Long Drive Home

Hooligan's is way the hell across town, but it still beats the drive home from GRC in Kerrville.

Soul Prodigy opened the show for Bliss.
Wasn't successful in getting their crew to leave the lights.





Rikk's dirty bass.





Special thanks to everyone who helped me drag our shit out of the club, and of course James.
Y'all added six and a half weeks to my life expectantcy.

Chillin' @ Hooligan's

Bliss was taking it easy tonight.
Don't get me wrong--everyone in the organization kicked serious ass--but on a night that combined rain, a Mudvayne show across town, and the huge percentage of San Antonians that bail for the coast on Labor Day weekend, the club was less than packed and a more informal and intimate mood seemed appropriate.

James is the newest member of Bliss--seen here getting his $2.99 cheeseburger from our waitperson Jenna.
Unlike most people who get tricked into helping me do the dirty and painful work, my new best friend knows all about bands and equipment and snakes and sluts.
I like my men strong and smart and experienced.
(Being serious here so hold the gay jokes).
James only needed to learn Bliss's system, not the techniques and reasons for each task.
"Been there, done that, what do you need me to do?" are magic words to me, so he's like an Angel from Heaven.
(Can y'all quit with the gay jokes? I'm not gonzo. Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

Moving on to Rikk's beer and piss bucket.
Saved him a lot of time.

When I mentioned chillin' in the title of this post I meant several things.
One of them is that air conditioning works a lot better when it isn't 105* outside, so Hooligan's was a little shivery tonight. Another chill factor was that I went for the photos that I like instead of the ones that are all about making Bliss look pretty.

"When Florin was a toddler he was such a handful".

Chrissy understands that this is a photo about my mixing board, not her Eddie Spaghetti shirt.
She wasn't looking at the camera when I composed this snapshot but my pop-up flash goes off 3 times in dark rooms so she figured it out and ruined my plan.
Smart-ass twat.

In Between Notes
I really like this kind of shit.

In Between Notes 2

Jenna drops-off my next big beer during Voodoo Child (Slight Return).
My tab was comp'd so she got an estimated percentage, which is usually better.

I got some really cool new shoes yesterday for 50% off at MJM (hwy 281 between Bitters and Nakoma).
(I'm not gonna tell you again about the gay jokes!!!)
Most of you would probably prefer to see an old pair of Chrissy's kicks, so enjoy!

Awww hell-y'all can have some Bliss action shots.

I Take the F828 Out Drinking

Hooligan's Friday Night

The F828 is a Sony digicam that was a state-of-the-art-ass-kicker when released in 2003.
There still isn't another camera that can do everything this beast can do right out of the box.
Extreme close-ups without paying extra for a 'macro' lens, video at 640x480 and 30 fps, infrared, 8mp, both Memory Stick and Compact Flash card slots...well worth the $1000 price tag back in the day.

An internet friend and fan sent it to me along with a nice external flash last month because he knew I needed it after my older Sony F717 died.
Do any of you have internet friends this cool?

It's the first time I brought it to a show instead of my Sony Alpha300 DSLR.
No surprises--for 2003 technology it did a great job.

Bliss did a great job, too.
As always it was crazy all night and the free drinks may have set a record.

A new guy is hanging around named James--an old buddy of Rikk's--and he was both a big help with the equipment and a fun dude to hang with.
Felt like I've been friends with him for years.

It was nice seeing the Peege and Wilma for 3 minutes tonight.

Shot some video tests with the F828 tonight and the sound quality was surprisingly good. You can expect to see some vid clips here in the future.


Guess we'll see some of you at the super funtastic party in New Braufels tommorrow.
If you weren't invited, it sucks to be you.

No Subs At Hooligan's

No substitutions I should say.
Just the original BLISS rocking all night.









Chris Lopez sang Creep with Chrissy, and it was a hot mess.


The club's subs (subwoofers) crapped-out during the last break and nobody knew how to fix them but me. They should have asked nicely (with booze) instead of relying on the unqualified, who failed.

The Crow Brings All The Bad Little Babies

It was a night of madness and myth, talent and heart at Hooligan's.

The Peege enjoys his last night with Bliss...at least until we fire Rikk's ass for being early and knowing his parts.

Beers and ashtrays--that's Hooligan's.

Speaking of Rikk...

He played a few songs and seemed to enjoy it...

Bliss

Hooligan's In Black & White

Decided to see what my camera will give me in black and white mode, versus converting in PhotoShop.
Forgot that I had pre-set this, so the awesome sunset I shot while loading the gear into Hooligan's turned out like crap.












A ritual at every Bliss show, Chrissy leads a toast (the birds) to our missing member Rikk. See you soon, brother!




U-Haul was out of pickups, so I had to rent a 17' box truck.
The first one puked coolant all over my driveway so I had to take it back for a replacement.
This is truck 2, which was much newer and everything about it worked better from the motor and transmission to the suspension and seats and AC and steering--that first one was a piece of crap.

Only problem was that it wouldn't fit anywhere near my garage so simply hooking-up our trailer wasn't an option.
I had to drag all our shit out of the trailer and up the ramp by myself.
And I'll have to do it again in reverse because I made sure to reserve a pick-up for tomorrow to save the band money.

I'm wiped out.
And the tip jar scored exactly $0.00 tonight--not even a fucking quarter--so I'm very disappointed in the audience tonight.

"But we sang along and got Chrissy hammered!"
Fuck that shit--how about we concentrate on what's important?

Your chance at redemption is Saturday June 13th at The Revolution Room on Broadway 1 mile inside Loop 410.
Try to advance as a species, BlissTards.

Bliss & Drive Set A Bad Example

Like some college party where the reach-arounds get out of hand (?) and scare away the sorority chicks, only in our case it was just a matter of too many drinks.