graffiti, etc. day 16

Austin band Bottle Service decorated the 51st Street I-35 overpass. 

Day 11 of my 30 days of public art series finally brings me home to Austin, Texas. This is at the corner of MLK and Chicon. Esperanza en media del caos or hope in the midst of chaos. Today.

I’m so excited to play tomorrow night at the Hole in the Wall in Austin. I haven’t played there in years and years since my old band The Shindigs called it quits in the back room on a whisky drenched night over a decade ago. It was a crazy fun show. Shots kept appearing mysteriously on the stage and we kept drinking them. We started off kinda tense, almost fighting (well, 2 of us) until our guitarist Geoff and I collided and I crash landed head first into a pitcher of beer. It knocked me out for a few seconds and there was a moment of complete silence after the band stopped playing and the whole room was just watching me, but when everyone realized I was okay, everything completely unraveled. All the tension was gone. I ended up soaked from head to toe and with a fantastic bruise and I suspect, a cracked rib. I didn’t go to the doctor, but I swear, it hurt for a year. I refused to play until someone gave me something to mop up the huge pool of beer on the stage. I didn’t want to fall again. Someone in the audience kept calling out “moist towelette to the stage, moist towelette to the stage.” I don’t know why they choice those words or why they annunciated it they way they did - absurdly particular and staccato. All these years later I still laugh when I think about that voice. By the end of the set our bassist Chepo had stripped down into his underwear. For some reason he had a helium balloon which he sucked the helium out of and repeatedly screamed something about Elian Gonzalez.  Our friend Greg Beets joined us for an encore and we did a horrible version of “Paradise be the Dashboard Lights.” Really, it was so supposed to be like that. At the end of the set Chepo was so inspired he lifted his bass cabinet over his head and knocked a big hole in the ceiling! It rained pieces of ceiling tile - I still have one somewhere.  It was a pretty fucking legendary night and witnessed by less than 100 people.  Good times. 

Unfortunately, tomorrow night won’t be so eventful. But the other bands are great and I haven’t played in a few months and am ready to rock! It will at least be really really good. 

This happened last Thursday night - without me, unfortunately.  My drummer hurt his back baaaad.  Shit happens.  Still, I made this beautiful piece of art.  It’s Kim Fowley, aka the Satan of Silverlake.  I’m quitting my day job and becoming a poster artist!

From Sunday’s show at Beerland.  I love this poster.  I took the picture in Amsterdam - it’s a bar call The Queen’s Head.  Alone Together is Beerland’s monthly showcase of solo performances - so, DUDES from rock bands playing songs alone.  If I had better (any) photoshop skills, I would have inserted a barbie to represent moi!  Was a really fun night with the boys.  

The Girls Rock Austin showcase is Saturday at 1PM at the Highball.  It’s been an amazing week — I’m soooo stoked for this!

(click the poster for details)

Saw the Panther (now the ENEMY) band bus this morning.  Yesterday they turned a friend’s vegan trailer into a taco truck and shot an evening scene there.  I looooove that Friday Night Lights shoots in my ‘hood, and I’m so happy it starts up again tonight - even though I’ve already watched most of the season online, you betcha I’ll be watching again!  Best show on TV, maybe ever.