New BRMC site!

It's not done yet, but it's started! My BRMC fansite Down Here now has its own domain name and tons more space to work with. More than I even know what to do with...

http://brmcdownhere.com/

For now, the gallery, FAQ, interviews, and links pages are started. There's also a contact form and guestbook, which I suggest everyone uses. I'm still not sure what to do about the bootlegs, rarities, and videos page. I have to figure out how to upload videos and audio files. I'm not sure if I'll keep updating news because the official site and Rebels With a Cause are probably more useful for that. I was thinking of writing a blog for the site, but I have enough blogs already.

Anyways, I hope everyone visits the site and provides me some useful feedback.

BRMC, The Cobbs, Sarabeth Tucek @ La Zona Rosa

After the Houston show, I was up early taking photos of my sleeping travel buddies. Those photos are up on Flickr under Texas Roadtrip. The drive to Austin from Houston was not too long, only 162 miles. We made a stop in Giddings to eat at Sonic and use the bathroom. While I was coming out of the bathroom, I saw a huge cockroach near Jodi who was at the sink. We both screamed and ran out like the girls we are. It was scary, black and red at the end. I didn't think of taking a picture of it since I just wanted to get out of there. Getting to the hotel was much easier than at the Houston hotel because there wasn't a massive circular parking structure to drive in and out of and charge $10 whenever we entered or left. After a little snag with one of the hotel employees, we were off to our room and later the venue.

We arrived at La Zona Rosa early enough to get a great parking spot right in front of the venue. We saw the rental car of the other BRMC forum people parked nearby. We decided to walk around a little to find some food and drink and ran into Paul and Ryan of The Cobbs. They recommended a burger place down the street, which we did end up going to. I ordered a big bunch of fries and onion rings, with ranch dipping sauce which later ended up all over my purse while I was looking for my cell phone. We stopped at Starbucks to clean off all the sauce and get some liquid refreshment. It was really hot in Austin, so we needed it. There were a few more stops like this since it was so hot and bathroom breaks were also needed. Wahoo's was nearby and they gave me a free water.

As people started arriving a line was forming in front of the venue and since we'd gotten there so early, we claimed our spot at the front. We weren't sure about cameras in this venue, but it turned out that they allowed small ones. Fortunately, I'd brought my small one and this show was probably the best one of the entire trip. There were plenty of annoying things, like the girls who left vomit in two spots near the front of the stage. Actually, that was probably the only really bad part about the show. This was Sarabeth Tucek's first night with the BRMC tour. She opened the show with her boyfriend Luther Russell, who seemed really friendly. They played an acoustic set with 2 guitars, it was a little folky and nice.

The Cobbs were up next and were just as good as the previous night, though this time I decided to record some videos of their performance. I recorded five songs, but only put up three on YouTube so far. Here's the setlist:

1.say you never knew me
2.lo chey
3.climb on top
4.meia
5.dont walk
6.deathcapades
7.a new song...no official name yet

They're a really good band. I told Paul at the Meridian how I'd seen them at Popscene (when they were called Mad Action) with Kasabian back in 2005 and he said he'd recorded that show. I mostly remembered the dancing ninja at that show. At this show, I remembered the theremin that Paul had set up near his pedals. He noticed Jodi getting off on it after the Dallas show!

Anyways, BRMC were the real stars that night. They played an extra long set that night including some requests during the encore! Jodi posted it to the forum and I think you can guess what the request was.

Took Out A Loan
Berlin
Lien On Your Dreams
In Like The Rose
Ain't No Easy Way
Weapon Of Choice
Punk Song
Window
Not What You Wanted
666 Conducer
Love Burns
Need Some Air
American X
Fault Line
Devil's Waitin'
The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll
Shuffle Your Feet
Rifles
All You Do Is Talk
---
Red Eyes And Tears + Reprise
High/Low (!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
White Palms
Six Barrel Shotgun
Salvation
Heart + Soul

Yeah, it was a really excellent show. I was busy taking photos and videos for most of the show which makes remembering details pretty difficult. I didn't take any in Dallas, so let's see if I remember things better there. Needless to say, it was a pretty amazing show since we got both Salvation and Heart + Soul at the end. After the show, everyone seemed to be much happier than the previous night. We asked Peter after the show about them playing "Steal A Ride" and he said he was going to, but then Robert went into "Heart + Soul." Robert was in a hurry to go to the hotel and shower, so we didn't get to talk to him much. Nick was sitting out with his acoustic guitar and tambourine. Me and Jodi walked over to him and asked if we could take pictures and sat down to listen to him play. He was singing very softly, possibly his own songs. Suzanne came over later and sat down with us. We asked him to play an Elvis song (I have no idea why), but he didn't.

We were all just sitting and asking him questions for awhile and then this girl who said she was a friend of Robert's started talking to Nick. So we just started talking amongst ourselves. Despite the interruption, we all had a newfound respect for Nick for taking the time to sit and talk with us for so long. Near the end of the night, someone said a storm was coming and he asked Suzanne if we had a place to stay. His concern was very sweet. It was really late when we finally got back to the hotel and I was probably the first one to fall asleep. We did see Peter jamming on his guitar with someone in front of the club as we were leaving.

new BRMC interviews!

There's been a flurry of BRMC press already and the album hasn't even been released yet! Here are some new interviews to check out, including a misquoted Peter Hayes on the cons of reading too much. That one from GigWise seems like a smear campaign to make him look stupid. It almost worked, as even a few fans started posting long treatises on the importance of literature. I don't think Peter ever dissed literature, I think he was just saying you can't just live vicariously through books. Anyways, there's lots of interesting info in these articles, including a story about how Robert's lyric book was stolen after his apartment was broken into and how he had to improvise the words to American X.

BRMC delivers hard-rocking "Baby"
Fri Apr 20, 2007 10:31pm ET21
By Susan Visakowitz

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Heads Up High
Article by Jon Seller
http://www.stv.tv/content/out/music/spotlight/display.html?id=feeddb:4577

Reformed Rebels reunite
By JACQUI SWIFT
April 20, 2007
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2006140003-2007180307,00.html

BRMC Interview
Band: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Sun Mar 11 14:53:23 2007
by Simon Webb
http://www.roomthirteen.com/cgi-bin/feature_view.cgi?FeatureID=400

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club | Creating Space
Written by Dave Jasmon
http://www.playbackstl.com/content/view/6048/157/

BRMC: 'Don't Read, It's Not Cool To Be Clever'
Band dismiss education...
by Sam Villis on 13/04/2007
http://www.gigwise.com/news?contentid=30474

Rebel With A Cause
Words: Johnny K
page 34-35
http://www.webmags.co.uk/mag.aspx?magcode=TheFly_April2007&redir=1

Rockers get an upgrade
Apr 13 2007
http://icbirmingham.icnetwork.co.uk/wow/music/latest/tm_method=full%26objectid=18899361%26siteid=50002-name_page.html