The Gourds
Republic of Texas Biker Rally
Congress Avenue at 9th Street
Austin, TX
6-12-09
01. Gin and Juice (Calvin Broadus, et al.) > Cupid (Sam Cooke) > I Can See Clearly Now (Johnny Nash) > Magic Carpet Ride (John Kay/Rushton Moreve) > Surrender (Rick Nielson) > Miss You (Mick Jagger/Keith Richards)
02. All in the Pack > I Fought the Law (Sonny Curtis) > All in the Pack
Special thanks to Tomski for the field report. If anyone has audio/video/photos from this show, please email TheGourdsNews.
It was somewhere around SoCo on the edge of the biker rally when the exhaust fumes began to take hold. I remember saying something like, "Man, there is sure is a lot of leather and bandanas around here."
ReplyDeleteThe music was good. The Gourds faced the state Capitol as they played, which had to be at least a little cool for them.
The songs played were:
Gin & Juice (w/ Cupid, I Can See Clearly Now, Magic Carpet Ride, Surrender)
Miss You
All In The Pack (w/ I Fought The Law)
Yes, that was it. Not sure if they were only supposed to play for 30 minutes, but that's what it was, more or less.
They busted out the covers for all the newbies in the house, and I think that was a good call. People seemed captivated. If they were throwing up a little bit in their mouths with the G&J opener, it didn't show. And the crowd, the vast majority of whom I'm sure had never heard of the Gourds, seemed to get off on it. I think I Can See Clearly Now had to do with the massive hail/lightning/tornado/rain deluge we enjoyed the night before, and which threatened again tonight (but didn't come). Steppenwolf got some love with a Magic Carpet Ride verse, and again during Surrender when it became "I got my Steppenwolf records out." If they had another half-hour to play, I'm guessing they probably would have learned Born To Be Wild for the occasion.
They left the stage with Claude asking everyone to pray for Robbie Knievel's jump later in the night. Jimmy added: "I passed by the ramp. I'm worried."
(I just saw the jump on TV. Robbie completed the jump over two Budweiser trucks without becoming a grease stain.)
The preamble before the Gourds show began was too painful for words, except for this one: interminable. They threw T-shirts into the crowd until everyone had two. They introduced a dozen guys who design motorcycles. One took his shirt off for reasons known only to him. They brought out Coyote Ugly bartenders to dance, which sounds awesome but wasn't. They pimped some WWF-sounding ultimate fighting the next day by having the participants in three matches come up two at a time so they could scowl at each other for what seemed like eons. The last pair came to shoves, but thankfully some scrawny guy got between them to break it up. I've never been prouder to be an American.
The ultimate worst was having five people up on stage, one of whom was going to win an Evel Knievel-autographed motorcycle by guessing the number of pre-registrants to the ROT rally. What would have taken 5 minutes tops if there
was a merciful god dragged on for 30. The crowd around the stage, based on a show of hands when asked by someone with a microphone, was about 20% ROT participants and 80% people who wanted to see some live music for free. Only a handful of people not on the stage gave a crap about any of this. The little momentum that was left was circling the drain, and not even an encore dance from the Coyote Ugly girls could raise much of anything.
It was in this atmosphere that the Gourds finally and bravely took the stage, and proceeded to pump some life into the festivities, and at least look like they were having a good time. Hopefully they also gained a few converts out of it.
--Tomski