One day, in the summer of 2000, me and the belt decided to go see Reverend Horton Heat. Hank III was the opening act, so I thought that would turn out to be pretty cool.
I got to the show and when Hank III( Sheldon) got on stage it was eerie. He had the same posture and demeanor as his legendary grandfather. He even sounded like him, I was thinking to myself that talent must skip a generation.
He eventually played a couple of Hank songs , and the hairs on the back of my neck actually stood on edge. There were a lot of old-timers there, fully expecting to see a living re-incarnation of the Hank himself. For a few songs, they were absolutely right.
Then ole snotty Sheldon, while removing his western hat and unfurling two very long pigtails, proclaimed, "That's enough of that country shit", and proceeded to play some really scary thrash metal stuff. The old timers fucked right off soon after, completely appalled by this barrage on their senses.
The Rev finally came on , and he rocked as usual. The band was in top form and ole' Jimbo was on fire on the upright bass.
I had (uncharacteristically) not drank too much that night, so after the show, a thought struck me that I should try to get back stage.
I went up to the meat-head security guy guarding the stage door. I was not clutching a beer which probably added to my credibility. I used a bit of subterfuge when I told him him that I was the manager of Jello bar. I dee-jayed there once a week on Swing nights, so there was a grain of truth to it.
Being the mouth-breathing gorilla the he was, he chose to believe me. Easy to out smart a goof, I guess.
I rolled in there and spotted the Rev.
I said, " Hey Jim , how you doin'?"
To which he replied, as he pointed to a refrigerator, " Git yerself a beer, boy!".
As it usually has been with my numerous experiences of meeting musicians, if you engage them in a discussion about music, treat them like a regular human being and not act like a retard, you will get a positive response.
We talked about Rockabilly and various bands, and eventually discovered that we were the same age. Jim seemed a little reluctant to admit that he had just gotten married, to which I replied that there was nothing wrong with that, considering our age and all. The weird thing was , as it turned out, his neighbour was the conductor of the Dallas symphony orchestra.
Right around that time, Rene from the Brains showed up. He had played in New Jersey with the Rev a while back and was let in back stage. All three of us continued talking about music, guitars, chicks and booze for quite a while longer. Me and Rene later found out, that Jim had left specific instructions to not let anybody else back stage; just me and Rene.
After a while, the Rev had to go and he asked me and Rene to escort him to his bus. Strangely enough, there were still fans waiting for him outside. It was really creepy. They were pawing him and said that they had been waiting for him.
The Rev diplomatically answered, " Hey, I'm just hangin' out with my friends, I gotta go".
Me and Rene walked him to his bus. Big hugs all around and he was gone. Rene and I went for some more beers after that and thought about how lucky we were and how crazy fans can be so creepy.
Me and the belt walked home and had a good sleep.
More belt stories coming soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment