We had played Dallas once before in 1988, at a club that had lost its’ liquor license the night before for serving minors, making it the *most* popular place in Deep Ellum that night, an area where people go to drink and hear music, so our expectations were pretty low coming into the show, and Dallas didn’t disappoint.
We were, however, thrilled to be playing with Scrawl, a band that we loved and who had their own new album out on Rough Trade. Marcy, Sue, and Carolyn made great records but seeing them live brought the whole thing to another level. I ain’t no rock critic so it’s hard to describe but they had that ‘something’ that always left me in awe after a show. I did not envy them (or us) though, having to play in front of a small crowd who had not come to this dance club to hear noisy pop. In addition, the club staff was total jerks to us. Our revenge that night was the relatively large pay packet we would leave with, despite the small turnout. I did the math on the crowd and our guarantee and hoped, for their sake, that they had been charging $50 at the door.
We went back to the hotel on a steamy night and Jeff and I volunteered to sleep in the RV in the parking lot of the hotel. The Tioga was meant to be used as an extra room to save money but we didn’t take into account the dense heat and humidity of the Texas night. While the rest of the band snuggled in air-conditioned comfort, Jeff and I were miserable, so we went to the front desk to see if there was any place to plug us in so we could enjoy the AC. There was not so Jeff, tired, hot, and pissed off in general, unplugged the hotel soda machine in the parking lot, and replaced it with our extension cord. We slept great after that but I felt bad for anyone looking for a cold can of RC Cola that night.
I remember getting up early and taking a shower in one of our rooms, feeling all refreshed, and then stepping outside into the morning heat and being soaked to the skin with sweat by the time I reached the van across the parking lot. As most of our tours had been in the winter or shoulder season, clearly we were dealing with a different beast here in the deep south in June. Tomorrow: a run of 2 days off as we start the eventful 1,000-mile drive to our next show in Phoenix. Make some popcorn.
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