We just arrived home from a mini-tour in Dallas and Lubbock, and on the way back we decided to start keeping a Drop Trio blog. It'll be a place to muse about our band experiences, on the road and in town ... a place to keep in touch with friends and fans in a little bit more personal way than the weekly "we're playing here, come see us!" thing. So here it is. :)
We had a great time on the road this weekend. On Friday we headed up north to Dallas for a gig at
the Elbow Room with a band called Swirve. I can declare with full confidence that Chris Curiel (the front man for Swirve) is not only one of the most talented musicians I've met in a while, he is also one of the nicest guys. They really went out of their way to help us land a gig up there - he even helped us carry in our gear. If only the music world was full of people like Chris.
Swirve (I don't know where the name comes from, but I'm pretty sure
this is not it) is an experimental duo consisting of trumpet and drums, and while that sounds strange, it's actually really accessible music; he uses samplers and pitch changers to approximate the sound of a whole band, and his musical sensibilities are really engaging. We're looking forward to doing a gig with them at
Super Happy Fun Land on October 10 (the 10.10 full moon bi-polar jazz show w/ TDU, Sketchy and Swirve).
Elbow Room was a cool venue, and a couple folks actually saw our
posting on Craigslist Dallas and came out. They made our night - standing in front, cheering, taking pictures. So overall, a very friendly first experience in Dallas. The recording also came out great, we'll post it ASAP.
After a stay in a questionable motel in
Weatherford, and a very welcoming breakfast at the local
Wafflehouse, we burned rubber out to Lubbock for a show at
Klusoz. The crowd wasn't quite as massive as we were hoping for a home game weekend, but it was still a good show; Jay Reichard from Hubstuff magazine came out for it, and hopefully he'll have a thing or two to say about it in next week's issue! Marc and Ian sat in w/
Plump in their set, and all was well. Speaking of incredibly nice musicians, you won't find anybody nicer than Plump - these guys are hospitable, generous and fun, and we play with 'em every chance we get.
Our accomodations in
Post after the show were modest - probably a 3 on the
OM Trio Motel Rating Guide scale. We were on the road by 8:30 am Sunday morning (an amazing feat after our 30 minute venture in the wrong direction out of Lubbock ... thanks Ian, Mr. complete lack of directional sense).
On the marathon drive home, Mike, our resident
army soldier, was busy annihilating butterflies with the van windsheild, and Marc (our resident
metrosexual bass player) was busy reading GQ. It was Marc's birthday, so we treated him to lunch at
CiCi's pizza. It was reported to be the most significant break in his healthy diet in years.