Uncle Charlie was having a showing of his poster art at Sig’s Lagoon on Saturday so I stopped in on my way to check out The Light Rock Express at The Big Top.
The evening was a trip down musical memory lane as I found myself in an interesting conversation about the early Houston alternative music scene with Alian Hernandez (The Suspects), Jeff Walton (The Judy’s) and of course Mr. Lagoon himself, Tomas Escalante (The Suspects, Clouseaux).
Alian Hernandez, Jeff Walton and Tomas Escalante
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I got to relate to Jeff the story of the time I was living on W. Pierce in the Montrose when I found myself being awakened by knock on the door of my duplex. I opened the door to find David Bean on my porch. Apparently he wanted to know if I owned the two doberman pincers he’d seen at my place. He was looking for dogs to use in his music video called “Dogs.” I explained that the dogs belonged to my neighbor.
In my conversation with Jeff Walton he did confide that there’s been an ongoing discussion with LiveNation about putting together a show at Warehouse Live or The Meridian so there’s hope we’ll all have the chance to see The Judy’s on stage one more time.
The second annual Disco Expressions Prom Night at the Continenal Club was a huge success.
Sam and crew from Wear It Again Sam had setup shop in front of the club so that patrons could purchase vinatage 70’s style clothing since the show was billed as “Prom Attire Required.”
A lot of people showed up in costume and many more availed themselves of the makeshift clothing store out front. Everybody (with the exception of a handful of obnoxious party-goers hogging the front of the stage and being generally unpleasant) seemed to be in the spirit of things and were genuinly friendly and festive and had no problem getting into the spirit of things.
Back in the early 90’s I was living with my good friends John Williams and Jay Fleming in what we affectionately called The Triple “J” Ranch, a house in the Heights on Arlington Street.
Right before the 1992 Republican National Convention John and Jay concocted this idea of going to a warehouse/coffee shop known as Downtown Grounds for poetry night and presenting Jay Fleming as Jay Fontaine - Industrial Poet with John paying the part of his manager from New York.
What ensued was pure performance art genius. The regulars for poetry night ate Jay’s performance up with a spoon, not realizing they were being “had” and believing they were witnessing some kind of outsider poetry/art.
Now, years later, I find the performance on Youtube and people are comparing Jay to a cross between Slingblade and John Candy. That just about sums it up. See for yourself.
Credited in the documentary Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey as the first heavy metal band, Blue Cheer’s hit version of the song “Summertime Blues” pre-dates Black Sabath’s arrival by 2 years.
To say these guys were loud would be an understatement. I haven’t been subjected to that kind of Marshall abuse since seeing Kiss at the Sam Houston Coliseum in 1977.
I went in close to get some pictures and was forced to the back of the club and eventually out the door. It was not totally unpleasant. The sound was very clean and simply permeated everything and everyone. It was pure, driving and heavy and amazing to see in the close quarters of the Continental Club.
The building was literally pulsing to the beat of the thundering drum and driving bass. I thought the plate glass windows on the side of the club were going to vibrate out of place and shatter on the sidewalk.
I was amused to watch the crowd. The fans did not bop, bob, sway or come close to dancing in any way. They leaned on the walls, they leaned on the bar or they stood stock still in the middle of the floor and nodded to the beat as the sound washed over them.
Musically the whole night was the best joke that nobody got.
Rocrament, Greg’s tongue in cheek heavy metal send up band, opened the show. And next door it was Peter and James singing 70’s light rock classics in the Big Top. The antithesis of what was transpiring on stage at the Continental.
Evil Dwight took time from his busy schedule to send me a link to a local Houston blogger who apparently works for Half Price Books saying “This should bring back memories” to which I responded “Yea, memories of being held up at gunpoint!”
Back in the 80’s I worked for Half Price Books when it was located in the converted church building on Waugh Drive.
One night as I was working the late shift I recall being in the process of chasing off the habitual and perpetual browsers so we could close up for the night.
As I was doing this I remember asking one particular customer if he wanted to go ahead and make his purchase. He said he needed to find his wife and went into the back shelf area. I headed back to the checkout and then felt a tug at my sleeve.
When I turned around there was that guy. In his hand was a .38 caliber revolver. He walked me the rest of the way to the register and demanded the money. I pulled about $300 out of the till and handed it to him.
At this point he asked me to come outside and around the back of the building. I knew why. I knew he was going to kill me. I looked at him, I looked at the gun and I thought…”I’m going to die”
Somehow I managed to speak. I said “Look, just leave. You have the money. I’ll lay down behind the counter. I won’t see which way you went and I won’t call the cops.” He looked at me, he looked at the door and he looked at me again. He told me to lie down. I did. He left.
I stayed in the floor until a co-worker came up out of the back sorting area a few minutes later and asked why I was on the floor. He had missed the whole thing. I could barely speak. I told him (as best I could) to call 911 and that we had been robbed.
The cops came and I gave my report.
One might think that would have been that. Chalk up another personal experience and let’s move on. But no, there’s more to this story…
Back in the day when I was doing Wake Up And Smell The Coffee on KPFT I discovered a band called Bongos, Bass and Bob which featured magician Penn Jillette on bass, and his friends Dean Seal on bongos and Rob Elk on guitar.
It was requested often and even to this day I still get the occasional e-mail from someone who tells me how they remember that song and how much they enjoyed hearing it on my program, all those years ago…
For some reason the song “There’s Only One Way To Rock” by Sammy Hagar has setup shot in my forebrain (prosencephalon) and keeps repeating “Crank up the drums, crank out the bass, crank up my Les Paul in your face” …
I don’t even LIKE this song! And I am certainly not a Sammy Hagar fan.
There may very well be only one way to rock, and I am sure that I’ve long ago forgotten what it was. I do know this, though…it wasn’t Sammy who let me in on the secret.
HIE THEE HENCE, METAL POSEUR AND LEAVE MY BRAIN BE!!!!
This got me thinking about Van Halen. When David Lee Roth left and Sammy stepped in, Van Halen officially died for me.
I remember the first time I heard Van Halen. It was in my friend’s 1974 Dodge Challenger. The year was 1978 and he had just bought the 8-Track and we were cruising around town listening to it. At the time I was just weaning myself off of Kiss and moving into my art rock phase. I remember looking at the production credits and seeing that the album was produced by Gene Simmons. It was an impressive tape, I must say. The only Van Halen I ever owned or liked.
I even remember the urban legend that Kiss and Van Halen were actually the same band…there was some deep controversy surrounding that rumor until it was finally dispelled satisfactorily. This was in the pre-Internet days. You kids today have it EASY. Back then you didn’t get a humility inducing e-mail directing you to a link at Snopes. We relied on sources like Rolling Stone Magazine and such for our facts. And that was only if you could afford to pick up a copy or browse the latest issue at the drug store quick enough not to get the bum’s-rush from the shop-keep.
Once my brain got to thinking about 8-Tracks I regressed to the time I was at my neighbor’s house in 1976. Peter Frampton Comes Alive had just been released and it was playing in the back room on his 8-Track player.
We must have let it play through 5 or 6 times (for reasons any child of the 70’s can relate to) so it became somewhat ingrained into my adolescent brain.
To this day, whenever I hear the song “Do You Feel Like We Do”, my mind puts in the audible click where the 8-Track manufacturer had to fade the song down, change tracks and fade back up on the next seeing as how there was not enough space to contain the whole song in a single track.
Speaking of Frampton, I just heard “Do You Feel Like We Do” on a XM Radio rebroadcast of American Top 40. I’d forgotten that pop radio often created short 3-4 minute remixes of the longer songs for airplay. Seems they didn’t want to play the full 14+ minute version. For the record, the short version sucks mightily.
I leave you with this recent Geico commercial which clearly shows that there’s more than one way to rock….
Back in 1995 and 1996 I organized two Celtic music events at the now defunct Rockefeller’s Nightclub.
The first event was called “Blarney Fest” and featured my band, the The Flying Fish Sailors, along with Ceili’s Muse and the first major public performance by the legendary band, Clandestine. The master of ceremonies was Jim McKenzie. The concert was completely sold out and by any measure, a huge success for all parties involved.
The second event was called “Son of Blarney Fest” and featured the same bands and also included Gordian Knot and a solo performance by Mary Maddux. This event also sold out and was again, a huge success.
Both concerts were recorded and a limited run of CD’s and cassettes were sold and they were never reprinted. But now, thanks to the digital age, these recordings are available once more via web download for ABSOLUTELY FREE!
Click on the following links to get your copy today!
