rubes

Get yer rock stars here...

Rock stars, especially ones that really aren't such (read, wannabes), suck.

Highway Robbers show #3 in Chicago was at a place called Firkin, in the Libertyville part of town. Great food, friendly folks, great decor. Earl, our bass lad extraordinaire, regrettably had to fly back to SF before the show, so I was slated to play bass and a local friend of the band was to step in and play guitar. With literally 3 hours before showtime, Guitar Boy calls up and flakes, saying he "just didn't want to do it." Punk ass. We did it as a 3-piece and rocked the house. Never missed the son of a bitch. He's no longer a friend of the band apparently.

Then, at the Rockit Room this past Wednesday, Whatshisname threw a frothing fit at the poor sound guy for absolutely no reason at all. "I've played one end of this country to the other," he fumed like an ass, "and I've never been subjected to this kind of bla bla bla and I'm not getting paid for this bla bla bla and we're just going to get into it all night..."

Punk ass con huevos mucho grande. I haven't seen an outburst like that since I saw John Doe verbally disembowel a monitor mix dude at a particularly flimsy X show many moons ago. I don't care if you did have a huge radio hit once upon a time. You could be the second coming of Elvis for all I care. Didn't exactly pack the place, did you guano boy? And would it kill you to eat a sandwich once in a while? It's almost too bad you were good.

Fun little Highway Robbers gig at the Riptide this past Saturday:

We were too loud...

Come on out!

Eric Friedmann and The Lucky Rubes

at:

The Rockit Room, Clement & 6th SF, TONIGHT!!

Grant & Green in North Beach SF, tomorrow night, with The Bedrockers

Fear and Loathing in Chicago

Partying with porn stars can be such fun.

Went to Chicago with The Highway Robbers this past week. This might take a few days, because the whole experience hasn't quite sunk in yet. Maybe I'll just tackle the first couple days first.

Thursday, travel day. On the plane, sitting next to 2 snoring dudes, window seat, trying to convince my bladder not to explode. Shane picked me up at Midway, and we proceeded to be stuck in traffic for the next, oh, 3 hours. LA and The Bay Area, you may think y'all have bad traffic. True, it's bad. But at least when describing it as "stop and go" you can look forward to the "go" part. In Chicago, it's just "stop" and more "stop." Finally got to bed.

Up at 5:30, and off to the radio station to play live on the Mancow Morning Madness show. We got there at about 8, and were greeted by Mini Freak (and a rolling bar) who showed us to the green room. We shared it with Mary Carey, Hannah Harper, and Gina Austin, stars of the adult silver screen. Hannah and Gina were sweet as can be. Mary is a walking train wreck. Even if you're not a devotee of porn, you may remember her from her run for governor against Arnold. Personally I think maybe a porn star in Sacto might not be such a bad idea. But please not her. Mancow was hyping us up to ridiculous degrees; "Now #5 on the country charts, sold out shows all across the country, you're probably listening to their CD right now, here are The Highway Robbers." I think I got a good insight into a pivotal precept upon which the music industry operates; lying through your teeth. By the end of the show we were all thick as thieves and exchanging signed CDs, T-shirts and smutty DVDs. As long as I live I'll never forget this day. Sorry about the red-eye...

After the Mancow show we wound up downtown at Ross's fantastic apartment for a much-needed nap in the afternoon before making our way to The Hideout for the evening show. Good crowd, 2 broken strings, and a very Spinal Tap-ish amp crap-out. We played with a couple other great bands, including locals The Siderunners. Great CD.

Thanks to Larry, Edie, Benny, Charles, Katie, Sebastian, and Ross for elegant and thoughtful hospitality way above and beyond the call.

Details about the third show later. Rhymes with 'merkin.'

Luxury Liner

How is it that at the ripe old age of however the hell old I am I could have gotten this far in life without having truly discovered the incredible music of Gram Parsons? My newish bandmate Shane just lent me The Gram Parsons Anthology, and I've been just utterly transfixed for hours now. 'Luxury Liner' from his days in The International Submarine Band has got to be the Almost Perfect Song. I think I've listened to it 15 times in a row. I always loved The Byrds, and I never even knew he was in the stinkin' band. Not too sure about "I Love The Christian Life", but I can let that one slide. I play in 2 country bands for crying out loud, and this man's music has eluded me entirely. I have no excuse, and no one to blame for my ignorance but myself. I bow my head in shame and disgust, craving your forgiveness.

Fabulous Octomutt's Country Cousin gig at The Riptide yesterday. I so love playing there. Thanks to those that came and partied with us. Lots of great stuff coming up. I'm off to Chicago with The Highway Robbers for some fun shows. We'll be doing the Mancow radio show Friday morning. Check out the live stream at mancow.com. Then we'll be at The Hideout Friday night, so if you're in the neighborhood do stop by and we'll buy you a beer.

Meanwhile, the myspace.com/ericfriedmann thing is hopping right along. Do say howdy and make yourself known. Quite a party over there.