Friday May 28 at Mango's

This was the second consecutive gig in which the journey to the gig was best by rain--more like a driving storm. Luckily, the distance from my house to Mango's, in the Montrose area of Houston is only 4 or 5 miles, as opposed to about 150 miles. I was hanging out in my driveway drinking beers with friends before leaving for the gig, and suddenly it started to rain heavily. But the sun was still out. Pretty neat vista, to tell you the truth. I was so hypnotized by this wonder of nature that I was quickly convinced, by my brain waves, that it was a quick passing rain, and I should wait it out. Twenty minutes later is was raining even harder, and my party dashed to the car 5 feet away, got soaked, and started driving. Luckily, by the time I got to Mango's (where the rest of the band was waiting) the rain had pretty much stopped, so we didn't have to load in in the rain.

This was our first ever gig at Mango's in Houston, TX. The venue is located right next door to Avant Garden, previously known as the mauseleum, and another name that I can't seem to remember. The venue is part of Omar Afra (publisher of the Free Press Houston and festival putter--oner of such events as Houston's Summerfest and numerous Westheimer Block Parties) vast holdings. Cool venue. Very nice guy.

This was a gig we had originally hoped to play with just Ryan Scroggins and the Trenchtown Texans, a really great band from Hosuton that is on the roots-reggae type of tip. That had since been expanded to 5 bands. We were slatted, the other 3 from out of town. By day of show, we were slated to play from 9 to 9:45 pm, which was earlier and shorter than we are accustomed. Typically, when a band is relegated to the 9 pm slot, you pretty much figure you are playing for the bartenders and whichever band members from other bands are at the venue. Luckily, we had some people come out early and the other bands did as well. For 9 pm, there was definitely a mighty nice crowd. We played a 45 minute set, and according to Jody we played the first couple songs (Via Satellite and Alright) way too fast. Such is life. Still sounded good, and we played for some people who had never seen us before, and we played quite well (and apparently at lightning speed).