Wise Guys + Hitmen = Dead Meat

Bliss was playing at Wise Guys, The Hitmen were next door at Oasis, and Craving Amy/Bliss/Undercovers etc bassist El Peege was serving up fine BBQ in the parking lot.
So many friends of mine in one place--we had a lot of fun.


This is Bliss's brand new "tub full of guts"--a plastic tote that holds speaker cables, extension cords, mic cables, and Chrissy's fan.
Doesn't it look nice?

This is the old one.
Doesn't it look like shit?

After we finished setting up, I grabbed my camera and told James to get the roll of gaffer's tape from Rikk.
He looked confused at first but when I picked up the old tote and gave him an evil grin, James caught on to the possibility of fun and destruction.
We ripped that old piece of shit in half and taped the pieces to the wall next to the dumpster!
Very satisfying.

The Peege serves up BBQ at his brother's trailer.
Delicious!

John Jarrett lets me use his amp when I play bass for Loud Nine, and he was also kind enough to let me play Possum Kingdom by The Toadies with The Hitmen tonight while I was on break from the Bliss show next door.
Thanks, John!
I used Rikk's bass because I'm very "familiar" with it after spending a week restoring it to Bass-#1 status. My DNA is all over that red Ibanez.

Mike G. of Loud Nine & The Hitmen didn't buy me a beer tonight and my feelings are a little hurt...

Since this is supposed to be a website about Bliss, here's some Chrissy pr0n.

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

We Love Happy Endings

As much as BLISS enjoyed playing with the Peege, and appreciated his hard work and his coolness at helping us survive through hard times, it's impossible to not be glad that our much-missed brother Rikk is returning next weekend at Hooligan's July 10th.
The Peege is a class act and I'm glad to have found a new friend. We owe him many favors, but I draw the line at reach-arounds and happy endings.





My buddy Scot Taylor joined us for a few songs including this duet (Do It!) singing Creep by Radiohead.
I first met Scot when I joined the BeWires back in 1996(?) and it's interesting to note that him and Steve and Buz and I are still tight--but that other guy who fired my three friends? Not so much...





Tuning...tuning...tuning...I have a pic of every string getting tuned.





Bye Bye, UHaul!!!
If everything goes according to plan I am done renting trucks from UHaul.
I think their trailer light hookups only worked 15% of the time, which blew goats after working so hard to get the trailer's lights fixed in the first place.
I'm lucky I didn't get pulled over.
And these were all brand new GMC pickups with less than 2000 miles on them.
A joy to drive, but come on.

BLISS will be playing from 3:30-4:30 Saturday July 4th at Market Square.
I won't be there.
They don't need me.

Craving Amy

Watched the first set at Jalen's, and discovered that Craving Amy is a really good band. I was surprised at how much Peege sings with them, and how good his harmonies are.

















With BLISS I only get a chance to shoot pictures when my sound engineering duties don't keep me behind the mixing board--maybe 3-5 minutes total all night, so I put the camera in continuous autofocus and shooting modes and take 3 frames a second so I can improve my odds of getting 'keepers'.
On this night I enjoyed the luxury of being able to take a picture whenever I felt like it, and also got to experiment with using a small controlled amount of flash as seen in the last four.

I also got a free pint of beer from the bar staff because my coolness was so obvious.