We now resume our regularly scheduled blog...

I finally have some time to post updates... a lot has happened in the last ten days! Let's start with:

The Humiliators Inaugural Road Show and Booze Cruise

Last Friday (the 25th of May) The Humiliators had our first road gig; we went to San Antonio to play at Jiggers, where they serve a heaping plate of punk and beer comes in "half-pitchers" for your drinking convenience. Everyone met at Todd's house and we loaded in the 15-passenger rental van for the trip down - except for Collin & Tierney, who drove down in the PT Cruiser. Our photographer (and budding movie mogul) Mark and Jaime from SuperCrash came out to support the band - those guys rock! Once the rear seat was removed, all our gear fit in the back of the van, leaving room for eleven:

- Driver:"Captain Dave" - Dave graciously volunteered for the Designated Driver position so that we could all focus on getting sloshed - thanks, Dave!
- Copilot: Todd - Todd busted his ass getting this gig and the rental van squared away, making sure that Godzilla 2.0 was ready, plus making sure that the cooler was full of beer for the trip - dude, you rock!
- First class: Michelle / Linde / Jeff
- Business class: John / Jenene / Teresa
- Coach: Jaime / Kay / Mark

A cooler was installed between the front seats and filled with brews, and once we were all aboard we hit the road. We had a good trip down, and a pretty good dent was put in the beer supply :) We arrived at the bar around 9p and were met by Collin, Tierney and Chris. Then, we found out that instead of going onstage at 11p as we had originally heard and planned for, we were scheduled for 1am! So, with a few hours to kill, we loaded up and went to Cha Cha's for some chow; good stuff, Maynerd!

After chow we went back to the bar and checked out the 2 bands preceding us - and discovered that Ben from The Whoremoans and his brother were there to support the band - awesome! Street Light Suzie was first, followed by... hmm, *knew I shoulda done this before I slept... Anyway, the cool thing was that the drummer did 2 sets in a row; if that doesn't seem too bad, you haven't seen this guy play! Think "hyperactve 9-year old hopped up on too many Pixie Stix" and you'll have a vague idea of this guy's energy level... I probably would have had a stroke or something :)

We had a pretty good set, and no beer bottles (or worse) were thrown, so we considered the trip a success - plus we got paid, which helped with the van rental. For a viewpoint from the fan's perspective, check out Michelle's blog and Kay's blog. By the time we got our pay and hit the road, it was 2.30a and we were all kinda dragging... but that didn't keep folks from hitting the brew on the way back :) By the time I made it back to the house it was 5a and I quickly stowed gear and racked out, because at 9p that night (Saturday) we had to be back on South Congress for:

Freebird FU! at Trophy's

When an event is organized by a guy called Grub Dog, you know it's gonna be interesting! The premise for the show: how many times have you been at a show, and some genius thinks it's cool to yell "FREEBIRD!!!", knowing full well that that particular song has been run smooth into the dirt... but some folks apparantly just can't get enough Skynrd. Anyone who's been playing music for very long, especially in the South, has had this happen; so, for all the Freebird fanatics, The Freebird FU! was put together. The rules were simple - each band had a 30 minute set, everyone used the same backline (amps, drums, etc) and only 5 minutes between bands. Each band could play anything they wanted, but one of the songs *had* to be Freebird, in its entirety; however, you could add your own creative touches if you wanted. There were six bands that night, so you had SIX chances to hear Freebird... enough to satisfy even the most die-hard fan (we hoped).

The Humiliators kicked off the evening's festivities, fueled by our passion for Rock, and the community bottle of Jack Daniels that Grub Dog brought... our version of Freebird was probably the most standard, musically, but the lyrics... Todd and Collin collaborated to produce entirely new lyrics, and the new work was titled "FreeTurd"... just use your imagination (heh). It was a hit with the crowd, and we left the stage for the next band. There were as many different takes on Freebird as there were bands, and as the Jack Daniels flowed, the more things got lively... until, at last, it was time to close the bar and send everyone home... not much more to report, mostly due to too much Jack Daniels; if you need to know more, you can try cornering a band member and asking, but I won't promise anyone remembers anything :)

The Trail Gods are Unhappy

Sunday came way too early... but I did not want to miss a week of biking, so Chris and I headed out to Georgetown Lake to ride a trail that Chris had the info on... except, when we got there, the trail was super muddy... so we decided to save the trail and not ride there. The short distance we'd gone totally caked our bikes in thick clay mud - I'm not sure why the trail was even open, it was that bad. We stopped by a car wash to remove the mud, and then went to ride the concrete trails along the river in Georgetown... then Chris's shifter lever broke, and we decided then and there that there would be no riding that day; instead we picked up some beer and spent the rest of the evening drinking and chilling. Some days you just can't win.

Trophy's, Part II

Thursday found The Humiliators back at Trophys, ready to rock the house... where we discovered that we were the *only* band scheduled that night... so we played a 90 minute set of almost every song we have ever done - "Sabado" even made an appearance, by request from Michelle and Kay; the only songs we left out were some covers that we dropped out of the set a while back. It was a great time; we could take our time, play around with the set list a bit, and knock back lots and lots of Lone Star... Crazy Al even made it to the show! It was an awesome night - the only regret was that I had to go to work on Friday morning (ugh). Somehow I managed to drag myself to work though, and that Friday was, I believe, the *longest* Friday ever... but well worth it, for sure :)

Weekend Update

This weekend was busy - I picked up a couch / loveseat for the house early Saturday morning; then I did the yardwork that had been postponed by rain for almost two weeks. Then, Chris and I went to pick up supplies for our next homebrew; I am going to brew a Northern Brown Ale, and Chris has a recipe for Alaskan Amber. There were some folks handing out free homebrew outside the store, in honor of Austin Homebrew Supply's 16th anniversary, and there was a band cranking out the rock; after a couple of brews, we headed off in search of some chow. On the way, we drove by Music City Cycles and decided to stop in, since we had never been there before. The owner, David "Tequila Dave" Hartley, is a really cool guy and you can see the passion he has for bicycles - we spent almost an hour there, and if you have any biking needs in North Austin, definitely give David a visit - support your local bike shops!

Once we left, we grabbed some chow and headed home to brew... unfortunately, we were both tired - Chris from traveling all day, and I was still recuperating from Friday - so we decided to brew next weekend instead, and rest up for the Sunday edition of our weekly bike ride.

Any Given Sunday

This morning, Chris came by shortly after 9am and we set out for Downtown Austin; our goal was to ride the Town Lake trailsystem, and this weekend Todd would be joining us. Once we got to our parking spot and located Todd, we hit the trail. I was testing out a new bike - readers of previous entries will understand when I say that my old bike and I had what could be considered an "adversarial" relationship. Chris had gotten a new bike, a Kona Blast, and was letting me evaluate his K2 Zed 2.0 to see if it fit; we had consulted with David the day before, and he felt like the bike should fit, based on my measurements and the size of the bike. Once I got used to the front shocks and the click shift triggers, I noticed that I was riding faster and harder than I was ever able to on my old "Titanium Boron Steel" bike - I was climbing hills that I had had to walk before, I was able to maintain a faster pace, and the only reason I needed to stop occasionally was that the seat was gradually turning my butt into the most unhappy part of my anatomy... I think that seat was designed by Torquemada himself! We rode approximately 15 miles according to Todd - he runs that route, so he should know. :) It was a great ride, and we got back to the Jeep in plenty of time to hit Dairy Queen on the way back... then Chris dropped me at my place, I cleaned up and hit the road for band rehearsal - our next gig is Saturday, 9 Jun at 11p at The Troubador Saloon on Sixth Street - Saturday night on Sixth Street, what a deal! We are working on nailing some new tunes down, so if you wanna see what we've been working on, come out to Troubador's!

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That's all the updates I have for now; more will be posted as it occurs - and I'll be updating this entry as details become more clear :)

Don't get your knickers in a twist...

Due to the amazing amount of stuff that happened over the Memorial Day weekend, and the need to recuperate from said stuff, this week's blog will be a bit behind schedule... not that I ever had a schedule... anyway, you'll see it when I post it... watch this space for more news as it happens!