Sunday, December 28, 2008

Lettuce Entertain You


Guadalupe River Club is the only gig where I'll eat--the planks of fish are great and we love the fries.
Sylvia and I split a burger tonight and it was pretty good.

Chrissy got playful with my ketchup and it kicked ass so much I had to take a picture.
Destroying her art with my fries was fun, too.
Look for their new item The BlissBurger.
It's #420 on the menu.

GRC is always a good time, but tonight's audience was out of control! I guess it helped that the band was in rare form.

But just wait until next time--ladders and drills will be involved, speakers will be moved, lights will be moved, I will be moved, the crowd will definitely be moved...
I'm tired of compromising the quality of our sound and lights so we're going to do things MY way and take it to the next level.

Friday, December 26, 2008

A Blissful Christmas


A highlight of our party Christmas Night was when Florin graciously consented to entertain my guests--he was a big hit!


Not to be left out, Jesus Cantu took a turn on my guitar--the very first electric he's ever played.


Music, drinks and fire--all you need for a successful party.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Private Bliss

We played at a quinceanera in the Shertz Civic Center tonight, and it went really well--at least all of the major goofs were by someone else.





Rikk watching the powerpoint slideshow while playing 'Yellow'.

A rare sighting of Chrissy in a dress and heels--this lasted for 3-4 songs before changing into her usual stage gear.
I thought she looked very pretty and sweet.





Southside Sounds's Frank and Noel handled the DJ duties (and beer fetching) with skill and grace, and Bliss thanks them for their hard work.

The father of the birthday girl was very nice to us all night, and the big bottle of Jagermeister was mucho appreciado. We killed it.

The crew at Shertz Civic Center were terrific--staying out of our way and not being event nazis, plus helping us out quickly when it was decided we needed a bigger stage. The facility is new and excellent.

The huge group of teens were well behaved and many of them had mad hiphop skillz--several of the guys got served.

Can't say much about the photo/video duo except that I'm not sure if the emo assistant was mute or just a moron. There was a condescending attitude coming from them that I suspect isn't warranted judging by the way many things were shot--you can't bounce flash very well off of ceilings and walls when in the middle of a huge room like that, but that didn't stop them from trying. Buy a diffuser next time.
And why no umbrellas or softboxes plus a background for taking portraits on this special night? Huh?
Emo spent a lot of time shooting bootleg video of our show, so now I'll have to spend a lot of time searching YouTube and MySpace to see if they violated our copyrights.
The sound and light production was mine, and the performance belongs to BLISS.
If I find anything that doesn't suck, it belongs to us now.

The off-duty cops handling security were cool, and also stayed out of our way by hardly doing anything at all.
Thanks, boys in blue!

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Rev Room Gets Pwned

Just Wow!
Music and magic and drinks--the planets aligned and Bliss wins the hearts and minds of a huge crowd of rowdy fuckers.






Saturday, December 13, 2008

No Bullshit Friday At Hooligan's

Better late than never--This was the first Bliss show since the night before Thanksgiving, and it was fairly typical for Hooligans's in that everything was 35% more awesome and nobody died.















The full moon was illuminating some wild clouds while I was loading the gear into our trailer--made me wish I had a tripod along to do it up right.

Revolution Room Saturday December 13th!!!
Come out early for equipment maintenance day--I'll be drilling and tightening and rotating all kinds of things...

Sunday, December 7, 2008

The Sea Monkeys At Charlie Brown's

A decent crowd saw a great show.
And The HITMEN everywhere you looked!

It was fun hanging with John and David and Matt--I missed those crazy fuckers.
We had more than enough people to do a complete reunion show.





Thursday, November 27, 2008

Retox Bar

What do you do after Detox?

It was a blast from the past to be destroying another audience on the night before Thanksgiving in the same building where The Hitmen used to do the same.
Flashbacks and fruitflies--I guess the renovation money ran out before the bathrooms got fixed.
Or cleaned.

Jack actually pours--pump and hoses and shit.

Happy Thanksgiving Day, Chrissy!



I was trying to get a photo of the girl with a cardboard box that was completely full of shots a minute earlier when Chrissy got in the way, but this version showcases all the cool colors in her hair so we'll keep it.

Mmmmm--JelloShot!

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Bob's Christmas Treat

Good old Bob "fixed" the members of BLISS last night in Kerrville.
As I understood it, he scored some forbidden-in-the-USA 160 proof schnapps from Belgium and soaked apple chunks in it for a day or two.
By the time you have chewed just one of the already soft apple bits your tongue and gums are numb, and after only a few it's time to either fight or cry.

After 28 years in this business I thought I had seen everything (and tried many of them) but this was a new one for me.
Not for amateurs!

Thanks, Bob!

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Wrestling Hooligans

Tonight was full of firsts for me:
1) Never done a show on Monday, so my last virgin day is defiled
2) Wrestling in a bar without Jello
3) An opening act for BLISS
4) Seeing Chris Lopez
5) Getting smashed in the face by falling equipment so hard it knocked a lens out of my glasses
6) Driving and Photoshopping with emergency glasses
7) Paid before the gig
8) Having too many new batteries for the wireless gear
9) I forget #9, which in itself should be #10















You can usually tell if a show went well.
When the meter pegs, sometimes there is more tangible evidence of how great it felt:


Sunday, November 16, 2008

Hot Tin Roofies

It wasn't as crowded as usual, but the crazy fuckers made up for it at the end.













Monday.
Midnight.
Hooligan's.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

The Sea Monkeys At Speedway

The best Sea Monkeys show yet!
It's hard to stay tight and solid when you only play once or twice a month, but these guys are defying the odds and making it work.


















BLISS is at Hot Tin Roof tonight 10pm, and at Hooligan's on Monday (???) starting at midnight after a Chris Lopez acoustic set.
Don't forget about the Rock And Roll Marathon, downtown at 7:30 Sunday morning.
55 bands along the route, and The CULT at the AlamoDome, plus 30,000 runners.
I have VIP passes for the whole deal and will be one busy photographer.