Runnin' on ROT Rally fumes

We had a huge weekend this past weekend - so huge that it's taken me a couple of days to recuperate enough to write about it. I could've tried yesterday, but it would've been incoherent, and I hate to waste server space on rambling nonsense. I leave that to Kanye West. ("OH! Whaaaat? She did not just dis another artist!" Uh, have you heard what comes out of that man's mouth?)

We had ourselves what I like to call a bit of a Rock n' Roll Marathon this weekend. We worked almost non-stop from 5:30pm on Friday until 1 a.m on Sunday. I think there was a five-hour catnap in there Saturday morning, but that was about it. Luckily, I had taken Friday off from my office job, so I had a chance to rest up before we began this little gauntlet. But here's the rundown:


Friday night we played our first show at Pier 27 in Kerrville, TX. That's about two hours away from Austin, but you get to drive through some really pretty Hill Country scenery, so the first leg of our marathon was basically a nice little country drive. Nice!

Pier 27 had a nice stage, and it was indoors, which I appreciate more than I can say in the summer months (And I guess the winter months, too. So I guess I'm saying I'm okay with playing outdoors in April and November. I'll play outside the other 10 months of the year, but I may complain, at least silently in my mind. Or out loud.). We played 9pm-midnight for a small, but appreciative group. We were surprised it wasn't busier on a Friday night, but they explained that the place had been packed as long as the San Antonio Spurs were still in the NBA playoffs, but now that the Spurs were out, the crowd had thinned.

On the one hand, it would've been nice to have a big crowd. On the other hand, I'm glad we didn't have to compete with the Spurs for attention. So, that was okay. And when we finished at midnight, they actually negotiated more money to have us keep playing for another half hour, so clearly they were happy with us. We expect to book some more gigs out there, so here's to ya, Pier 27!

We drove the two hours home, and I hit the rack about 3 a.m. I was back up at 8 a.m. for food and to get my bearings before we took off again for the Republic of Texas (ROT) Biker Rally at the Travis County Expo Center. ROT has a main stage for big acts (Ted Nugent was the headliner this year), and they also had a "Cowboy Bar Stage" for local acts this year. We not only had a slot to play on the Cowboy Bar Stage, but we ran sound for all the bands that played that stage all day. So, that meant that we had to be there about 10:30 a.m.,  and Johnny and Papa K had to stay until the last band was done, around 7pm. Here are some shots from our day at ROT:

Johnny and Papa K runnin' sound.

Dancers. It looks like they're running, but they were dancing - run-dancing in a circle.

I look like I'm warning the bikers with my eyes. I wasn't, though. I was just hot.

I'm not a biker chick, so this was my first time at ROT, and I'll just say this: you see some stuff when thousands of bikers converge in a single location. Some people wear things they shouldn't.

 

Not cool one-upping my outfit with a cowboy hat, mister.

Why can't you just let me be the rock star?

Some people grow facial hair that demands explanation. And someone needs to find a way to make ear plugs cool. (If you're an inventor, you can have that idea. Go! Make it happen.) And there was this:

It's possible that Joe was not the target market for the Boob O Meter.

Joe and I were fortunate, because we could leave as soon as the Staylyns set was over and try to get some rest before heading to Gig #3 of the weekend at Little Woodrow's in Bee Cave. Joe was less fortunate than I was, though, because on the way home, he got a speeding ticket in what was clearly a speed trap. I think the cop considered searching our vehicle for some sort of contraband, too, when he found out we were with a band, leaving the ROT Rally, but it was really hot at that point in the day, so he just gave Joe the ticket and retreated to his air-conditioned cruiser.

A few hours later, Joe and I headed west to Bee Cave to set up for our final (and longest) show of the weekend. When Johnny and Papa K showed up, Johnny was runnin' on fumes. I think he rewrote a few of the songs in that show out of pure delirium, but it was okay, because the crowd seemed mostly drunk and didn't notice. They weren't too drunk, though, for a couple of guys to pull me aside during a break and give me a bunch of advice on what kinds of songs I should be singing and to let me know they weren't going to buy our CD, but they'd seen us before and we were good. Um...thank you?

I spent Sunday in a coma on the couch, while Johnny went paddleboarding. Because apparently he's a robot. It was an exhausting weekend, but it really was fun. Next weekend will feel like a breeze with only one show.