I'm not a douche

To the guy who came up to me at the end of our show in Kemah this weekend, took a sticker and said, "You guys sounded good":

What I thought you said was, "Were you guys any good?" as if you had just gotten there, were waiting for the next band, and were asking one of those questions that people sometime ask us just to see if they can throw us off-kilter and make us look stupid. People do that. I'm not sure why - maybe it's so they can show their friends or their girlfriend how, even though they're not on stage, they're cooler/smarter/more clever than we are. But for whatever reason, people do that. And you learn to have quick answers at the ready.

So, when I answered you by saying, "Of course! We were amazing!" I promise I wasn't being an arrogant asshole. I was just trying to have a good-natured response to what I thought was someone being a jerk.

Honest.

It was only after you'd walked away that I realized what you'd actually said and how my response must have sounded.

I looked for you the whole time we loaded out, so I could explain, but didn't see you again. (sigh)

On the upside, Johnny found my response hilarious when I told him about it later. He's very sensitive.

Head west, young man!

This past Saturday, The Staylyns' loaded up the van and headed west for our first trip to San Angelo, Texas - hopefully of many! We had a beautiful drive, but before I get to that, let me tell you about the gig.

We played a bar called The Office:

This little hottie greets you at the door. I have no idea why the bar's mascot is a sheep. Are they saying all office workers are sheep? That seems insulting. And slutty sheep? I don't know - I think more explanation should be given.

Aren't musicians supposed to sleep late?

Johnny often says that one of the reasons he became a musician was so that he wouldn't have to get up early. So, it figures that in the past eight days, he has had to get up before dawn five times - all for music!

He can't really complain, though, because along with these early mornings has come thousands of spectators, newspaper coverage, television coverage, and even a few private plane rides. Rock star stuff!

Here's what he's been up to:

Running - what's up with that?

We survived! At least for this weekend.

Epic April has begun, and so far, so good. We had a really great show at Junior's in Round Rock on Friday night, followed by a music e-bike tour on Saturday afternoon, capped off with playing the Cap 10k Sunday morning. Then I took a nap.

The Cap 10 is always a fun event for us. Getting up before dawn is somewhat insane (I will never understand people who do that so they can go RUN - and they're even not being chased or paid!), but there's such positive energy from the runners, and it's fun to see the costumes, though I'll admit there are fewer of those every year. Makes me kinda sad.

We did get a little love from the media this year. We made the photo roll for the Austin American-Statesman:

The calm before the storm

It's been pretty quiet the last couple of weeks for The Staylyns. We needed a breather since our marathon Spring Break/St. Patrick's Day weekend. We had three great shows that weekend and covered a lot of miles. But we're going to have to put on our rock n' roll stretch pants, because that weekend was just an appetizer for the giant show buffet that's going to be April.

We're probably going to fight over which
one of us gets to wear these on stage at some point.

Handmade, bandmade

Have you ever bought a shirt at a concert, and later when you put it on, you thought, "This shirt is just another machine-made, carbon-copy garment, cranked out by some t-shirt company in between orders for softball team jerseys and church-logo polo shirts. Does the band even know what's being sold in their name? I'm not sure I can even wear this."

I know. It's like I'm in your head.

Well, rest assured, when you buy a Staylyns t-shirt, you are getting a handmade, bandmade work of art, crafted by your favorite rockers with their very own hands. That's right - we make every t-shirt we sell!

Why am I telling you this? Because we are about to embark on a whirlwind weekend of 3 shows in 3 cities in 4 days (Pleasure Pier in Galveston, Thursday, 3/14, 6-10pm; Kemah Boardwalk, Friday, 3/15, 1-5pm; and Pluckers in Round Rock, Sunday, 3/17, 4-6pm), and Johnny and Joey prepared for this little tour by restocking our inventory of shirts. Here's how it's done:

Caaaaaarefully set the screen juuuuuuust so on a white tee.

Frat party

If you are a musician, you read the title to this post, and you involuntarily made a sour face. I'm making one right now just typing about it. Go ahead - ask any band you know.

See that look they just made? That's it. That's the face. They can't help it. They're being flooded with memories of mayhem and vomit.

If you're 19, mayhem and vomit may sound fun. But when you're trying to work in the midst of it, and you've got thousands of dollars worth of equipment in the direct line of fire of it, it's way less fun.

That's how Johnny and I spent this past Saturday - trying to protect our beloved sound system from the drunken destruction of a frat party.