7.30.2011, FTW

HIO's underpromoted performance at Doc's Records went better than anticipated. For one thing, it was cooler in the area around the li'l stage than we'd expected, and more folks showed up (mainly guitar players who were there to see The Panic Basket, some of whom arrived after we'd finished playing due to some confusion on the go-time). T. Horn broke the seal on his new, improved percussion rig (now with two drums and a cymbal in addition to the PVC pot-lid construction), sounding more like Milford Graves than Elvin Jones, while I gave the metal erhu (one-stringed, bowed Chinese instrument that he built after I described one I saw a guy playing on Pike Street in Seattle) its inaugural spanking. Then Terry had to split to make it to his gig at Tomcats West, playing bass for Stone Machine Electric.

This was The Panic Basket's first live performance, and as previously mentioned, a bunch of guitar players (Kavin Allenson, William Shannonhouse, Ron Geida, Bill Pohl) made it out to see 'em. Darrin Kobetich played solo acoustic to start, with a much better sound mix than when HIO heard him at formerly fonky Fred's a couple of months ago. Darrin picked up his SG for the Panic Basket portion of the show, with Darryl Wood playing an old Gibson bass (Ripper? Grabber? I forget the names of these things) as well as his grandfather's banjo in addition to doing laptop stuff. Darrin's electric playing has gained some fluidity; at times the net effect was like hearing Allan Holdsworth sitting in with Pink Floyd. Nifty stuff; we wanna do another show with them at Doc's when it gets a li'l cooler. And I bought my sweetie a live Little Feat album before Hickey 'n' I headed back to mi casa for din-din.

Finally, trombonist Patrick Crossland said he'll be back in the DFW area in December or January, so we'll be planning an HIO show or recording with him as soon as we know his for-real itinerary.