Last night, after some debating due to the fact Joseph Arthur was playing as well, went to see an old Florida friend John Ralston at the unfortunate House of Blues. I had just happened to pick up an Observer earlier in the week and was lucky to have noticed the show, tucked away as it was in a slew of other bands I had never heard of (he was opening for another band–more on that in a minute).
We arrived for the last couple songs of the first opener and then saw John setting up–I was happy he was the second opener and we hadn’t missed any of his set. It was a great set despite the venue and the crowd that was there for the aforementioned slew of pop-punk shit.
After his set he went back to his merch table and I went to say hi. Not only did he remember me (while I’ve known him for a while we weren’t best friends or anything in Florida, just both part of a small music scene down there, and I’ve only seen him about once a year for the last 4 or 5 years), but said he was expecting to turn around and see me during SXSW last week.
{Last year I was down for one day to see Andy Zipf (who had borrowed my drum kit) and Honor By August (who I just happened to know was playing the same day), and randomly texted him and found out he was playing the same day…it was a lot of fun to see so many friends play the same day in Austin.}
He had the original Legends of Rodeo CD on the merch table and I made a big fuss and he was like “Do you have it? I’m giving you one!”…just for the liner photo where he is young and clean-cut…this record was from before I even moved to Florida, I think…and he also gave me his new EP.
I had forgotten to bring in a copy of my record but had a bunch in the car, but when I went to go get one the ridiculously self-important swarm of security announced there was no re-entry. After a short discussion with them I gave up and went back inside.
The headlining act was bad and uninteresting in a way we found hard to describe, and John was planning on packing up during their set, so we grabbed a merch bin and walked out the back with him. He told us that the headlining band were the rudest people he’d ever met in 13 years of touring along with the details of why and some funny facts about their career that he had dug up in his post-dealing-with-rudeness curiosity. We had some laughs at the whole thing and quick went to my car to get a copy of my CD for him.
I brought a few and another band, the Modern Skirts, were there and he gave them a copy. We were promptly put on the list for their gig tonight at Dada.
We were still debating going across town for Joseph Arthur, but realized we didn’t have time (later confirmed via SMS by Mayor Roberts), so we went with those assembled for a drink.
More fun conversation at the bar culminating with making plans to record at John’s new studio in Florida over the summer, which I am very excited about. I have to get all the pieces in place for that to happen, but…! Especially since Salim’s apparently been too busy for lil’ ol’ Johnny Citizen. Plus it’s always fun to work with new people and to be away somewhere with only creative work on the agenda…