San Marcos on FRI APR 23

So we headed back up to San Marcos to play over at the Triplecrown. Really cool bar. We played with our pals in Funkotron, who bring out the peeps in that town.San Marcos is about 2.5 hours away from Houston. Due to work related constraints, we typically can't get out of Houston until 6:45ish on Friday nights, so we are always on the cusp of being very late. As such, we had to forego stopping at Buc-cee's on the way there--to the noted displeasure of almost all parties in the car.

Triplecrown has a number of cool facets--we can pull right up to the back door and load-in, which happens to open right into the stage area. From trailer to stage is about 30 feet. Not too shabby. The venue also has the ring on a string game in the back, in which a hook is attached to a wall, and string is hanging from the ceiling, and you stand 15 feet from the hook and try to make it work. First straught on, then maybe on 2-3 passes. Always a fun game and good way to pass an hour or too.

The only thing PLUMP hasn't been able to get straight is the stage volume and proper band alignment. It seems like on or more of us always has trouble hearing the others. This time Al couldn't hear me (Doug), which made it a tougher show. One of these days we will get it figured out. This show marked the debut of Josh using 2 Mesa amps. Be prepared to have your lower regions vibrate in the wake of his bass assault.

The show was pretty good. As per usual, the Sixer has been the funnest song (for me) and has been getting a good response. Funktoron rocked. We made it to Buc-cees. I had one sausage/jelpeno/cheese kolache and one cherry kolache. Buc-cees at 3 am. Can't beat it.

Friday April 9 at Revolution in Bryan

The weather was extremely cooperative on this night. Very nice evening to play music outside at Revolution. We have been playing here for years and years it seems. Revolution is a place where it is nice to play inside if the weather is poor (because the roo is really really small, so if you play inside it is usually off the hook full of people) and very nice outside. April is good for outdoor playing because it is not really really hot. We made the drive very easy.

Delfeo was playing with us again, and they did a good job and worked the phones to get out the people, and apparently had their choice of 3-4 different 3 am afterparties for after the gig. Very nice.We played some songs and got some people up and dancing. Someone requested the Sixer, which is our newest song. They requested the crazy lone star beer drinking song. Perfect. I think that one came off really well. We played Earache my eye- chance- Buddy Boo, which is always a favorite. The earache my eye typically makes people laugh. and cry. and then laugh again.

The hour and a half drive back wasn't too bad. We neglected to stop for coffee at our normal place. We were cranking the soundtrack to Jesus Christ Superstar, and just forgot to stop.

Saturday April 3 at Reggae Bar in San Antonio

The night before Easter we headed back over to San Antonio to play at the Reggae Bar. We had played there one time before, and as with before we were playing with Delfeo, which is a group of really nice guys that play improvisational jam music. The Reggae Bar is a total hole-in-the-wall, but a really cool place. Weather permitting, they have music out back on the patio. Very nice.

We had a small but overly enthusiastic crowd, which is always very nice. The whole crowd was screaming after every song. There was one chap there that was absolutely and totally shit faced. He was border-line out of control trying to get on the stage and screaming in our faces. To his credit, he had seemingly polished off a bottle of whiskey--solo. But, he was becoming increasingly bothersome to the band, and to me. One time he was poking Al in the chest while he was doing a solo. Finally, during one of our last songs, he was about 2 inches from Al, simulating masterbation and swinging his bottle over Al's effects box. The guy looked just a little too out of control for me. I stopped mid-song and yelled at him to back the fuck up. I think Jody thought the crowd would turn on us, but they turned on the guy, and eventually he calmed down and shut up. We had never really stopped in a song to yell at someone in the crowd, so I guess there is always a first time. Then we played a couple songs and were done. I was kind of fired up with adrenaline after the scene, but that poor chap was carried out semi-conscious about 10 minutes later.

The guys in Delfeo have a sweet pad in what is seemingly the outskirts of San Antonio. We crashed there for a few hours, watched as Jason drank a bunch of very cheap scotch, and then headed back to Houston early Sunday morning. Jason looked worse for wear. We did take the tie to stop at the Buc-cee's on I-10. Ah, Buc-cees. We love you.

3-26-2010 at Last Concert Cafe

It's always good to have a spring/summer show at Last Concert Cafe. This one was a bit more stressful/required a bit more logistics planning because we were in the midst of performing in the Faultlines production. This gig involved the following:

-Doug bring's trailer to the Brewery Tap (bar where the play is performed): 6 pm
-Trailer is switched from Doug's car to Jody's van: 6:05 pm
-Plump plays opening set before the play: 7-8 pm
-Jody takes the trailer to Last Concert cafe (thankfully only 1 mile away): 8 pm
-Jody starts setting up PA-PLUMP performs with the play: 8-9:30 pm
-PLUMP loads up monitors from the play: 9:35 pm
-Doug shuttles monitors over to Last Concert Cafe after the play: 9:40 pm
-PLUMP sets up rest of PA: 9:45-10:15 pm
-Ashes of Babylon plays: 10:20 - 11:40 pm
-PLUMP plays: 12:00 am to 2 am
Busy night

Ashes of Bablyon brought out some people in Houston, and I think it was their first time playing in town. Those guys are really good and are some cool cats indeed. We like playing with them. We had a lot of the Horsehead crowd in the house, and we partied down. Good night all the way around.

Fault Lines Journal Part VII

For Parts I-VI, please scroll to entries below

The last weekend of the Fault Lines production was March 25-27, 2010. At this point, the actors and band were like a well-oiled machine. We still had some sound and mic problems here and there, but overall we felt we could do no wrong.

At the Friday night show, there was a lady in attendance who loved the band. Just loved us. After every song she was screaming and yelling above everyone else, and she was cajoling the crowd to yell louder, etc. We loved her. This lady was also drunk. Very drunk. In hindsight, I am quite surprised she made it through the band performance and play without passing out. I know she didn’t pass out because she was laughing and commenting during the play roughly every 45-50 seconds. Literally. She loved that play more than anyone has ever loved a play in the history of time. She liked making comments, and laughing, and making comments while laughing. She even pulled off the laughing comment. I called it a “laughment”. One of her best comments, which really sticks out in my mind, was the following:

Joe – I am going to advise her parents to file a civil suit against you.

Loud Lady – “Good luck with that!” (at full volume)

She got a laugh from me.

They weren’t all happy days that weekend. The hot dog cart got busted by the po-po. Damnation. They didn’t have a street vendor permit (and something tells me they didn’t regularly change out their grease). We were waiting and waiting and waiting for the cart on the last night (Saturday), but the cart never came. According to Horsehead, the cart people never planned on obtaining a street vendor permit, and that the cart people were effectively “rolling the dice” every night. For 7 magic nights, they kept the dream alive. Apparently, on Friday March 26th, they ‘crapped out”. We mourned the lack of bacon-wrapped hot dogs on the last Saturday night.

After the Friday night show, PLUMP had seen fit to book themselves at Last Concert Café. It was a nice night to hang outside. Lots of Horsehead people in the house, and we got to play a hell of a lot louder than we had been in the bar. We rocked.

The final show was uneventful. It was sold out, which was nice, and everyone dug the play and the band. Good way to end the run. Cast party was at my house. My lady had some sort of huge bottle of Sweet Tea Vodka that she had been looking forward to all day, and I managed to break that bottle in the first 5 minutes of the party. Lots of people at the house, many of whom I had never seen before. Somebody brought over some “snake venom sake” from somewhere in the Orient. I tried it. Not impressed. Such is life. There was Caballo beer (in honor of Horsehead). OK, but it was no Lone Star, which is what I stuck with. It was a right nice party.

All in all, PLUMP was unanimous in thinking it was a very positive experience being part of the play. We got on with Horsehead Theatre Company real well, and I hope we get asked to do music in future shows. Thanks for reading.

2010 Houston Press Music Award Nominations

Spring is here in Houston, which can only mean that the time has come for the 2010 Houston Press Music Award process. Now is the time to submit the nominations for the Music Awards. Please got the following link and vote:

http://polls.houstonpress.com/polls/hou/musicawards2010/

This is the nomination process, and come July the Houston Press will announce the nominees, and this process will culminate in the Houston Press Music Awards showcase.

We heartily recommend that you vote for PLUMP for the following categories:

Best Rock: PLUMP
Best Funk/R&B: PLUMP
Best World Music: PLUMP
Best Guitarist: AL BEAR (PLUMP)
Best Bassist: JOSH MATRANGA (PLUMP)
Best Vocalist: JODY MCCORMICK (PLUMP)
Best Miscellaneous Instrumentalist: JASON JACKSON (PLUMP)
Best Drummer: DOUG PAYNE (PLUMP)

Thanks a lot.