PLUMP in Nacogdoches on August 14

So we headed out to East Texas to play in Nacgodoches. Its about 3 hours or so from Houston. Our buddy Jaybo had asked us to come and play a private party out there for a member of his family, which was at a bar called Bullfrog's. Nice people, who seemed to like us, and we had a good time at the gig, and got free beer and food etc. We had people help us load in and load out and do sound on our PA, which we GREATLY appreciated. Very very nice. The party was for the 40th birthday for a guy who had played in a reggae band in Nacogdoches back in the early and mid 1990's, and a couple of the guys were there and wanted to play, so we played some reggae with them for a couple songs, to the delight of the family.

After the gig, we stayed out at a farmhouse with Jaybo and a couple of his friends. It was a good 30-40 minute drive to the farmhouse, which at 2 am is a VERY long drive. But they did have a big pot of beans on the cooker, and some beers, and it was way out in the middle of nowhere so all the stars were out, which was all very nice.

One by one, we passed out. I fell asleep on a reclining chair, which was quite comfortable, and really fortuitous for me, as you will soon quickly learn. I believe Josh also passed out on a chair. Bully for him. Jason, who will stay up later than anyone (drinking brown liquors) when we have to crash at someone's house found a bed. This proved to be a rolling of the dice where he came up lucky.

Al fell asleep on a bed. After falling asleep, he heard a sound that sounded a lot like the sound of someone peeing. Even more accurately, the sound was sounding in such a fashion that it sounded like the pee was hitting a mattress, and not the water in a toilet bowl. Al thought to himself, "I think someone is peeing on the mattress". This hypothesis was soon proved correct, as the "pee" changed its destination from the "mattress" to "Al's legs". One of the other dudes in the house (not Jaybo) was peeing in his sleep. On Al's bed. Al's response was the same response that any of you would respond with if confronted with a sleeping person peeing on both your (a) bed AND (b) leg. That is to yell "HEY HEY HEY". The man did not awaken. His sleep was deep.

Al chose to move his sleeping location the "wet" bed to the couch. Luckily for Al, he was not pee'd on again that night, but he did hear several more bathroom breaks by said individual--all aimed onto the bed. We left early the next day. And placed a properly placed phone call to Jaybo explaining that he will definitely want to check for a wet bed (and we also assured him the we were not to blame).

We also laughed all the way back to Houston.

SAT AUG 7 at SUGARCANE for HPMA

Today we played over at Sugarcane for the Houston Press Music Awards showcase. For the uninitiated, every year the Houston Press (weekly alternative newspaper for Houston) has has a process were first in the spring people can nominate their favorite local bands, local songs, singers, musicians, etc. etc. They have a series of categories, and the top 5 nomination vote getters are "up" for a respective award. There is a month where the greater Houston populace can vote on his/her favorite band, etc., all culminating in the Houston Press Music Awards showcase--wherein 60 of the nominated bands play at about 10 music venues (and also represents the last day of voting). 5 days later, the winners are announce. This year, PLUMP was up for Best Funk/R&B and also Jason Jackson was nominated for Best Miscellaneous Instrumentalist.

In past years, the showcase was held in the late afternoon early evening in downtown Houston, where all the venues were in walking distance. This year, the showcase was held on Washington Avenue--which over the last year has become the extremely popular strip of bars and lounges (nonebut 1-2 are music venues). The showcase was from 1-6 pm and we played at 3 pm. Not all of the venues were walking distance (basically two clusters of 5 bars that wereabout 1.5 miles apart. Though shuttle service was available) Plus, August Houston temperatures in the hottest part of the day madethe walk ridiculous. I thought logistically that it wasn't as good as holding the festival downtown--but some people in the "know" said it was WAY cheaper for the Houston Press to hold this showcase outside of downtown.

All that being said, this is a great service that the Houston Press does, in that they have a fest that celebrates Houston local music--for which there are a lot of good bands--of tons of different genres and they mix them together. Plus, the showcases are generally well attended by the locals. It rained like hell when we showed up, but it didn't last long.

We played about 40 minutes. The venue Sugarcane was pretty cool--in that it has organic liquor. Not a music venue. The sound was extremely loud in there, and for us on stage the sound was WAY worse than it was for the audience. It was hard for us to hear anything. We played Buddy Boo, Via Satellite, Pain My Masterpiece (which sounded really good). We had a very very nice crowd in there. The following day, we were mentioned in about 3 articles in the on-line version of the Houston Press--so once again it went very well.

We didn't win. We never do. Such is life.

PLUMP at LCC on FRI AUG 6

One week later, we are back at Last Concert Cafe--this one is our show. It's August. Very hot. Very Very Very hot. Humid. During the load in of our gear and PA, I am soaking wet. Such is life.

This gig we are playing with Ryan Scroggins and the Trenchtown Texans. Ryan and a couple of the other guys were former members of Los Skarnales. They play singer-songerwriter type reggae ska. Cool guys and good band. We had some PA troubles during their set, as the power blew out for about 3-4 minutes. This was very stressful for Al (as he works the sound when we run the PA for a show), but was actually pretty cool because the band kept playing--(and by band I mean the acoustic guitar and drums). They kept it going the entire time, and it really sounded neat--especially when all the eletric instruments came back on board.

We always get half-price on food and free shiner at the LCC. The band typically gets some sort of burger--the tostada burger is delicious--consisting of your normal burger plus refried beans, pico de gallo, and guacamole. The fries are the crinkle fries--I love them. Plus, their salsa is extremely fresh. Great dinner--and you have to be real careful if you are playing a show, because it is easy to overindulge on the food.

The show was good. We had a very nice crowd of people out there, and definitely had some dancers. Really a typical PLUMP show at Last Concert. I think I was almost dehydrated--between the humidity and sweating and shiner consumption. This was one of those shows where you get finished and want to cry because you are going to have to spend the next hour rolling chords and taking stuff down and carrying extremely heavy equipment to the trailer. At least the drive home isn't greater than 2 hours. But, we got it done.

Watermelon Fest at LCC on SAT JULY 31

The Watermelon Festival is always a really good time. This is one the big fundraisers for KPFT 90.1, and Last Concert Cafe is always pretty darn crowded for it. They have music from about 3 pm to 2 am. We played at 8pm. They typically have 45 minute sets for the bands, with about 10-15 changeover, the bands share a lot of the equipment (drumset) etc.

They had a different PA company--and it was the same guy that did the sound the week before over at Liberty Station. Anyway, they were remarkably on time. Usually, you play a festival type setting at a bar, and they are at least 30-45 minutes behind schedule. In this case, right on schedule.

I think this was either our 8th or 9th consecutive year playing the Festival, and it is always a treat. Pat and Sandy (KPFT DJ's) introduced us--we have played on Sandy's show on KPFT many many times. We played really well--did Via Satellite, Trifecta, and a clean version of Violent Pussy (Funk of Heaven)--the "PG version" is called Violent Kitty. And is really just about as fun to sing. This particular festival was cool because the band after us was late. Sandy came out and said "How about an encore". And the crowd cheered. We played Gimme Some More. Then Sandy came out and said. "How about an encore" and the crowd cheered. And we played Standing on the Verge of Getting it On." I didn't see the band, and was getting us ready to play another, but then Sandy said--"How about giving it up for PLUMP"--sans the encore request--and I saw the next band getting their stuff together. It was a rocking set, and we got lots of compliments. I was soaking wet--it looked like I had just jumped in the lake.

We hung around for a bit and drank some beers and watched some bands. Very nice evening.