butt what?

i don’t go out nearly as often as i used to…

…but one of the few guys that CAN get me out is this guy:

okay, seriously – what’s up with the hair on the dude between me and gibby?

so, exactly fifteen years ago the butthole surfers played the opening night of emo’s east in austin. i was there…for ten minutes. i had forgotten about the show till a friend texted me to see if i was there, and since i was five minutes away (and a bit liquored up) i came thru to see if i could find gibby as we had lost track of one another at that point (he used to change mobile phone numbers pretty often back when) but there was a caveat – i had frozen food and dairy in the car as i had gone grocery shopping before i got the text.

texas temps in september are still triple digit territory, so time was a factor.

i got quick parking, found gibby, and exchanged numbers all in under ten minutes, but couldn’t stay because of the grocery factor. seriously – how fuckin’ sad is that? i swore i’d make it up to the both of us at some point, and last night i finally got to, and it was a great time. good crowd, good venue, good parking again (thanks, ab!) and though our time was very brief it was cool. i went this time with four goals, and went four for four. saw the whole set front to back, including the reunion of the main three doing a couple tunes…

got a gib a reel from our radio show, got to meet his son, and after thirty plus years of friendship, there’s finally a pic of the two of us together:

the selfie happened at what i thought was the coolest moment of their time at the festival. towards the end of the set, gibby said, “i hate when people go, ‘we have merch in the tent at the back’, but we do have shirts, and after the set paul (leary) and i will be back there customizing them for you if you want…”

and he wasn’t kidding.

keep in mind, these guys are all in their late sixties, and after a full set they still went back to the merch tent and spent a couple hours drawing on the back of t-shirts, with no two alike, to the delight of their fans. that was fuckin’ rad. i was thrilled he through me on the list so i could be a part of this and meet some of his fans from around the country (including a rad dad and his son who drove in from NOLA) and while physically i am still really paying for it as i type this, as i told nik, “i had a whole lotta fun getting this sore” and i wouldn’t change a thing! love ya, gibson – thanks for a great night out!