Flirt, don't squirt!

A poor hotel choice meant I was on the road bright and early that morning. "Texas’ Best" my ass.

My shortest drive on this road trip also had the best weather. There was a bit of fog, but otherwise it was shaping up to be a nice day.

I finally found the Holiday Inn Express where Cara and Stephanie were. I about busted a gut when the clerk at the front desk announced that "Miss Lisa" was here to see them. Watching my yankee friends deal with various southern-isms provided an endless source of amusement that weekend.

We headed toward the Theatre District to scope out the venue and find some lunch. The *%$^% one way streets had me swearing like a sailor again. Oh well. It was such a nice day that passengers didn’t seem to mind the scenic route.

Houston’s Theatre District has grown and expended since I was there a few years ago – back when the ‘stros played at Enron Field. DOH!

There’s a huge ferris wheel in front of the aquarium now and I believe the whole Bayou Place (home of Verizon Theatre, the Hard Rock Cafe and other restaurants) complex is just a couple years old.

In fact, the Verizon is next door to the HRC. We knew our friend Junko would be spending some time in there before the show that night. LOL

Cara wanted something very "Texas" to eat so we talked her into chicken fried steak at the Longhorn Cafe. Stephanie had the nerve to say that Denny’s makes it better. LOL! I don’t eat the $hit though, so how would I know?!

Back at the Verizon, we discovered that a local radio station was giving away a chance to win front row seats and backstage passes for each donated canned food item. Seems we now we had a project to pass the time before picking up Junko at the airport!

After hunting all around and asking for directions twice, we finally found a Fiesta Supermercado. (Think Walmart with a more ostentatious jewelry counter.) Once we’d purchased a fine selection of items, we had to high tail it to Bush Intercontinental Airport.

I can’t abide this *&#$^%% big city traffic! Of course I managed to miss the entrance for the carpool lane. An already formidable blue streak grew that much longer. And bluer.

Stephanie and I greeted Junko at baggage claim. The smile when she saw the Homer sign from the top of the escalator was worth the trip alone. We’d left Cara to nap in the car (poor thing was fighting a cold) and guard our canned food. LOL Our September traveling foursome was together again!

After more traffic and more swearing, we arrived at the venue – just in time to miss CT walking into the venue. DOH! My use for the f-word knows no bounds. ;)

Outside the theatre we met up with friends from all over including Kim G from Leeds and Nese from across town. :D We dropped off the canned goods certain that 40 items would score us those front row seats! :P

Stephanie, Kim and I were happy to see Kevin again. We’d met him back during the Austin album shows and never heard from him again! He had pictures of his two adorable daughters. Of course, I was happy to share some of Zach. :)

Brian the Trick Driver was on hand, too. Always nice to see him. He took some pictures for us and held our cameras so they wouldn’t be confiscated by goons at the door. I swear to god it wasn’t to take photos of the show - I just needed it for a photo op with Brother Wayne, dangit! :D

After a shopping trip to the HRC, we headed inside. Stephanie enjoyed a $5 slurpee and I dined on a dee-lite-ful $7 coke/pretzel combo. Brian stopped by our table and we all got a laugh when some broad approached him, batted her eyelashes and asked how she could get backstage.

Oh the irony. She actually won the drawing for one of the sets of backstage passes! Doh!

The theatre was pretty nice. Not as nice as Nextstage but definitely better than Corpus. LOL Non permanent seats were set up in several sections on the floor and a balcony wrapped around it – sorta like a really big House of Blues.

Later that evening, it appeared as though the floor was sold out and a fair amount of seats upstairs had sold too. Nice to see our boys selling these bigger venues so well.

Poor Damnwells! The theater was mostly empty for their set. We enjoyed it though. Tonight they switched out a song and added "Texas" to the list. Wonder why?!

They cracked me up because they kept whoring the club gig they had that night after CT’s show. At one point Alex tried to make us believe that BEC would be there.

From the sound of things, they were really working their butts off on this tour – playing shows on "off" nights as well. Nice work ethic guys! And another great set.

Another reason I liked them so much was that they’re properly respectful of CT.

Seems to me that the big venues intimidated them a bit. Plus it must be disappointing to play to so many empty seats.

Before Wayne’s set, they did the drawing for the tickets/passes. We didn’t win. Doh! Oh well. There were several numbers drawn because nobody in the theatre had a winning ticket. Whoops!

Yea! Another night o’ Wayne. :) As luck would have it, 2 people were not in their front row spots, so Junko and I were happy to fill them

"Something’s Broken in the Promised Land" is classic. How can you not love a song that begins with: "Some mother f***er is pissing on my grave"?!

During the first number I got a nice smile of recognition from the man. It’s official. I have a crush on Wayne Kramer. LOL!

Tonight’s set included the same three songs from Adult World and a new favorite of mine: "Shining Mr. Lincoln’s Shoes" off of the Return of Citizen Wayne disc. He played another cool tune off of that one called "Back When Dogs Could Talk" about the MC5 days. Killer stuff.

And then there’s "No Easy Way Out." As a person who’s had to go to hell and back to overcome her bulimia demons, this song really gets me.

Going back to the AW stuff, Wayne blew the lyrics on "Brought a Knife to the Gun Fight." LOL He skipped ahead a couple verses and had to basically go with whatever came out. Doh! At the end when he sang, "I need a little more," he threw in, "Oh god, do I!"

Not to mention the fact that the mix was always so great. You could understand the lyrics 99% of the time – something that really appeals to the diction obsessed actor that I am!!!

Wayne told us that we were part of something very important that night. The promoter had informed him that the canned food was coming in by the truckload. He said this gave him hope for humankind.

Immediately after his set, I booked it to the lobby so I could have him autograph my copy of Adult World and ask for a photo.

There was quite a crowd of folks, so I tried to keep my gushing brief. LOL

I asked if they ever did "Nelson Algren Stopped By" and he said they do every song of the CD – they change up the set list every night. Adding it was tough to pick tunes because they’re strictly limited to 45 minutes.

When I told him I intended to trouble him for a photo, he insisted that it was no trouble and even came out from behind the counter so the angle wouldn’t be all funky. Awwwww…

Apologies to Stephanie for interrupting her convo with Ted of the Damnwells for that. ;)

And apologies for the crappy resolution on that photo too. The hard copy's much better. Don't think I'll ever bother with the POS Kodak disk again. :P

There was a rush to the front of the stage at the top of the show, so we followed the crowd. After what happened at Nextstage, there was no way I was gonna stand idly by while folks ran in front of me. We were shooed back to our seats by the end of the acoustic set.

It was another great night for CT. All of the guys were having a ton of fun and it showed.

Rick was animated as always – really using the security types for pick target practice. LOL

Before the encores, Robin took the mic for his usual, "Thankyouthankyouthankyou" thing. I held up my Homer sign and he actually saw it from where I was off to the side, read it aloud and smiled! Awwwwwwwwww!

He told everyone that they’d spent a lot of time this week at IAH, so it was nice to finally make it to downtown Houston.

Rick told everyone that he’d bought a new guitar that afternoon and would get a discount at Rockin’ Robin (presumably the music store where the purchase was made) if they mentioned Cheap Trick. Tom prompted him to add that it would be a 50% discount. LMAO! Rick elaborated further, "I haven’t spoken to them about it but I’m sure they’ll give it."

Once again he thanked the Damnwells, Wayne Kramer "and his band of renown" for opening. John Candas got a shout out – I think Rick said he had a bigger merch gig right now. Awwwww….

The drunken a$$hole in the front row kept screaming something at Rick, so finally he brought the mic over and the guy yelled, "VOICES!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Rick’s reply? "With a voice like that, I’m glad Robin’s our lead singer – not you!"

He gave a shout out to fans from all over – saving the biggest schpeal for Junko, who got a big cheer when he told everyone she was at the Budokan shows. After all those name checks he fluffed them off, saying, "But who cares about them? The most important thing is YOU’RE here!" :P

Before "The Flame" Rick caught a woman trying to leave, so he invited her onstage. LOL I guess she tried to kiss him, but Rick dodged it - "Hey, no paternity suits!" She revealed that she wasn’t really pregnant, she just had to pee, so he told her to go pee, then come back and they’d make her pregnant. After a lot of hoots from the crowd, he back peddled a bit and asked if we had this saying in Texas: "Flirt, don’t squirt"! LMGDMFAO!

Around this time, Tom made a comment that set Rick off on his current fixation on the infamous Paris Hilton video. After Tom observed that Rick looks like the guy in the video, Rick said that it really is him. "It’s all my moves."

In another moment of silliness, one of the Damnwells handed Rick a note, telling everyone to come to their show later that night... "P.S. You suck!" Not sure if that last bit was a Rick ad-lib or not. ;)

We visited with many folks before taking off… Nese, Lisa, Elsa, Mutsumi, Noriko, Mika, Brian, to name a few. Great to see them all! As much as I wanted to hang out, we needed to search for food and I needed to recharge before driving through to Austin.

Two fans accosted Junko as we made our way to the car. They wanted a picture with the woman who was at Budokan! :) She was happy to oblige – I lectured them to buy the new album, which made Junko laugh. Of course I had to tease her for her celebrity, too.

We found a Denny’s on the way out of town and I convinced Junko to try chicken fried steak since she’d missed it at lunch. I got the feeling that she wouldn’t be dining on it again any time in the near future. ;)

Back on the road, the tour bus went flying past us, doing 85 MPH, easy. Now if I did that, my ass would be pulled over in a heartbeat. LOL

Is it just me or have a set a new record for using the word "ass" in these reviews?! :D Just in case.... ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass.

Rick	Black suit, John Candas t-shirt
Bun	Black t-shirt, black jeans , bball cap
Robin	Black suit, white shirt, black tie, that @#*(&^$%^ hat
Tom	Long cream leather jacket, black shirt with a target (bold choice for Texas, son!), dark pants

Fan Club	Junko and I got a name check from Rick on this one. Woo hoo! Or is it yee haw?! :) Robin gave us all a smile too
I Can't Take It
If I Could	Rick played a bit of "I Don’t Love Here Anymore" before this one – fun stuff!
Lookout	Still. Love. The. Song.
E Drone	Said it before, but I’ll say it again – this is a cool ass transition
Just Got Back
Big Eyes
IYWML	<insert this was #1 everywhere but the US comment here>
Pop Drone	WC Dawn said it best, "This is musical heroin!!!"
My Obsession	<insert new single intro here>
IWYTWM
Best Friend	Two words: GO ROBIN!
IKWIW	Tom played a little of the intro to "Daddy Should Have Stayed in High School" before this one. TEASE!
Words	Some losers sat for this. :P
Never Had a Lot to Lose	Rick sent 2 picks my way and I couldn’t catch either one, damnit!
The Flame	Rick caught somebody leaving before this one, so he had her hauled up on stage to ask her if she was pregnant, had to pee or both… See more on this in the RN Sez section…. His solo was brilliant tonight and Robin made me say "Goddamn!" when he popped that note.
70's Song
Surrender	Cara was thrilled to get a name check during the "alrights."
Scent of a Woman
Dream Police	So many picks flew over to our section and I didn’t get one. DOH!
Goodnight Now