Blaine's Pub and The Curing Cancer Dance

The band is jumping on the road this weekend for two shows. The first will be Friday at Blaine's Pub in San Angelo. I don't think we're having a band open up for us, so that means we'll be playing three good hours of music. I have always enjoyed our trips to Blaine's. My only complaint about the venue is how tiny the stage is. Ronnie our bass player has to stand behind me to fit all five of us on the thing. Aside from that, San Angelo State University will be finishing up their finals and hopefully the students will stick around to get rowdy with us. After the show we'll sneak into our favorite motel and maybe this time, just this once, I won't have a crazy lady attack me from the shadows for a beer or meet the motel "security patrol" (dead serious) pacing the halls with his flashlight keeping an eye on us "band types". These are the things that make playing on the road so fun.


A view from the Blaine's stage. Little bit tight for a five piece but always a blast.


Once we wake up, it is off to Ballinger, Texas and the 1'st Annual Curing Cancer Dance. It will be at the Bruce Field Airport of course in Ballinger, and hopefully on one of those big roomy metal stages. The gates open at three and we will be playing on stage around sundown somewhere in the center of the line up. The show goes on until midnight with Zach Edwards headlining the whole event. I like playing the music fest style shows because it gives us a chance to meet with other musicians that may not regularly play in our area. Another great thing about such long line ups in shows like these, is that the crowd that's there when you're on stage is probably in the mood to listen to your music. Shorter line ups usually equate to a late coming crowd getting to the venue just in time to hear whomever is headlining. This show is set up as an all day party so more people will come early to set up camp and check out the bands in the meanwhile. We are playing the show for charity and the proceeds from the event will be going to the American Cancer Society. My girlfriend and I finally replaced our point and shoot digital camera that broke. Hopefully, the follow up post to this weekend will include some great pictures.

Saturday in San Angelo at Blaine's Pub

Tomorrow we're jumping in the bus and heading to San Angelo to play at Blaine's Pub. We have played at Blaine's maybe three times and it has been a blast every time. The bar layout reminds me of sixth street in Austin. It is a very long narrow bar with a tiny stage. The stage is raised about five feet off the bar floor and pretty cramped. Ronnie, our bass player has to stand right behind me for all of us to fit. It sounds like no fun, but actually it has always made a fun show. We stay much more in sync since we're on top of one another and have always ended up having a ton of fun.

There won't be an opener for us this time around which means we get to have a three hour set instead of two hours. Good and bad. The bad side, my mouth is going to get out of shape somewhere around our break. I play harp with both the lip blocking and tongue blocking techniques. After an hour or two of bends, trills, and plain old playing my mouth gets pretty weak. It feels kind of like when you've laughed too much and your cheeks get sore. When this happens it makes it harder to hone in on single clear notes in a fast paced solo or a good punch note. It gets easier the more you practice and the more you build up your facial muscles for that kind of weird strain. Thankfully we have a break in the set and I think I will survive. The good side of playing a three hour set is that we will probably play every song past and present that I have ever sat in on with the band as well as random covers and fun blues jams. It'll be a bit more off the cuff than the regular cut and dry set list and that gets me pretty excited for tomorrow night.

In other news Cody is heading down to New Braunfels next weekend to play at the first annual friends for friends benefit Saturday March, 28'th at the Mountain Breeze campgrounds. There is going to be a line up of great singer songwriters playing from five to midnight. Cody and Shad Blair are the last to go on in the evening. If you happen to be around the river on the 28'th make sure to drop by.