She was a purty little thing with a sassy little mouth. Her set was littered with hilarious interludes, using her looks and her hillbilly twang to woo the audience. She talked sly shit about everyone she knows, about herself, and about us (“I appreciate you all coming out tonight when you had so many other options.”). Some of the audience members thought she was over the top and putting on a bit of an act, fluffing up the accent, but her background’s legit (rural Florida). I mean her dad went to prison for running moonshine. People couldn’t reconcile her prettiness with her supposed background. With the heavy makeup, the bleached blonde hair, the cute little outfit, and especially, pumping little spurts of throat soother in her mouth on stage, I knew she was the sort of girl who needed to be in control after a childhood that was a bit out of control. I just liked her – she’s done good for herself and she sees through life and people. So they made references to outlaw country through the night, but they were more of a country rock band. The music lacked definition, and she is definitely more of a voice and performer than a guitarist. They were at their best when the lyrics were witty and female [“I slid on my tightest pair of jeans, Combed my hair like it was 1983, Honey I know that I am just your wife, But I wanna be your girlfriend tonight”; “And we were making love in the disco era, And he was Travolta and I was Farrah, I was like man what is happening here, Dude must of put a qualude in my beer, If I wake up married, I’ll have to annul it, Right now my hands are in his mullet”], when they did covers (Johnny Horton, Merle Haggard), when they did old southern gospel, and when the guitarist sang two songs of his own. Unlike Elizabeth, he was a dopey humble hipster, in his misshapen shirt and slightly baggy dress pants, with a curly lock of hair covering his eyes. He maintained a rocker’s cool until he turned to look at Elizabeth and adoration beamed from his humble face, and when he sang, his face was a playground of emotions. His songs were simple but his voice and active face infused them with emotion – decent guitarist too – Tim Carroll is his name. We found out later he and Elizabeth just got married. The third member of the band was an Australian roughneck on upright bass – he was a sidenote, possibly because his guitar wasn’t amped properly.

i.e., me vs. Rockboy and Rockboy won; The Hackles: played Mean Eyed Cat, Rock Island Line and Folsom Prison Blues… all Johnny Cash and I was mad at their neglect of Tom but they ended up being the best band that I saw, upright bass, energetic; Kevin Sekhani: lead singer from the Box Spring Hogs (the Tom Wait cover band) took the mic and was really horrible, he apparently can’t lose the gravel voice, plus the sound suddenly went haywire and the violinist was piercing our ears while the vocals were muted (though loud enough to hear the horror of the voice), gravel voice stomped angrily off the stage saying It could have been worse, later saw him kiss a screaming wench of a drug whore and then shake his head and chuckle at his own depravity – a young dumpy girl took the stage and sang Stop Draggin’ My Heart by Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty, she did a much better job; Reid Wilson and His So-Called Friends: three Boulder, Colorado sorts clustered around one mic with banjo and such singing to each other, sound continued to be so bad that they were completely inaudible, ended with a whispery Ring of Fire; Grub Dog and the Modestos: sound and attitudes got fixed though the keyboards could have been toned down in this band, did Cash’ Boy Called Sue and some other song; Fearsome McPete: Unrockgirl’s man drums for this band, their name is apparently in flux, met the bassist and his pregnant wife, bassist seemed embarrassed at his lame friend’s puppy dog slavering and antics to catch Unrockgirl’s attention

disappointing, so old and melodic, harmonizing with a woman seems to be his thing – she may have been Exene but I think/hope not, he was stirring when he first launched into his raucous/rockish country

Very good punk country. Upright bass player who looked the part. Short intense guitar/lead vocalist. Old friends from Tennessee who just moved to Austin. Rockboy compared them to locals, WT Special, though I would say they’re better and harder.

Straight rockabilly. Great look. Extremely glam rockabilly girl bassist. Rockboy describes as hopped up Johnny Cash. Varied from jumpy to slow to hard – I enjoyed the great dark country. All of them were good guitarists. rockboy also describes as Flat Duo Jets and Legendary Shackshakers and Gun Club (he had a bit of a thing for this band). The band livened up as show went on into darlings and even the ice princess smiled.

fantastic dark country, noodling like a spaghetti western, actually casting long shadows on the wall behind them, no vocals, prog to me but surf guitar to Rockboy, really liked them

the gal pal of WT Special, the sound was so off for their set I almost couldn’t discern her effortless beautiful tang of a voice, good rockabilly, better than WT by far, the sound was really bad

Rockboy’s babies finally presented to me and I didn’t hate them, they’re a bit of a cheesy bar band but they are fun and they are in earnest, lead is a styling mechanic from Oklahoma who is all heart, fat baby stand-up bassist with ring through his nose, sexy vocalist, miniscule drummer, 80s throwback partyboy on lead guitar, played Johnny Cash every other song, very hopped up

short promo show before their Stubb’s apperance, badboy cowpunk, acoustic set so not at all like the studio recordings I have heard, great voice, guitarist wearing a Tom Petty shirt and that exactly expresses their lack of concern with cred

Harder [than earlier acoustic promo show] but still pretty, really good band, guitarist is amazing, brought a daughter on at end, good interaction with crowd, still unassuming, from Arizona

TheNewHippie’s latest band, he described it as “cow punk,” I’d describe it as crap, funny sardonic lyrics, improved as set went on, loved it for the joy of seeing TheNewHippie on stage, I took pictures for him to send to father

from Red House Painters and Sun Kil Moon—whatever, reminded me of Townes Van Zandt and John Denver, FakeRockGirl said his voice would be like “butta” but the sound in the venue was unfortunately canned-sounding, he sang lyric-heavy crooning songs of despair, they were The People’s type songs but so fucking depressing—I was warned but fresh from my weekend of breakdown I couldn’t cope, it was him too—so obviously fucked up—tic-ing and cringing and shying from the crowd—shadowed eyes—apparently his last show there he freaked out on the crowd, FakeRockGirl’s friend had a “weekend” with him and when he called for requests he turned his head sharply in our direction when he heard her voice say calmly amidst the chorus of calls “Hey, Mark, could you play…” and he played her request, the band boys were gorgeous but I wasn’t impressed until I heard they were from my best-name-ever band

MyGirlFriend was bitter and wanted to leave, they’re typical country rockers, sure the lyrics are entertaining, heard three songs

best of the females, rough voice, rough looks, entertaining lyrics, Heart and country, said “fuck” five+ times and threw fit when lost lyrics

supposedly country for the thinking man, from Athens, GA

love the voice—allow me to call it a whiskey voice, he is my kind of country