it back up! So that was the majority of my day...from 9am to about 2pm...drinking water and throwing it back up. I watched a little Scrubs in there as well...hence my new obsession! hahah Called Haley and told her I might not even make it, because I was not going to drive until I was damn sure I was not going to puke again. That hit around 3pm...I hade kept a pretty fair amount of water down for ever and hour. So I left. Hauled ass to Haley's house in North Dallas. Have not seen her since Christmas so it was a nice visit...even though it was short. Caught up...rented some movies...watched a live police car chase on the news.....the usual stuff. Both she and I went to sleep fairly early - around 1am. Saturday, May 13, 2006 Woke up around noon. It was nice to get a lot of sleep in after everything that happened the day before! Haley was at work (went in at 7am - got off at 3pm) so I hung around the house for the most part. Took a shower, played with her dog, got ready for the squintfest show later on that night. Got a text message from Haley saying I could stay another night and hang out some more...which was really REALLY tempting considering the drive I had ahead of me. But I had already promised people I was comming to the Shreveport squintfest show...so I declined. Waited till Haley got off work and I met her at Chick FilA to eat something. Hung out for another hour..then I left to come back to Shreveport. Got to the Soundstage right at 7:30pm. I felt really sorry for squint this night...there was hardly anyone at the show. I dont know if there was something else going on that night - but the people just were not showing up. There were little emo kids all hanging around outside...but none were going in to see any of the bands. Bastards... Most of the bands at the Shreveport show were decent. Built for Speed played again but I missed out on it because I was still driving in from Dallas. Squint did a good job, but thier show was really really short....only 20 mins/5 songs. They had to play acoustically this night because Tote has to fly back to Michigan for a funeral. It was sad not having him around to kick. The Acoustic show was cool...but it gave the night a weird mellow vibe. There was no jumping around and loud singing along like a normal squint concert. Dane evern looked like he was trying hard to restrain himself during We All Break The Same. It looked like he was wanting to get up and throw a mic stand but he couldn't. They also played Flustered, Whore, Well Hell, and Random Caring...then called it a night. 2 more bands went on...but it was a little depressing after that. No one was there and the whole reason why we showed up (squint) only lasted 20 mins. of the whole festival. BUT...it was for a good cause. I keep telling myself that. I would support squintfest even if squint did not even play in it. After the last 2 bands played, the remining sqroupies (me, Alexis, casey, ghost, & jennifer) helped squint pack up a little. We were standing outside saying bye when Dane announced that he was hungry and we all should go out to eat some place close. Ok. We ended up at a chineese restraunt and ended up having one of the oddest eating experiences I have ever been a part of. There was some A.D.D. sorting of sugar packets, making fun of band members, alligator wrestling, turtle jumping, a very unique and personable waitress, Dane (dane is weird...), hambrugers and grilled cheese at a chineese food place, bad english chopstick translation, and much more. After like an hour or two everyone finished eating and we ended up parting way. Squint went back to squintville, Alexis went home, and I followed Casey back to his house. Stayed up for awhile longer listening to his recording of the acoustic show (very good!) and then downloading about 4gig of squint pics for me to go through and put on RandomCaring.com. Finally went to bed around 5am. |
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| Saturday, April 22nd, 2006 |
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Beeker re-release Show #3 Einsteins - El dorado, AR April 22, 2006 Woke up early this morning...feeling like ass...and staring right at Danes. Not on purpose though! When I went to sleep that night on my sleeping bags there was a pallet on the other side of the room for Jennifer to sleep on. Turns out that she had decided to go on home and Dane took the spot. Not the worse thing to wake up too...but it definitely starteled me! Took a shower and then went back to bed because it was damn early and I still could not really stand up well. I did not fall down in the shower so thats a good thing! The next time I woke up was to Dane packing up his bag and getting ready to go. They had to go pick up his brother and then head back to Ruston. Said bye and went back to sleep since it was STILL too damn early to move. FINALLY around 1pm I started to move. Found out from Casey that he was not going to El Dorado that night, so I called Alexis and asked if I could follow her home. She said yes and that she was on her way to get me. Rock on. I made a quick trip to Albertsons down the road to get a ROCKSTAR energy drink to try and do *something* about my damn hangover! I also swore off all alcohol which lasted a whole 5 hours. Hehe. Made it back to Caseys house a little before Alexis got there, and then we were off. 2 hours later we were pulling into the Guest Quarters Bed and Breakfast parking lot in downtown El Dorado. We went and got the room...I loaded my stuff in and decided to take another shower since I was still feeling pretty gross. Alexis went to her own house to get ready. A few hours, a shower, and a nap later I got a call from Alexis and went to go let her into the stairwell to the room. She was loaded DOWN with groceries and beer to pack the room. HO-LY shit she bought a lot of stuff. Pizza, beer, popcorn, brownies, cokes, chips, tylenol (SCORE!!!), water, snak mix...hell, you name it, she had it. The room we got was awesome! It was a 2 bedroom suite with a kitchen, dining room, and living room. We loaded up the kitchen, started on some pre drinks, and watched a little Jurassic Park 3 while waiting for her friends to show up at the bar which was almost right across the street. The finally called her and we headed over. Squint was there and we said hey, and the I helped her set up some of the stuff for the auction later on that night. Some items were donated to help raise money for squinfest 06. So not only was it a re-release party, it was a fundraiser for another big event that is coming up soon! Junior had donated some CDs, a tote-bag, and a signed Budweiser mirror while The American Tragedy donated some signed cymbols. Built for Speed threw in a signed poster and somthing else that I did not see, and squint had a drum set signed to auction off in pieces. All good stuff...I would have liked to have taken home everything there... Anyway..sat outside for awhile with Alexiss friends when my friend Haley called. Ended up taking to her for almost 2 hours!!! I missed Built for Speed - but I walked by the front of the club several times while she was on the phone so I heard part of the show. Sounded pretty good. After we got off the phone with each other (had to tell her all about the night before and I drunken antics) I went back into the club and met up with Ghost...another uber squint fan from Minden. Only end up taking to him at squint shows...so we caught up for awhile. Talked about the recent Nine Inch Nails tour and wether or not Trent is turning into an asshole (well..bigger asshole! Lol). Anyway, so talked for awhile and then squint started tuning up so we got to the front of the stage and staked out our usual spots. Cant be letting anyone get in front of the stage!! That is MY spot!! So...squint played and it was pretty much the same set as the night before, but it sounded a hell of a lot better in Einsteins then it did in Shreveport. A lot louder...which is good! They went through all the beeker songs and most of their newwer stuff. Another long set...which was NICE!! Dane remembered the lyrics to Whore this time around (he forgot it the night before, which I think I failed to mention in the last past...) and they, ofcourse, played Dinner again. YAY! Ghost tapped me on the shoulder right before it came on and pointed to the set list and I was all like "Ooooooo yeah...I KNOW!" LOL. So they played it. No tears but I was still smiling like a dumbass the entire time. Plus, this time Alexis had her camera and she taped the whole song for me! So now I will have DINNER FOREVER!!! YAY!!! I can watch it anytime I want to...as soon as I get it. Eagerly watching the mail box... The show was over soon after that, squint signed some CDs, and then the auction started. I ended up in a bidding war with some people in the back of the room over the Budweiser mirror signed by Junior. I won it for $110....buy I sold the totebag that came with it to some chick for $10 so it actually cost me $100. Not bad...considering it was signed and I got squint to sign it at the end of the auction. Squints signatures on there makes it much more valuable in my opinon. The rest of the stuff sold pretty well and all in all the auction made about $575 dollars...I think a little more then what they made last year at Einsteins when Bebe (I think I spelled that wrong..sorry!) shaved his head. Rock on ALEXIS for getting that all set up! Plus I got a badass mirror. Oh..and just for the hell of it, here is what squint signed on it. Dane: He used the Budweiser crown to make the squint jester guy - and then signed his name under it. Matt: We Love Erin Riley - squint. Chris: I love you Erin Tote: I will head butt you forever until you die. Tote is always the sweet one. Ahem. I got the room keys and went to go put my mirror in my car. Had to go to the room first to get the car keys though. Thankfully I had brought along a blanket so I could put that down on the floor for the mirror to rest on. Ill be damned it I wanted that thing to BREAK!! Too damn expensive! Went back to the room and waited for everyone to get there. Figured it was pointless to go back to the club and sit around while squint loaded thier van. I ended up passing out for awhile until Tote called me to see where I was. I thought he was calling to bet let in and I was half way downstairs until I realized he was still at the club. ARGH!! Went back to sleep. Then Alexis called and she WAS actually downstairs...so I went and let her in and pretty soon the rest of squint slowly showed up. Tote took the incentive to cook some microwave pizza in the oven. Guess its better that way...who knows. Made fun of Chris a little bit by telling him that he had to sleep in the kitchen on the island. Earlier we had gotten a pillow and blanket and *made* Chris a bed on top of the hard wooden island counter in the kitchen. We had been giving him hell for snoring so damn loud, so we figured that was the best place for him. Out of the way. Alexis even made him a little place card with him name and flowers on it so he would know for sure it was his own special place. He was not amused. Sat around in the living room discussing current slang and the difficulty of starting conversations - when I spied Tote going into the bedroom that Alexis and I had claimed with his sleeping bag. Curious, I get up and walk in there to see him putting his crap on my bed. The conversation the ensued when something like this (I am going off of memory...so this is not verbatim): Erin: "What the hell do you think you are doing." Tote: "I am putting my stuff down where I am going to sleep.." Erin: "See all the stuff on that bed right there...that is my stuff!" Tote: Looks right at my stuff. "I dont see anything" Put his crap on my bed. Erin: "Hell no...see thoes blue Care-Bear pillows? Thoes are not provided by the room. I brought thoes. You can sleep your ass on the floor" Tote: Throws my pillows on the floor. "Whatever...I dont see anything". With that...I walked over and picked up the pillow in hit him...hard...over the head with it. Then, we started wrestling. And I do mean really wrestling. Not pissed off wrestling, but I do think he was kind-of trying to kick my ass - because I was so trying to kick his. Threw him out of the room a few times...which caused Matt to come see what the hell was going on. He gave me the thumbs up to kick Totes ass a little more. Rock on! We took 2 small breaks - one so Tote could fix his glasses (wuss), and one so that I could throw a bag of chex mix out of the way so that we would stop stepping on it and making a mess...but pretty much it was constant ass kicking for atleast 30 minutes. Yes....30 fucking minutes. Finally we called a truce because we were both tired and no one was really getting the advantage anymore. Although, I think that if we were keeping score I so would have won!! So I got my bed back and he took Alexiss. Hehe. She really should have just slapped him around a little bit and he would have given up and slept on the floor. Worked for me! After that I was too tired to even think so I ended up going to sleep too. I think the rest of the people followed soon after. Got up the next morning around 10 and packed up all my stuff to get ready to head out on my 6 hour drive home. Joy. Dane and Jill, Jills friend, and Alexis were all up as well so we got to say bye and then I left. 6 hours later (straight!! Not one stop - except for gas right before I left El Dorado) I made it home. It was a great weekend...but there really is something to say for your own bed. I managed to get the mirror into the house and my luggage bag - before I passed out. I crashed and literally did not wake up again till Monday morning in time to take a shower and go to work. But that was it. That was the amazing squint re-release weekend. It was def. A blast - except that I have freaking bruises all over my arms and legs. Getting thrown over a bed is not fun at all! It hurts! |
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| Friday, April 21st, 2006 |
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Beeker re-release show Flannigan's - Shreveport, LA April 21st, 2006 (Going to make a disclaimer first: Most of this post revolves around the song Dinner. It is *THE* reason what I went on this trip. Yes - I drove 4 hours to hear one song but I explain why later on. Just letting you know so that if this starts to get a little annoying and you are thinking *what the hell is up with this damn song* - I warned you and you did not have to keep reading.) Got off work at 5pm (argh!) on Friday and immediately hit the road on the way to Shreveport. Hauled ass and actually made it to the front of the club by 9pm. 4 hours - I think my wheels were not touching the road at some points along the trip. Sat in the car and tried to do something with my hair and makeup. Hard to do in a car when its dark and not too roomy but I became presentable. I could hear squint soundchecking on the inside of the club. Butterflies started in the stomach which is weird because you would think I would stop getting that damn excited after almost 9 freaking years!! Walked in and watched the guys on stage for a little while. Got a quick hug from Dane and then I went to the bar to get a beer - the first of many that night. Alexis showed up a little after that and I immediately had to attack her to get info on how the show went the night before. I think that that show, which was at Rabbs in Ruston, was the official re-release party. And Unfortunately I could not get off work to make the drive - I so wanted to go. I did get periodic text messages from Alexis about what was going on/what songs they were playing. So I sort of got to live vicariously...sort of. Alexis and I talked all kinds of gossip as we waited for the other fans to show up. Said hey to the random squint guy as they walk by the bar, but they were mostly hanging out in the back room being all antisocial. Oh well - I was by the beer and the bar so I was happy. Plus by that time Casey, Laulie, Megan, Jennifer, and Parker all showed up so there was not a shortage of people to talk with! YAY! I love the Shreveport people, they are so much fun. Around...well..I am not really sure, maybe 11?..squint finally went on stage. Even though the show was a re-release, they were not only playing songs off the old album..they had the new stuff mixed in as well. I kept glancing at the set list and finally saw the ONE song that was the whole reason why I even came up here - Dinner - all the way at the end! ARGH!! I was going to have to wait like an hour!! But that was ok..the anticipation made it all the better. Now...before I go on, let me explain my obsession with Dinner and why like this song so much. It is not because I think its squints best song because its not by a long shot. They have dozens of songs better written with better lyrics. I like this song because it reminds me of when I first started seeing them. The 2nd concert I ever went to, I was given a 4 song demo tape that had Dinner, Somebody To Talk to, Big Head, and Not To You on it. I was still not *friends* with the band by any stretch of the imagination - hell, I did not even know their names at that time. I got the courage after the show to go up to Dane and say I liked the music and that I wanted a sticker and maybe a CD. Got the sticker, but they had not pressed Beeker yet, so he gave me the tape instead. This was pre original Beeker release so it was all I had to listen to and I LOVED that tape. I was still in high school at the time I have had very vivid memories of driving to school and then back home again with my windows down and blaring those 4 songs over and over again. When I found out that squint was coming back to College Station for a 3rd time, my friend Haley and I decided that we HAD to know the lyrics to these songs so we could sing along in concert with the band. She and I sat down one night listening and rewinding the tape at least 100x trying to get the words right (and it was actually a lot harder then you would think). The day of the concert Haley and I were all kinds of excited! I had a lot of other friends there, but they had not bothered to learn the lyrics with us. So the band starts playing and the first few songs are ones we dont know but still good. Then they played Dinner. Haley and I started singing along with Dane - the only ones in the club that were - and Dane looked at us singing and got this HUGE grin on his face and actually stopped singing for a second. He turned his head to the side, shaking it, then came back and finished the song. The rest of the concert was great, and we sang the other 3 songs that we knew, but he did not act as surprised as during Dinner. After the show we talked to him a little bit, and then really introduced ourselves to the other guys in the band. But really, thats it. That song has always struck a chord with me because of that memory. That the main reason why I like it so much. Also, we got squint to play it twice in one night one time. It was awesome. Oh, and I also like the line 'Turn on the sun, because I want to shine. Ill recreate the world with my own design.' I think that line is really cleaver! So yeah, that is my dinner story. That is why I like that crappy little song. Now that I am done with the explanation back to the story. So, they finally got to the part of the night where Dinner was to be played. I have not heard this song in, oh, 5 years or so. I sure as hell have been being a nuisance about it though always requesting it and what not. Dane made some little speech about the song and then looked at me and said *Are you ready?* Matt started to first chords.....and I started crying. Not buckets of tears streaming down my face - but I def. got tears in my eyes. I was also breathless and smiling so big that I could hardly even sing the words! The song was so much better live then I ever remembered it. And, of course, when Dane started singing it I literally FELT like I was 18/19 again back in College Station at the Cow Hop. I think I even made Dane smile again because he saw the look on my face as the song was playing. Chris, who was not even around during the squint/beeker years came up and said he was amazed at the look on my face when they were playing that song it made him like it even more. The whole time it was playing Matt was looking right at me.....the WHOLE time! He told me after the show that when they were re-learning the Beeker songs and he was working on Dinner he kept thinking why the hell am I doing this?!?! Then, when he saw my reaction to the song he realized exactly why. LOL...awwww....its stuff like that (true or not) that makes the fans happy Matt. Good job! So after Dinner they played maybe 2 more songs and then the show was over. But WHAT A SHOW!!! EEK!! I was on cloud nine - albeit - a very INTOXICATED cloud nine for the rest of the night. Hung out a little more at the club with the band. Watched them sell CDs and chatted with Matt about his new girlfriend. Apparently shes pretty damn smart - rock on! By this time of the night I had had at least 8 or 9 beers on an empty stomach and several sips of other peoples drinks. Bourbon and Rum stuff - YUM! We decided to go eat at the restaurant next door and I seriously think that if I had been sober I would have walked out of that place in disgust. It was very dirty and gross looking. But I guess at 3:30 am you really dont give a shit! Ate my usual late night omelet (eggs are good for hangovers according to Trinity!) and then we decided to go on over to Caseys house. Tote and Erica were already there but were asleep. Losers! Haha Hung out in Caseys kitchen for a little while chatting, but I keep passing out for short periods of time with my head on the table. Finally after waking up for the 4th time Dane suggested I go to bed. So I did. Passed right out. I have not been that drunk in a really long time. At some point after I passed out - could not have been too much longer - I thought I heard someone knocking. I got up and was bound and determined I was going to let these people in because it seemed like no one else would. I went to the front door, or what I thought was the front door, and did my best to open it. Including rattling the door by the doorknob as hard as I could. Did not work. I heard someone on the other side talking, but I could not make out anything so I said 'Hold on I am trying to let you in!' After I could not open that door I figured I must have the wrong door...so I went to the one right beside it. Could not get it open either. So I went into the kitchen where Casey and Dane were still sitting at the table and said 'Casey!!!..someone is knocking on your door and you need to let them in!' Come to find out...the next morning...the door I was trying so hard to open was the bathroom door. With Matt in the bathroom. I guess I woke up to him closing the door and I thought it was knocking so I tried to open it. Good thing he had that damn thing lockedthat would have been embarrassing. That was really all that happened. I freaked over Dinner and tried to bust in to the bathroom on Matt because I got so drunk. Yay |
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| Saturday, March 18th, 2006 |
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Squint + Other bands... *I am including the entire review for the whole weekend in this blog because I am too lazy to pull out the squint parts. If you really want to you can scroll through to the parts you want to read.* Friday, March 17th - this is actually day 2 @ SxSW for me and Trinity. I woke up this morning at around 9:30am…because I am a freak and I cannot ever sleep late in strange houses. We had decided the night before to drive to 6th street in the same car as Manny and Kat..that way we would not have to worry about caravanning home again, and we could split the cost of parking. Fine with me!! Anything to keep the headache of finding a parking spot was cool! The first show that Trin and I were planning on seeing did not start till 3pm, so we were planning on getting something to eat on 6th street, meet up with the squint guys to get some flyers, and then do some street team stuff. I had made about 75 demos to hand out to people and Dane was supposed to give me a few more…so about 100 in all. I called Tote once we got to 6th street and we ended up meeting with the rest of squint on a street corner. They were on their way to the Jackalope to eat, and so after we got our obligatory hugs…we took the posters from them and parted ways. They had to hurry up and get some grub because their first show was at 3pm. Now..to the poster fiasco. First of all..they only gave us like 8 posters to hang up. Not exactly enough to paper 6th street in hopes that people will notice them. Then, they have us the shittiest duct tape in the world to hang them with. I think this tape must have been in their van under a seat for about 2 years prior. It has def. gone through several temperature changes. Plus…it was almost out. There may have been 3 whole feet of tape left on the entire roll. Yeah…ok…so we did our best. This ment that we hung up the posters with pieces of tape about 2 inches wide. They kept falling…so we would hang them up again…and they kept falling. The tape just WAS NOT sticking. I think out of all 8…maybe 3 actually stayed up. Plus it was windy as hell, and that was making the posters fall off even more. We papered half a block..then decided to call it quits. Really, the show was in a little over and hour…who is really going to be paying attention to the posters anyway! So we decided to call it quits and go get something to eat. We walked back up 6th street when we ran into Dane, who was coming from a meeting. Told him where the other guys were, he made fun of us for all the posters that kept falling off the walls, then asked if we were going to make their 3pm show at the Dirty Dog. Here is where the dilemma sets in. Squint was originally only supposed to play 2 shows during SxSW. 5pm on Friday and Midnight on Saturday. No problems, that was not conflicting with any of the other bands we wanted to see. But SUDDENLY they get offered another show..at 3pm on Friday. Great for them, but that is the same time slot that Lonestar Pornstar was playing down the street at the Dizzy Rooster. What is a fan to do?!?! I had my loyalties to squint clashing with the fact that even though yes, I did see LSPS the night before, I don't get to see them NEAR enough. I told Dane that we probably would just have to catch them at the 5pm show because we had originally planned to see anther band at 3pm. He said ok, that was the more important show anyway, and that he would catch up with us then – and he went off to eat with the rest of the guys. Trinity and I went to a restaurant called Paradise so I could get some of the best BBQ chicken soft tacos known to man!! They were still as good as I remembered them too….mmmm….anyway. While we were there, I pulled out 2/3 of the demos that I had brought with me and Trinity and I started writing show dates on the back of them just in case people were interested after we handed them out. About this time Jena called to say she was almost there and was trying to find a parking spot. She was only able to come up for the day since she has 3 kids at home. Better then nothing! We finished writing on the demos then went to the Dizzy Rooster to stand out front and hand them to the people walking by. That is an experience…let me tell you!! We stood out with Adam from Lonestar Pornstar..he was pimping their 3pm show..and sort of created an assembly line. Trinity and I would ask if someone wanted a free CD, then Adam would slip his flyer in their hands as well when they stopped. Most of the people were nice about it, they would either say thanks and take one or say no thank you and keep walking. Some people were out and out rude though, just plain ignoring us or laughing. BASTARDS!! Hahahah, oh well, I don't want them to have a demo if they are not really going to listen to it. Right about the last cd that we gave away I got a call from Jena saying that she had parked and was coming up 6th street. LSPS had not started setting up yet, so I told her that we would meet her half way at the Dirty Dog where squint was playing their show…just to say hi and see if they had started yet. On the way I just happened to glance in a trash can (since it was so full) and I see a squint demo!!! One of the ones I had just handed out!! So, I of course, fished it out, wiped it off, and stopped another person asking if they would like a free CD. They actually seemed receptive to it…so they got the trashy demo! Then as we walked further we found 2 more on the ground. Felt like kicking some ass at that point, but we picked them up and kept on to the Dirty Dog. I put the 2 demos on the table at the front of the club so anyone that wanted them could pick them up. They were gone later so hopefully they went to good appreciative homes. Squint was doing sound check so we hung out a little bit and waited for Jena who showed up soon after. Talked a little bit to the guys, was told by Tote that he hated me (awwww…dork), and just chilled. They were just about to start playing when Dane came up to us and asked, again, if we were going to stay. I said no, we had to go back and see Lonestar Pornstar and got the saddest look I have ever seen him give!! I felt so bad…because the club was almost totally empty. But we left… Got back to the Dizzy Rooster with LSPS already on their first song. They sounded just as good as the night before and got the crowd (what there was at 3pm) going. I really wish I knew the names to their newer songs…because they have this one that is just WAY badass. Their CD release is on April 29th, I know that thing is going to be permanently in my CD player for at least a month..cannot wait!! They played for awhile, then Greg (lead singer) announced that this was going to be their last song. I was kind of surprised because their set was really short (compared to before), but that also meant that I could probably haul ass back down the street and see what was left of squint's set. Right as the LSPS song was about to end, I went ahead and left the club and walk/ran back to the Dirty Dog. I found out later that Greg was lying…they played at least 2 more songs after that one. AHEM..thanks a lot guys!! SxSW - Friday – 3/17 – Austin, TX (Day 2)
(FYI...all the pics in this journal are curtosey of JENA!!!) I woke up this morning at around 9:30am…because I am a freak and I cannot ever sleep late in strange houses. We had decided the night before to drive to 6th street in the same car as Manny and Kat..that way we would not have to worry about caravanning home again, and we could split the cost of parking. Fine with me!! Anything to keep the headache of finding a parking spot was cool! The first show that Trin and I were planning on seeing did not start till 3pm, so we were planning on getting something to eat on 6th street, meet up with the squint guys to get some flyers, and then do some street team stuff. I had made about 75 demos to hand out to people and Dane was supposed to give me a few more…so about 100 in all. I called Tote once we got to 6th street and we ended up meeting with the rest of squint on a street corner. They were on their way to the Jackalope to eat, and so after we got our obligatory hugs…we took the posters from them and parted ways. They had to hurry up and get some grub because their first show was at 3pm. Now..to the poster fiasco. First of all..they only gave us like 8 posters to hang up. Not exactly enough to paper 6th street in hopes that people will notice them. Then, they have us the shittiest duct tape in the world to hang them with. I think this tape must have been in their van under a seat for about 2 years prior. It has def. gone through several temperature changes. Plus…it was almost out. There may have been 3 whole feet of tape left on the entire roll. Yeah…ok…so we did our best. This ment that we hung up the posters with pieces of tape about 2 inches wide. They kept falling…so we would hang them up again…and they kept falling. The tape just WAS NOT sticking. I think out of all 8…maybe 3 actually stayed up. Plus it was windy as hell, and that was making the posters fall off even more. We papered half a block..then decided to call it quits. Really, the show was in a little over and hour…who is really going to be paying attention to the posters anyway! So we decided to call it quits and go get something to eat. We walked back up 6th street when we ran into Dane, who was coming from a meeting. Told him where the other guys were, he made fun of us for all the posters that kept falling off the walls, then asked if we were going to make their 3pm show at the Dirty Dog. Here is where the dilemma sets in. Squint was originally only supposed to play 2 shows during SxSW. 5pm on Friday and Midnight on Saturday. No problems, that was not conflicting with any of the other bands we wanted to see. But SUDDENLY they get offered another show..at 3pm on Friday. Great for them, but that is the same time slot that Lonestar Pornstar was playing down the street at the Dizzy Rooster. What is a fan to do?!?! I had my loyalties to squint clashing with the fact that even though yes, I did see LSPS the night before, I don't get to see them NEAR enough. I told Dane that we probably would just have to catch them at the 5pm show because we had originally planned to see anther band at 3pm. He said ok, that was the more important show anyway, and that he would catch up with us then – and he went off to eat with the rest of the guys. Trinity and I went to a restaurant called Paradise so I could get some of the best BBQ chicken soft tacos known to man!! They were still as good as I remembered them too….mmmm….anyway. While we were there, I pulled out 2/3 of the demos that I had brought with me and Trinity and I started writing show dates on the back of them just in case people were interested after we handed them out. About this time Jena called to say she was almost there and was trying to find a parking spot. She was only able to come up for the day since she has 3 kids at home. Better then nothing! We finished writing on the demos then went to the Dizzy Rooster to stand out front and hand them to the people walking by. That is an experience…let me tell you!! We stood out with Adam from Lonestar Pornstar..he was pimping their 3pm show..and sort of created an assembly line. Trinity and I would ask if someone wanted a free CD, then Adam would slip his flyer in their hands as well when they stopped. Most of the people were nice about it, they would either say thanks and take one or say no thank you and keep walking. Some people were out and out rude though, just plain ignoring us or laughing. BASTARDS!! Hahahah, oh well, I don't want them to have a demo if they are not really going to listen to it. Right about the last cd that we gave away I got a call from Jena saying that she had parked and was coming up 6th street. LSPS had not started setting up yet, so I told her that we would meet her half way at the Dirty Dog where squint was playing their show…just to say hi and see if they had started yet. On the way I just happened to glance in a trash can (since it was so full) and I see a squint demo!!! One of the ones I had just handed out!! So, I of course, fished it out, wiped it off, and stopped another person asking if they would like a free CD. They actually seemed receptive to it…so they got the trashy demo! Then as we walked further we found 2 more on the ground. Felt like kicking some ass at that point, but we picked them up and kept on to the Dirty Dog. I put the 2 demos on the table at the front of the club so anyone that wanted them could pick them up. They were gone later so hopefully they went to good appreciative homes. Squint was doing sound check so we hung out a little bit and waited for Jena who showed up soon after. Talked a little bit to the guys, was told by Tote that he hated me (awwww…dork), and just chilled. They were just about to start playing when Dane came up to us and asked, again, if we were going to stay. I said no, we had to go back and see Lonestar Pornstar and got the saddest look I have ever seen him give!! I felt so bad…because the club was almost totally empty. But we left… Got back to the Dizzy Rooster with LSPS already on their first song. They sounded just as good as the night before and got the crowd (what there was at 3pm) going. I really wish I knew the names to their newer songs…because they have this one that is just WAY badass. Their CD release is on April 29th, I know that thing is going to be permanently in my CD player for at least a month..cannot wait!! They played for awhile, then Greg (lead singer) announced that this was going to be their last song. I was kind of surprised because their set was really short (compared to before), but that also meant that I could probably haul ass back down the street and see what was left of squint's set. Right as the LSPS song was about to end, I went ahead and left the club and walk/ran back to the Dirty Dog. I found out later that Greg was lying…they played at least 2 more songs after that one. AHEM..thanks a lot guys!!
But, I got to the Dirty Dog and thankfully squint was still going strong…to a empty club. There was one girl (I later found out her name was Annette) who was near the front of the stage, off to the side rocking out. Plus a few people near the bar…but basically no one in front of the stage. Come one people!!! What is the use in watching a band from half a room away! So I went and stood in front of the stage and rocked out to the rest of the set…which was actually about 5 more songs…so I did not miss out too bad! Trinity showed up for the very last one. We hung out while they packed up their stuff, then got roped into helping them haul the equipment the 2 blocks (uphill) to the Dizzy Rooster where the 5pm show was supposed to be. Poor Tote had it the worst..he had to pull a large wooden box with all his drum equipment in it, and his legs looked like jell-O by the time we got to where we were going. Nooner was already on stage (they just started) when we finally got squint to the club. Trinity and I set their equipment down and went to the front where Jena was already stationed to see them. Again..Nooner is the band that Ben, our wonderful host, is the drummer for. That guy can go ape shit on the drums…holy cow!! No wonder he was exhausted at the end of every night. Nooner is always fun to watch live..and are without a doubt one of our favorite bands. It is just too bad that we cannot see them more often than we do. Austin is so close…but so far away at the same time! During one of the songs, Kids, Chris came out into the audience and had me, Jena, and Matt and I singing along with him to the song. That was pretty cool. Nothing like having my non-talent voice ringing out for the whole club to hear! After Nooner was over...it was time for squint to get on stage. I know I had just seen them less than an hour before, but I was all giddy and excited! It's an obsession..what can I say. The show went really well and it seemed like all the people in the club (and there were a lot by that time) dug it. The audience was cheering after every song. Hopefully the boys in squint made lots of new fans that day..their performance was def. worthy of it. After squint, Jena, Trinity and I decided to walk around 6th street for awhile. We had a few hours before our next *scheduled* band was to go on, so we chilled. The streets were getting pretty damn crowded by this point and it was getting hard to maneuver through the crowd. We went into a couple bars and had some drinks, watched some street artists do fantasy landscapes with spray paint, looked at jewelry from street vendors. I fell totally in LOVE with this one ring but the lady wanted $40 for it...and I could not bring myself to spend that kind of money. Saw some god loving religious people preaching from crates out in the middle of the street. I tried to get Trin and Jena to go up to them and take a pic, but they were chicken! We made it back to the Dizzy rooster in time to see Bag 100 at 8:30pm. AS I mentioned before, Bag 100 is the *other* band of Ben..the drummer in Nooner. This band has a girl lead singer who is just freaking BADASS!! I had to tell her that after the show..she was just so impressive. She was up on the bar...jumping around on stage...in and out of the audience interacting with every one there. The club was getting more and more packed at this point, almost to the point where it was hard to move around - and EVERYONE was rocking out to Bag 100. Later on she gave us some free CDs that they just released. YAY! After the Bag 100 show, we went walking again. We got some 6th street pizza and for some reason decided that we were going to walk to Jena's car. I don't remember the reason...but for being 6 blocks away it was pretty important. Randomly ran into Dane and Matt again as they were looking for some place where they were to meet important people...I accidently sent them in the wrong direction for that. OOPS! I am sure they eventually found their way. Got to Jena's car and sat there for a little while just chilling. Again, after all day on your feet and jumping around...it just felt damn good to sit! Trinity decided she needed some coffee so we eventually started walking back to 6th street. It is surprisingly tough to find coffee on 6th street around 10pm. Finally went into a cigar shop that sold some, and then we walked around some more. By 10pm..the streets were completely packed with people. There MUST have been at least 10,000 in the 6th street area that night..if not more. I do not remember it being that crowded last year..but it was def. Interesting to see. We went back to the Dizzy Rooster to see who was playing, and now there was a line to get back into the club. I long line. So we decided to hang out outside the club on the curb. Manny was out there, along with Christine (Bag 100 chick), Lisa (Ben's wife), and Chris from squint to name a few. So we hung out there talking to everyone. Manny piped up and informed us that he was totally beat and would be ready to go after Freebleeder (the current bad on stage in the club). That was totally fine with us since we were starting to feel a little drained as well. We walked Jena BACK to her car since she was driving home, then Trin and I made our way to the Dizzy Rooster and sat out back (where the bands were loading and unloading) waiting for Manny and Kat to come out. We finally saw them, and Kat came over to make sure we really wanted to leave (I think she was in the mood to party for another few hours), but after I saw Manny mouth "I wanna go HOME!" I told her that yeah...we were ready and tired. Make us the bad guys...no problem! Drove home, and this night I was so beat I did not even stay awake long enough for the bathroom to come free so I could change clothes. I passed out in my clothes on the air mattress. End Day 2! Saturday, March 18th Trinity and I had decided the night before that we were not going to bust our asses trying to get up and get ready early to make it to 6th street. The first band that we had planned to see was Ludo (again!) at 3:40pm…so we had plenty of time. Slept late, hung out with Lisa and talked for a little while, and then slowly took showers. It was nice to not be in a hurry for once. After Storage24 finished, we made out way back along the street to Darwins Pub. Went inside and chilled in the back drinking some bourbon and listening to a country/rock/Skynnard sounding band called Future Ex Wife. Sounds like a good ole boy rock band, doesn't it?! Haha. While they were on stage we got a little bored and started messing around with the ear plug package that I had purchased. We were attempting to follow their directions for putting them in...but did not like the way it was written, so we decided to make our own ear plug how to. There are pictures somewhere...look for a manuel soon! After freaking out the patrons in the bar with Trin taking pics of me with a ear plug shoved up my nose, we started writing the gig information on the back of my remaining squint demos. I had about 30 left over, and we plugged the show that they were supposed to play later that night at Fuel. Once we were done, though, we realized that we needed something else..something unique..to catch the eye of the people that we were handing them too. I grabbed on of the demos and wrote *sexy!!!* on the sleeve. We laughed. Then I grabbed another Cd and wrote *Tote's a bitch* across the bottom of it. That opened the floodgates! For the rest of the 30+ demos, we wrote completely unique one liners on each one of them. Some I hope squint never sees, some are were just too damn funny. I should say that if anyone ever brings me one of those demos I will give them $5..for real. They were priceless! After we were inebriated and giddy from writing all over demos..we went back over to the Dizzy Rooster to hand them out. People seemed more receptive to getting free demos this night then they were the day before. We even had a few people stop and ask us about the band, like they were actually interested in them. Hopefully they liked what they would later hear.
The next band we were set to see was Nooner at the Dizzy Rooster. They put on a much better show than the one the day before...probably because it was later at night and there were lots more people in the club. Jammed out to them, and then who should show up but the boys from squint!!! FINALLY!!! It was almost 10:45 at night. Damn lazy bastards..
We did not have time to talk though, because we had to get to the 11pm Vallejo show down the street. We told Dane and Tote where we were going and they got this weird look on their face and said something about arch nemesis! Turns out there was a period of time when they would show up in a town for a show, no one would be there, and it would be explained that everyone was at the Vallejo show at a diff. club. We assured them that we would not miss squint at midnight, and headed out.
Vallejo is a damn awesome band though. They had a new rhythm guitar player this night..someone I have never seen before (but then again, I have not seen Vallejo in many months!). They rocked out like usual with their Latin flavored rock. Plus those boys are just a bunch of cuties..always nice to stare at hot guys on stage. After Vallejo was over we wanted to say hello and get some pics with them, but they were taking their sweet ass time coming off the stage, so we went ahead and left for the squint show...right next door.
Squint was setting up in the horrible stage from hell. Remember the steering wheel I was talking about in past blogs? Yeah...THAT stage. Dane made the best of it though, and the guys put on the best show of the 3 I had seen them do for SxSW. Some of Nooner came over as well and we all ended up right in front of the stage jumping up and down and rocking out. Well, might have been the only one jumping up and down...but who is really counting?! After they played their last announced song..we got a FUCKING KICKASS surprise! Turns out that the very last band, UltraSonic, and just decided to totally not even show up..so the club owner said they could continue to play if they wanted to. So they DID!! Ah...there are few things in this world as satisfying as a double long squint show. :) They started by playing songs that people in the crowd requested (like Michigan and Somebody to talk to), but then ended up doing mostly covers for another 45 mins. We were all in heaven...and the beer, jager, and bourbon flowed like you would not believe! When Dane finally decided that they were done, I KNEW that there was no way I was going to be able to drive all the way home like was the original plan..so Trinity and I ended up hanging out at Trent's house with the rest of the band. Nothing too exciting to report I am afraid. Everyone watched Orgazmo, ate some pizza, and then went to sleep. By the time we had arrived at Trent's it was about 3:30am. Some more beer was consumed...but everyone (including Trin and I) were just dead tired.
Woke up about 8:30am that next day and decided that my bed would feel a hell of a lot more comfortable than the one I was on, so I got Trin and we left. An hour and a half later, I was finally home, in my own bed, sleeping off the extended weekend.
I had a blast at SxSW, hung out with some great people, have some awesome memories, and above all heard some killer music....but really, there is no place like home. The End. |
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| Friday, February 24th, 2006 |
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squint/Nooner/Dramarama Insight Music Night The Dirty Dog Austin, TX February 24, 2006 Went to Austin this past Friday to see squint (again!), Nooner, Freebleeder, and Dramarama. Yes..THE Dramarama – popular band from the 80s and recently featured on and episode of VH1s Reuniting the Band. Still don't know who they are? Well, neither did I, but everyone else seemed excited to see them so I was not going to miss it! Needless to say the real reason we went was for squint and Nooner. Left around 6:15 and parked at 6th street at 8:15. Exactly 2 hours..hell yeah, I rock! As we walked onto 6th street we noticed that even though there was no one really on it yet, the cops had already started blocking off the area so no cars could go down it. Plus..there were tons of people that were selling beads at little stands all along the street. We were confused at first..but apparently this was Mardi Gras weekend and Austin was getting ready for full party mode. Found the club…the Dirty Dog…and started inside. The door guy tried to charge us $15 to get in, but thankfully Ben (drummer from Nooner) was there and said that was not right, went and found some lady, and it turns out we only had to pay $5! Thank god they figured that out before we got in! Saw the squint guys and said hi. Apparenly they were really really surprised that we showed up. Then Nooner loaded me down with their new CD, a T-shirt, a sticker, and the recent Issue of INsite Magazine in which they are on the cover and also has an interview with squint. Sooo…I made Jena walk with me back to my car to put all that stuff in there. It was the beg. of the night, I was not going to carry all that stuff all night! Analog Missionary was on stage when we got there. Sounded pretty good, and I was surprised that they had a female lead singer. Was not expecting that. Mingeled around a little bit saying hi to the Nooner guys and talking a little more with squint. Dane and Jena had a misunderstanding over Myspace a few days before, so he was doing all he could to apologize…should have gotten all that on video. Very amusing. squint went onstage almost right at 9pm. There were a decent number of people there, and several of their new fans that had seen them for the first time the week before. We all crowded up front, along with the Nooner guys, and squint put on a pretty good show. I remember thinking "damn…they really cranked the bass tonight" because the entire show I could feel the bass as Chris was playing. It was almost vibrating IN my chest. Felt pretty cool! :) Apparently there is a new tradition between the Nooner and squint guys, and that consists of jumping up on stage 100+ times during the show and feeding each other Jagermeister shots. Many many shots… Matt started promising that if people stuck around long enough you would see him running down 6th street naked - which recently became legal in Austin. You cannot smoke in bars, but you can legally walk down the street butt-naked. Makes sense to me! Dane also missed catching his mic stand at one point. That was new. Squint played about 45 minutes (not enough!!!) and then were told they were done and could not play the very last song. BASTARD SOUNDGUY!!! Hahaha…I am joking, I don't think the sound guy is a bastard. Stupid dork…yes. Anyway, they got busy selling some merch then. Jena and I started talking to this one girl, I think her name was Kristina, who just randomly had walked into the bar with her friend and ended up LOVING squint. She got a CD and Jena took her around to the rest of the guys to get it signed. At one point she left her drink with us and Jena and I had a really REALLY hard time resisting snagging the cherry out of it. It was just sitting on top all nice and yummy looking…but we did not. Took a lot of will power though. After squint came Freebleeder. They are a good group, but we were in the mood for some 6th street pizza (whoo-hoo!) so we left the club for a little while to walk down the street and get some. As we were walking down the street we noticed a hell of a lot more cops than normal. I mean…A LOT more. The place was pretty packed at this point, but I would say almost ¼ of the crowd were cops. Cops on horses, cops in car, cops walking around, sniper-looking cops on tops of buildings just watching the crowd, and then the cops in full riot-looking gear standing in circles of 10 guys every 50 or so feet. They had the helmets on, broom handle looking beating sticks, and the zip ties attached to their belts to bind hands with. It was kind of scary actually…I had never been to Mardi Gras in Austin, but I did not think things could get THAT bad. Hell..they don't even have that in New Orleans. Anyway, we made it to the pizza place without getting out asses kicked on accident, and got our pizza! It was good stuff too. 6th street pizza is not any where near the best tasting stuff ever, but when you are hungry and drunk it rocks hard. Ate the pizza and then decided to go back to the club to check out Nooner since they were due to play soon. Nooner's set was awesome, probably because we had not seen the band in almost a year and we were loooong overdue! They had a few new songs that we had not heard before plus the older ones that sounded a little different. Must have been re-worked for the new album a little bit. The squint guys were onstage every 5 secs…giving Nooner the same courtesy with the Jager shots that they received earlier. During one song - the lead singer, Chris, jumped off the stage and walked around singing in the audience while some girls got up and danced in his place. I mentioned to Dane, who was standing next to me, that he should get up there and dance as well…which he did! I really HOPE that someone got a good picture of the grinding Dane was doing to the guitarist, Aaron. My pic came out all blurry… During the last Nooner song there suddenly formed and impromptu hump chain at the front of the stage. It was a couple of girls, then Matt, Jena, Tote, Me, Dane, another girl, and some more people I don't know. We were all ass to crotch across the front of the stage…apparently dancing and fighting over the drumsticks that Ben kept throwing at our heads. Again, I hope someone else got a picture of this that I can steal because – being IN the chain – it was impossible for me to get a picture. Besides, who would want to leave from being squished between Tote and Dane. Come on! So rocked out to Nooner..then Nooner was over. :( Hung out at the club a little more talking to people. Found Tote out in the ally smoking a cigarette – hung out with him for a bit and stole all his mardi gras necklaces. Right about the time Dramarama was about to go on Jena and I got the craving for shots…at a different bar. We walked down 6th street again till we found a place that was not too crowded. Got hit on by the bouncer and then some guy at the bar from New York, so we left right after downing the Kamikazis. Yum! Jena did not like them too much though. Went back to the Dirty Dog and got another shot..not sure what it was called but it was sweet…and watched a little Dramarama. I did not recognize any of the music, but it was still pretty good stuff. It was getting close to 2am by this point and we still had to drive home, so even thought Dramarama was still on, we said bye to the squint guys and called it a night. Hell..I still had a 2 hour drive ahead of me. Said bye to the squint boys in the usual manner: Hug from Dane, wet sloppy kiss from Matt, and from Tote – he headbutted me a couple of times, so I slapped him, so then he gets me in a headlock and tries to give me a noogie, so I start for the buttons on his pants and he eventually lets go. Good to see that some things never change. Made it past all the riot cops without getting shot at or arrested and started back home. About 30 minutes out we had to stop at a McDonalds in Elgin so that I could get something to keep me awake and so Jena could puke in their bushes. Barely made it back to College Station before my mind completely shut down and I went to sleep. I kept dozing off - the music and air conditioning just was not working that night. Thought I might have to crash on Jena's couch for atleast 30 minutes or so – but once I dropped her off and walked around a little bit I was ok to make it the rest of the way home. That is all… |
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| Saturday, February 11th, 2006 |
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Live Album Recording Weekend Friday, February 10, 2006 – Ok..so…yeah..been looking forward to this weekend for a loooooong time. This was the weekend when squint would be recording some of their shows in hopes of getting some material good enough to put out a live album. Most of the squint fans would agree that while Beeker and Tinsel Life are awesome albums, it's live where squint really shines. I have several (at least 6 cds) of unofficial live recordings of squint – but unofficial also equals low quality. LOL…no offense to the person doing the recording (and some are WAAAAAAY better than others), but they are not the best they could be. Hopefully this past weekend squint got the best recordings possible. Friday afternoon….I left for Hung out for awhile with all the other sqroupies (thanks goes out to Alexis for helping me with those awesome Jack Daniels glasses – I ALMOST acquired a whole set!!) till squint got on stage. Got up to the front and staked my usual claim on the area right in front of Dane. Nothing like having his crotch right in your face for the majority of the show! He warned the crowd right off that he was not feeling well and may have to cut the show short which was the case the night before. Turns out that he had some kind of throat infection and had not been speaking for almost the entire week trying to rest up for these shows. The night before the concert was cut short – but thankfully it was not tonight (since I was here for this one..it better not be short!). I think squint was having such a good time they even came back and did 3 more songs for an encore!!! Highlights of Live Recording Night 2! (night 1 for me): - THEY PLAYED NOT TO YOU!!!! This was the coolest thing about the whole performance for me. Not To You is one of their older songs from the first album, and it had been dropped off of set lists a loooog time ago. I think it is safe to say I have not heard that song live since about 2000, if not a little earlier. BUT! They reworked some of it, played the song, and JAMMED IT! - There were quite a few people at the front of the stage rocking out, and a good majority of them knew all the words to the songs..even the old ones. - While Dane usually spits water out of his mouth during Glimmer and Phrase (yeah, I have to admit that it does look cool), this was the first time I have ever experienced him actually aiming it towards the audience. FYI – I did not know it was coming and I covered my drink too late. But I drank it anyway. - They played a good selection of songs from Beeker to Tinsel Life and to the yet as released new studio album. After the show was over…and then encores were over…people hung out for a little while at the club, but as soon as squint was packed up the rest of the people headed to Casey's house for the after party. The night gets really fuzzy at this point, the next day I saw pictures and thought WHAT?!?! When did THAT happen? I do remember that Tote bought some Truth or Dare cards at Walgreen's and decided that we should all sit around a table and play..trying to make the cards as R-rated as possible. I think the worst we ever got was a strong Pg-13. Girls had to kiss, Tote gave lap dances, Matt rubbed his crotch on people's faces (but he was fully clothed), Bras were exchanged, and secrets were revealed. Of course, most of this had to be told to me the next morning..like I mentioned. Dane was present for the entire game…but he was mainly played the roll of silent onlooker. He was preoccupied with some wooden puzzle games that Tote had also bought at Walgreen's. Every once and awhile he would add his 2 cents into the conversation by scribbling something across his wipe board, but for the most part he gave us some rather funny expressions. You don't realize how much can be expressed through the face till you get Dane in a room with a bunch of drunks and he cannot talk. Priceless looks… I vaguely remember Chris clogging up Casey's bathroom so bad that it backed-up into the tub at the front of the house. Casey and for some reason Melissa were in there trying to fix it and Matt took that chance to pretend he was directing a very nasty porno and was calling out commands to the two. Chris then passed out in the corner of an empty room, but was soon found by Matt who forced vacuum attachments down his pants for the camera. Proudly announcing to the whole house "He's fucking a VACUUM cleaner." The pictures were great..maybe some day they will actually be posted on the web somewhere. People started leaving and or passing out after that. I think I finally went to bed around 5am because I could not even stand up anymore. From what I hear the party kept on till around 8am.
Saturday, February 11, 2006 – Day 2 So…as was said in the last blog…went to sleep around 5am. Not sure what time, but at some point waaaaaaay too early in the morning Dane starts stirring. As in he wakes up, plays with his Blackberry (I think that is what it is called) with buttons that make noise, packs up, and everything else he can possible do except talk. I think he actually woke up around 11am, but I could have slept another half a day at least! Well, Dane making noise woke Tote up and he started talking. And since I am much more satisfied with beating up Tote than Dane, Tote got a pillow to the head several times. It was already too late at that point, and people eventually got up. The most amusing thing of the morning was Dane writing "WAKE UP!!" on his wipe board and showing it to people. That really does not work when the person is still asleep… Dane had some nasty midday craving for hot dogs, but he apparently cannot cook them (all lies I think) so I ended up the cook while the guys got ready. They ate and then left Casey's a little after 1pm to go to Laulie, Casey, Megan, and I hung out a little while trying to wake up and get the motivation to take showers. It was hard..let me tell you! All I really wanted to do was go back to sleep. After everyone went their separate ways to take showers, Laulie, Casey and I decided to go get something to eat so we met at Olive Garden later. It sounded like a good idea at the time, but pasta on a hangover stomach was a little rough. Ate, and then went to try and dress Casey up in something pretty at Old Navy - be he did not like anything we picked out. We did find some cute clothes that Laulie and I think Tote would so wear if he was a girl. LOL…anyway…. Went back to Casey's house to check out the pics from the night before. This is where a lot of the OH GOD, WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN?!?! phrases came into play. Took a small 15 min. nap and then it was finally time to head out. We decided to take one car to Got to the general vicinity a little before 10pm, but I had to call Alexis to get the rest of the way. I think Casey would have been content to have me drive over the same bridge several times, and he was oddly fascinated by Wal Mart and the Huddle House – which were no where near the club. Thanks to Alexis though..we got to where we were supposed to be right on time. Found our names on the guest list (YAY!) and made it inside. Saw Alexis right away and said hi. She showed us where the V.I.P. seating was (haha) and then Laulie showed me around the club. Which basically means we went to the bathroom and then to the bar. It looked like a pretty nice place to play and RIGHT OFF I was impressed as hell with the number of people there. There had to be a couple hundred, if not more. I have never seen that many people at a squint concert before…mainly because I mostly see them in Squint finally took the stage and we got our usual places up front. Dane had gotten another Cortisone shot in the ass earlier that day so he was good to go for another long set. I was not at the show on Thursday, but just judging from the difference between Fri and Sat., this was by far the best show of the 3. The crowd was WAY into the music and squint looked to be having a blast. Highlights of the Show: - Dane spit out the water again, but this time is was DIRECTLY on Matt. That is way more amusing than having it his the audience. -ACOUSTIC SQUINT!!!! Half way through their set Tote and Chris left the stage leaving Dane and Matt setting up some stools. Dane started saying something about how they were going to try something they have never tried before…but always get requested to do – play something acoustic. He was not sure what his voice would be like or how well they would sound, but they were going to attempt it nonetheless. It was amazing…I could not even bring myself to sing the lyrics to the songs with them because just standing there watching them play was so amazing. I remember them mentioning something about trying out songs acoustically about a year ago..and I bugged them about it for months before I just got tired and stopped. I am glad they did not give up the idea. They played Flustered, Whore, Random Caring, and some other song – I don't remember. I want to say Welcome to the Break My Heart Show…but I cannot be for sure. Oh all damn times for me to loose my digital camera! Argh.. - The played Not to You again…which made me just as happy as the night before. The set was long and the crowd was awesome. A few times I could actually hear them all singing a long to a song or chorus. I am sure it looked pretty cool from the stage as well. After the show we hung out in the club for a few more hours. I had consumed several Bourbon and Cokes at this time an suddenly there were Tequila shots, and Jager shots, and beer being shoved at me from every angle. Could not say No! LOL. I think we were herded out of the club a little after 2am and down about a block to the Bed and Breakfast where Alexis had procured 3 rooms for everyone to crash in. As Matt would say: A Good time was had by all. More drinking, a few minor annoyances (i.e. – drunkasses snoring SOOOO loudly you wanted to jump out a window), and all around general partying. I started passing out again around ~4:30am but was not given a chance to sleep till probably 6am. Woke up at 9am still drunk, still sleepy, but facing a 6+ hours drive home so I decided it was better just to get the damn thing over with. Woke up Laulie and Casey and headed out. Swerved my way back to Got home at about 4pm Sunday and tried to get online to check email, but realized that I could not even really think straight anymore…so I passed out in my own wonderfully soft bed! Aaaahhhhh…it was nice. I did not wake up again till Monday morning when it was time to get ready to go to work. |
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| Monday, December 12th, 2005 |
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Decemeber 12, 2005 516 Soundstage - Shreveport, LA The Dawg House - Ruston, LA Wow....ok, so I have been going back an forth on how to approach a blog about the weekend. It was amazing.....it could take me hours to go over all the cool ass stuff and shitty drama that went on. I will try my best to keep this down to 1 hour of writing. I would like to go on record to say a few things in my defense, in case anyone hears differently: 1.) I did NOT hold anyone down and make them drink. 2.)Matt DID say he wanted me to pour some bourbon into his rum drink. If it tasted like crap after that it's his own fault. 3.)It was not totally MY idea to skip out on the 12 Days of Christmas thing an hour and a half to Ruston to see squint. With that said, I had a blast this weekend. Got into Shreveport (by myself) around 4pm. Called Casey to see what he was doing and we went to go get something to eat. Ate at a place called Raising Cains. Apparently it's a big deal in Louisiana. And...just for the record....when someone says that Raising Cain's serves chicken fingers you better realize that that is ALL they serve. It was good though. After RC, we went to Target to pick up a toy for the concert - since it was benefitting Toys for Tots. I got the CUTEST little elephant that had a rattle inside him. I almost kept him for myself but really, what the hell am I going to do with a elephant that has a rattle. I dont have kids!! Squint was preforming first at 6:45, so we hauled all over to the Soundstage to see them. Each band was only going to play for 30 mins, so we could not afford to be late and miss anything!! Talked to the guys a little before hand. Heard that the El Dorado show ROCKED the night before, but Dane had to pull squint out of opening the 12 days of Christmas show in Texarkana earlier because he was throwing up all night. Ick. But they were ok to play tonight, so that was a plus!!! squint went on at exactly 6:45 and played about 5 songs. There were a few people out that early and everyone seemed to like them all right. Then, just like they said, they got off stage, loaded up, and went to Ruston. It was sad to see them go....it's never the same unless you hang out afterwards. And with that thought in mind....everyone pretty much decided as a group to ditch the rest of the 12 days of Christmas show and drive to Ruston to see squint for a second time. We decided to leave after Rockett Queen - a very badass band from Texas. That gave us exactly one hour to get there, which just happens to be the amount of time it takes without stopping. Rockett Queen does deserve a mention really quick though, they were awesome! I have been hearing about these guys for a really long time and have been wanting to make a show. They had a lot of energy and really know how to work a crowd. Jumping, spinning, leading the crowd in a sing along. It made me want to buy a CD (too bad I forgot!). One interesting part of the show was when they did a cover of Just Like Heaven from The Cure. The lead singer made a lead in to the song by saying that most of the kids there would probably not know this song (since it was an all ages venue and most were under 21) but it was by a really influential band called The Cure. No one really cheered except for me and the few people around me that I was with. Come on...we are not THAT old, are we?? Anyway, they started playing the song, and I started singing the song. I was already sorta familiar with it anyway, but I knew the words because it is also a song that squint used to cover a lot. The bass player saw me singing the song and got the HUGE surprised look on his face and pointed right at me....twice!! HAHAHAHAH...it was awesome. I could not sing one damn lick of Rockett queens lyrics, but being able to sing The Cure got me some badass brownie points with the band! Know your oldies kids...that is all I have to say. Ok, so after Rockett Queen came the great squint Junior debate. Here was the deal -> The 12 days of Christmas show is organiazed and put on by the guys in Junior. We came primarily to support them. (REALLY!!!) Junior was playing 9:45 to 10:15. Scenario 1: If we stayed for Junior then hauled ass to Ruston we would get there by Midnight at the earliest (since we had to go back to Casey's house to get my car and stuff). Squint's show in Ruston was OVER at Midnight. We could have gone to just hang out, but they guys also said they were not going to be staying up really late because they had to make it to Austin the next day (like a 6-7 hour drive). So we could have done that, but it would have been almost like driving an hour just to crash at someone's house for the night. Scenario 2: Junior was only going to play for 30 minuets. And while we KNEW that they would KICKASS, the squint show in Ruston was going to be a lot longer. PLUS!!! They were debuting 2 NEW SONGS that no one had ever heard before. 2!!!!!!!!! So we could leave right after Rockett Queen, go get my car at Casey's, and make to to Ruston just as the guys were going on. We chose Scenario 2. Told Junior bye and that we were sorry to leave (I really really was...felt bad about it) but they already got our $10 so what more do you want! Then we hauled ass to Ruston. Got a teeny bit lost trying to find the club, but got there as squint was on thier 2nd song. ROCK ON!!! The rest of the show was awesome! Lots of Dane jumping on stuff, a few technical problems with strings breaking and the band having to go to the bathroom, but for the most part it went well. They played the 2 new songs. the first one was just ok to be honest. The second one ROCKED though. It was called something like Saturday Morning Evening. The guitar part rocked hard! I can't wait to hear that one again. After the show we hung out a little drinking some more and talking amonst the fans - trying to figure out where the after party was going to be and who was going to be there and bring what. We ended up all congregated outside the stage door, in my car, with the heater going. It was sooo cold!!! But that gave us the cool idea to roll down the windows and blast Track number 3 from squint's first album as loud as possible. The track, Dinner, is one that squint always gets requests for but refuse to play any more...for various reasons. They change depending on thier mood. But we still request the song. So yeah, we got a lot of middle figers thrown at us by the band as they came out the door and realized what we were listening to. We could feel the love, let me tell you! The after party was decided to happen at Chris's house - the bass player. We headed over there, raided the Rum and beer, and partied till the sun came up. Literally. A lot of people came and went, some girl wanted to kick my ass becasue she was drunk and I was getting ice out of the fridge (yeah, I was confused too), drinks were made, stories were told, and it was just general fun. Laulie, Tommy, Matt and I left Chris's house a little before dawn to go get some food at the Waffel House. I had my stuff ordered for me and ended up with an Omlett, Toast, and Hash Browns. The toast was all I could handle because Matt got chili and it was making me sick just looking at it. Realized we needed to get SOME sleep as we looked out the windows of the Waffel House at the rising sun. Great, and I had to leave early too! Argh. Got as much sleep as we could, and Laulie, Tommy and I left Ruston around 11am. All the squint guys were supposed to leave at 10am that morning, but they were still asleep when we left. So much for that idea! Dropped Laulie and Tommy back off in Shreveport and then I made it back to my house in C.S. about 4pm. Passed out and woke up this morning. Good times!!!! I love road trips, I love drinking, I love live music, and I love squint! |
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| Friday, September 9th, 2005 |
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The Sidecar Pub – Houston, TX Yeah, another squint show that rocked…what can we say?!? squint was scheduled to play with three other bands but as it would turn out..the three other bands all either canceled or did not show up. So when we got there around 10:20 pm we were greeted with the news that it would be an extra long set. :::::insert happy dance here:::: The usual pre-show stuff occurred. We said hi to the squint guys. Talked to some of the other Houston fans that were there and we had not seen in almost a year. The Jaeger girls were there as well handing out free stuff. I scored some stickers – ROCK!! Squint went on about 20 mins after we got there. I am not sure if they were waiting for us to arrive before they started, but I like to think so. The best thing of the night, besides squint playing for almost an hour and a half, was that the Side Car Pub has apparently improved greatly on their sound. The first few notes of Impression blew me away they sounded so good. Kudos to whoever spent money on making the Sidecar sound better. I have been there several times before to see various bands and it sounds much better now. Squint played for about 45 mins, took a break, and then got on stage and played for another 45 mins. It was awesome! We took up the entire front of the stage and, from what I can tell, everyone had a damn good time. After the show we hung out with the band and drank a little more. Fun times. That is all I have to say about that. We all left the club around 2:30 and headed home while squint went to stay with their friends Todd and Rebecca in Houston. |
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| Saturday, August 27th, 2005 |
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Trinity and I drove to Longview Saturday to catch the squint/Junior show at a club called Legend’s. Luckily we missed out on driving through all the rain that was hitting everyone else. Our friend Haley, from Denton, said that half the traffic on I20 could only go 30mph or less, and the other half had to pull off on the side of the road. Got to Longview and drove around for a good 30 minuets trying the find the hotel we were staying in. It is a good thing it took us that long, because we found out that hotels had to be switched because the one that was originally chosen by Adam and the Junior roadies (Heath and Merch) was pretty bad. Ended up at the Executive Inn & Suites down the road a little bit. For $55 a night it was pretty damn nice. We checked into our room which was a few doors down from Adam and the Roadies (hahah..that sounds almost like a bad 50s band name), and then hit the liquor store across the street. Since we discovered there was a mini fridge in our room we felt compelled to fill it with bud light and Bacardi Raspberry Rum. Hell yeah. Chilled for a little while in the room - talking and drinking some pre-club drinks. Well, Trinity, Haley and I were drinking. We then decided that it would be a good idea to eat before we got there – I distinctly remember the last time I drank a lot on an empty stomach in New Orleans..was not looking to repeat that experience. Ate at Chili’s and then drove to the club where we actually made it with about 2 minutes to spare before squint actually got on stage. I was about to have a heart attack on the way over there! Squint was awesome as usual. It had been about 5 months since I had last seen them, and almost a year since Haley and Trinity had seen them so we were all anxious. There was a little trouble with Matt’s guitar during Somebody to Talk To. The strap broke and I think it untuned itself somehow when he caught it from hitting the floor. But other than that we were really impressed with the overall sound of the club. Made squint sound especially rocking. After the show we got some more drinks and jammed out to some American Tragedy playing between sets. It was really amusing to see Trinity tearing out of the bathroom when the DJ started playing In the Wake of the Muse. Must seen that band again live…really soon! Chris (bassist) came over first and we marveled at his brand new lip piercing. Very sexy…too bad he cannot kiss anyone for 4 weeks. Then Matt (guitarist) and Dane (singer) came over and we all chilled for a little bit catching up. We could tell right away that this would be an interesting night. Everyone once and awhile you catch the band in really WEIRD moods..and I do mean weird. I could tell right away that this was one of those nights. It did not take Junior long to set up and before we knew it they were starting to play. There was already a crowd of people standing up waiting for them to go on…but there was still like a 10 foot empty space in front of the stage. It was as if people were too shy to get up close. We butted through the crowd and did our best to make that space a little less…I hope we did not piss anyone off in the process. Junior sounded amazing…so far we have seen them twice outside of College Station. Once in Austin and once here in Longview…and seeing them in different clubs just reminds me of how lacking C.S.’s music venues are. Maybe one day I will be rich enough to open a club and do things right! Half way through the 1st Junior song the squint guys came up to the front and chilled out with us. I am not sure if they were intending to try and distract us from the show, or if it was just part of that *weird* mood that they seemed to be in, but we were definitely distrac |
accomplished.
ecstatic.
exhausted.
crazy.
awake.