Tuesday, February 3, 2009

The Ups and Downs of Winter

Pt 2 of 3 on the updates..

December -

Sew What played two wonderful shows with our friends Listen Listen in two different cities! The first show was hosted by Art Storm at the Caroline Collective and also featured The Wild Moccasins and Austin's Peter and the Wolf. It got pretty cold that night and we could hardly feel our fingers as we were playing outside but it was quite a great night of music under that make-shift canopy.

On the 20th we took a caravan trip to New Orleans to play with our friends Why Are We Building Such a Big Ship? at the Sidearm Gallery. We love this city and didn't have enough time to hang out as much as we wanted, but the night we had sure made up for it. Sew What started off the evening with a bang, albeit a quiet one somewhere in the distance that still seems to seep through you just as intensely. It was our first time to play my song, Here in the Desert, with trumpet parts. Listen Listen followed and played one of their best sets if I may say so. The crowd started to warm up for WAWBSABS with some swaying and slight dancing to the waltz like nature of the new songs from the forthcoming Hymns from Rhodesia album. And thenn.. something thats a little hard to put in words(or there are just a lot of them?), Why Are We Building Such a Big Ship?. These guys put on an amazing show and the crowd loved every minute of it. Coming from Houston it's pretty rare to see an entire room full of people swaying, dancing, singing, and outwardly enjoying the music during a set. Walt, the singer, plays accordion with a passion and is backed up by a rotating cast of members playing various brass and percussive instruments. The end result is an array of emotions scattered throughout a song with rhythms that just make you start to move before you even notice it. (We're going to see them this weekend with O' Death, Hurray for the Riff Raff, and My Graveyard Jaw. Be jealous..)

On the down side of things, our good friend, Airon Paul Dugas, was involved in a scooter accident that has required quite a few surgeries and some needed help. A benefit show was organized for him in late December with Butch from 30 Foot Fall, Teenage Kicks, Wild Moccasins, Guitars, Friendship, and Dannzig. He's a great guy and a great musician and everybody was more than happy to help him out in a time of need. Plus it was a fine show with great music and a keg and a raffle...

Where have you been my darling young one?

Well it sure has been awhile, look at all those comments I got wondering where I had gone to...oh wait. We've had quite a great time in the past couple months and I guess I'll try to sum some of it up in the next couple posts.

November -

We had our first show here at the Stitched Tire House and it turned out very well.. Broman opened up the night with a room full of laughter, Bigfoot and the Bear went up next with his first amplified set and tore it up, and Airon wowed us as always and played one of my favorite tunes I've heard from him yet.. Our New Orleans friends, Steve Eck and the Midnight Still, filled in the middle with some lovely, dark folk featuring guitar, banjo, and stand up bass. The next half of the evening was started by Tiziano(just underwent hand surgery? lets he hope gets well soon) and he pleased the crowd as always, Sew What played a few of our newer tunes, and I played a special all banjo set.

Sew What also played two art events in the latter part of the month. The first was during the Art Crawl at The Foundry, where our lovely Rachel T. sold her first piece of art, and the second was the Vaudeville for your Maudeville show put on by Bootown. The Bootown show also featured our new friend, Lucas, playing as Grandfather Child. Lap steel + fast drums + extra guitar = a foot stomping good time. The show also featured a comedy act, a bicycle riding act, and an awesome puppet show.

December to follow. Songs from the House Show are below. Be on the lookout for a Stitched Tire Compilation in the near future..