Recently, we were invited to play a charity event at one of our favorite music venues, Jovita's Mexican Restaurant in Austin. The event, Hoodstock III, was organized to benefit US Army Soldiers and Veterans. We agreed to play the gig because we like America, Soldiers, Veterans, and "giving back." Also, we enjoy Mexican food.
But secretly we were most excited about opening for the Austin Lounge Lizards, a legendary sardonic bluegrass institution. So of course, their music draws us in like moths to a flame that we see with our ears. You can find some of it here.
We arrived at Jovita's early and introduced ourselves to everybody. The "A.L.L.," as I will call them, were very nice guys. They were humble and friendly. Of course, they were not nearly as humble as we are, but that's sort of our thing. Nobody's better at it than us. And I'd say we are probably equally friendly, though one of our band members (who shall remain nameless but hint: his picture is located next to this paragraph) does demand 9 full minutes of silence before every show, lest he fly into a fit of unmitigated rage.As a side-note, the band that played before us was Barbara K, formerly of Timbuk3. You might remember Timbuk3 as the band that sang "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades." You can find a link to the awesomely unsettling music video here. As a side-note to that, during their live performances, they used a large boombox instead of a drummer. And according to the music video, they apparently used a pack-mule to carry their equipment...? Ah, 80's technology.
Anyway, Jomo had recently composed an alternative soundtrack to an also alternatively self-edited video version of the 1978 film, Buffalo Rider. He found the film in the public domain and spliced out all the boring parts and then re-narrated. He named the retold story "Guy On A Buffalo," and all 4 episodes can be found here.
The band had been brought up to speed on the chord progression of the soundtrack, which is really just one song, but they hadn't had time to practice it. While this has never stopped us from playing a song before, it has stopped us from playing a song well.
Just before the show started, a man carrying what appeared to be a 2-year-old on his hip approached the stage. "Are you guys gonna play Guy On A Buffalo?" he asked.
We tried to weasel our way out, but he added, "he really wants to hear it" as he glanced toward his son's imploring eyes. Jomo asked the child what he would like to hear about (which episode), and he indicated that he would prefer bears and Indians. We told him we would see what we could do.Our set lasted only about 45 minutes, which is normally not ideal, but in this situation, it was perfect. We were able to play only our best songs and keep the energy high. Short sets are not always great, but occasionally we'll play a 4 or 5 hour set where we are relegated to breaking out the "deep tracks," and that's worse, at least for the audience. For us, "deep tracks" are usually those songs that are so obscure that we usually only play them once during a singular practice session, and then all agree never to make mention of their existence again.
As we finished a song toward the end of the set, the organizer sent us the "1 More Song" signal. We had totally forgotten about the guy with the imposible-to-deny kid. Then suddenly, a table of people toward the back of the room began shouting "Guy On A Buffalo!" and "Play Guy On A Buffalo!!!" and "YOU BETTER PLAY GUY ON A BUFFALO OR WE'LL BEAT YOU UP!!!!" He and his sad-faced son had a posse of their own.
We apologized to the overwhelmingly-retirement-aged crowd in advance, explaining that we had created a video on something called "YouTube" and that people around the internet had seen it. And that some of those people were here. We then explained that the internet was basically a system of wires. Then, we had to show this one lady how to attach a photo to an email to send to her granddaughter. Ok, that last part didn't happen, but the rest is gospel.
We "played" Guy On A Buffalo... Jomo forgot some of the words, certain notes were missed, and a few people probably left the restaurant. The crowd seemed confused and somehow pleased at the same time. The table of ringer-kidded-houligans loved it. Afterwards, we were packing up our stuff and somebody asked, "Why did you apologize for playing Guy On A Buffalo?"It turns out, he and his friends had seen the video on YouTube earlier that day and had come to the restaurant not knowing that it was created by The Possum Posse. At that moment, we realized that The Posse had gone international. Or at a minimum, intertownal.
We stayed and watched the A.L.L., who were amazing as always. We also got to hang out with them just a little afterwards, and were even told that they liked certain elements of some of our music!! We couldn't have asked for a better gig.
Well, I have to be going (me, the author), because in blogging, as in phone conversations, there is a time limit. If you happen to be in Austin this weekend (October 22nd), we'll be playing at Patsy's Cowgirl Cafe, the manliest live music venue in town! The show is from 6:30-8:30, so don't worry, we won't have to break out the "deep tracks." Hope to see you there!
