06.24.10 You need to check this out, Federation Freaks: There's a nice feature on Gregg in today's Kansas City Star Preview section. The profile devotes a lot of time to his day gig, but also features a fair amount of band biz, such as this description of playing at The Brick:
"I had a bad habit of jumping up on the bar and playing," Todt says. "The stage, crammed between the entrance and the bar, makes an easy stepping-stone. Getting up there is fine. Getting off … not as easy.”
Go read!
This just in—it seems our protagonist may have a familiar precursor and doppelganger in the annals of English art rock:
06.23.10 In case you missed it (and we know you did), this past Saturday we made the trek to beautiful Chillicothe, MO to play the Freedom of Road Riders annual event. Actually, it was eight miles or so west of Chillicothe, so we can't really confirm that particular city's beauty. The site for the show was a muddy goddamn mess owing to a storm which blew through in early afternoon.
Check this timeline: load-in - 4 pm, show time - 9:45 pm. That sure is a lot of hours to fill outside next to a large metal shed. So we had some barbecue (I wish I were making this up: As we walked down the midway, so to speak, a local observed, "Oh, you guys got some of the 'black guy barbecue,' huh?" Yes, yes, I suppose we did.) and were introduced to a local magic potion called "Crick Water." This beverage was distributed from a small gasoline can directly into the mouth of the drinker. It apparently contained several clear liquors and some limeade mix. Not bad.
Of course, after several trips to that well, and some enjoyable conversation with Nigel Dupree and his gang, the time elapsed farily quickly. We played a serviceable set (how's that for an endoresement?) and made our way back to KC as another wave of storms approached from the west. Apparently it was quite the white knuckle ride home, but your narrator was dutifully passed out in the back seat of the van and can add nothing.
By the way, if you were looking for us at Low Life Choppers on June 12, that show was cancelled ... due to storms.
06.10.10 Have you ever noticed that we have a thing for playing shows on the most blazingly hot or most frigidly cold days of the year? No? You were too sauced to interpret temperatures? Oh well. This past Saturday at Worth Harley Davidson's event, "Worthstock," represented the former, a group-1000-people-on-107-degree-asphalt type of situation that left us (and many others) near exhaustion. Shades of the 2008 Judas Priest show, we took the stage at an hour of maximum sunlight and blasted through a relentless set, closing things down with "Kick Out the Jams" as is often our wont. Then we nearly fell down.
Later, before Jackyl hit the stage, the crowd was treated (?) to one of the most confounding things recently contemplated: a new rock group called Brother Clyde fronted by Billy Ray Cyrus. Yes, that Billy Ray Cyrus. (No, Miley was not present.) (Like we would fucking recognize her.)
Not really sure what else to say about that.
Special message for the blacktop. Photo: Ryan Marchman.
Click here to go to the News Archive. C'mon.
