After spending some time in New Braunfels listening to James
Pardo, Jordan Minor, Chris King, and Forest Wayne Allen, I skedaddled down the
road to Hooligans in San Antonio to hear my friends Southern Strangers. I know it seems like I see them a lot. I will admit I do. For me though it is about the journey of
seeing them grow and change with each passing show. They have come a long way. Also kudos to them, as they are opening up for one of their favorite bands Whiskey Meyers in Austin on the 21st. As they prepare for the CD release, the show
is changing still. They are previewing
new songs in the set list. In fact I got to hear another
new one that I really enjoyed Friday night.
I am telling you boys and girls make plans (if you haven’t already) to be
at Kicaster Country Store in Adkins on March 23rd. I suspect it’s going to be a fun night. Truth be told I don’t really remember much
from the first cd release party…I blame the Shiner Light Blonde for that. That is one good beer…but that is a whole
other story and not one I care to put on the web. Where was I? Oh ya, Hooligan’s. Not sure on the specifics of how it all happened,
but the Strangers announced earlier in the day That Chris Brady, lead guitar
player for Roadside Libby would be joining them on stage for the whole
show. So that brings the grand total of
lead guitar players on stage to two. In
my head there was this little thought process of it being like a UFC cage match. Picture it in your best announcer voice “In
this corner weighing in at…” or what ever they say.
The reason I say that is not due to any kind of competition the guys have with each other. It is far from that. I say that cause you have two guys that aren't used to sharing the stage with each other. Both are skilled guitar players in their own right. How would they decide who gets the guitar solo? How would it even sound? Who would be crowned the champion? While I could sit here and dissect the differences between the two guys and tell you my thoughts on who won "the battle", I am not going to. Not because I am scared of hurting anyone's feelings, because this blog is meant to be informative for the reader. If you the reader, want to make the decision for yourself that is up to you. I will encourage to see Both Southern Strangers and Roadside Libby when they have shows. Here is the link to both websites to see where they are playing next. Southern Strangers Website Roadside Libby's Website
What I will say...
Photos courtesy of Kristen Baird
I witnessed a group of friends who got together to jam in front an audience that came out to hear good music and have fun. Both Matt and Chris played off of each other and gave everyone in the audience a treat that they wouldn't have ordinarily heard otherwise. If you were in the crowd you would have also gotten to hear Kyle Reed and Andrew Van Winkle (lead singer for Roadside and fill in sound guy for the night) get up and sing with the band also. These kind of moments are why I encourage people to go see live music. These are fun memories that I and those friends around me will have for the rest of our lives or till the Alzheimer's kicks in.
As for Hooligan's. That was actually my first time there. What I want to know is why they aren't having more shows there? They a nice set up and really should do more with it. I think recently they hosted Rich "I'm going to throw a twitter tantrum and go indy" O'toole. Hopefully they will start having more shows out there.
To close out here is a little preview of my favorite songs from both the Roadside and Southern guys.
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