The Shed as seen through the Gourds' van

July 16, 2011

Maryville, Tennessee

If you’ve been paying attention, you’d already know that there is no such thing as a bad Gourds show. Given that, I wasn’t going to bore you all with yet another Gourds rave review but I saw them Saturday night (7/16.11) at The Shed and the whole experience was too much fun not to share.

The Shed is an outdoor venue connected to the Smokey Mountain Harley Davidson dealership there in Maryville (correctly pronounced “MURR-ville”), Tennessee. It’s under a big tin roof and you bring your own chairs. I thought it was gonna be godawful hot but,miraculously, the temps had cooled off and we even had a breeze so, you know, perfect night to be outside, drinking beers (Shiner Bock!), eating barbecue, and dancing to the Gourds.  Didn’t get a great picture of the venue (Shiner Bocks) but there are some here that are better than any I could have taken with my phone.  Along with some fine video.

Teeny Tiny Toilet at The Shed

Aside from the Harley dealership, The Shed is also connected to an outstanding barbecue shack where you can get pulled pork, brisket, and a full rack of baby back ribs. Also some pretty darn good onion rings.  They got some real nice porta-potties in back – stay away from the one on the middle left or you might have some trouble getting out. Kinda fun, if you’re not the one who’s stuck. And they got this itty bitty toilet over near the bbq stand. So cute.

The crowd at a Gourds show is always fun (I’ve maybe been to a few shows in several states) but you can’t beat The Shed for eccentricities. As my sister-in-law described it to me, you got your bikers, your music fans, your old folks (even older than we are!) that bring their lawn chairs to every show regardless of who’s playing. your young people all dressed up for their first dates, and even the hippie chick in the teeny tiny chair (ok, we brought her which is why she wouldn’t let me take a picture and post it here).   As every one knows, biker audiences are never boring. This was a particularly friendly and polite group of bikers but still fun.

Teeny Tiny Gourds Fan

And I almost stepped on this little guy – apparently, he really loves dem gourds.

Before the show, we wandered over to inspect the Gourds van and maybe sneak a couple pictures – very luxurious compared to some band vans I’ve seen (cough, cough – The Drams). Max Johnston (fiddle, mandolin player extraordinaire) generously offered to let us climb in and smell it. So we did. He said it had aired out some. Um, that’s all I’m gonna say about that.

And I was too tongue-tied when we spoke with Max to tell him that his song “Jesus Christ With Signs Following” is one of my all-time favorite songs. But he did play “Best of Me” later on and that was awful damn good too. You gotta love that guy, he plays pretty much ALL the instruments and only write a few of the songs but every one of his songs are masterpieces.

Blurry photo of Max and Dave

I’d say maybe a third of the audience was made up of pre-existing Gourds fans and the rest were virgins. The Gourds were in prime form, even ending with “Gin and Juice” and the deflowered all left well satisfied with the experience and eager to come back for more. . . .

Partial setlist:

• All The Labor
• Grievin’ and Smokin’
• Best of Me
• Omaha
• El Paso
• Waxy”s Dargle
• Lower 48
• Do 4 U
• Pine Island Bayou medley with Rocky Top (gratuitous crowd favorite in East Tennessee)
• A couple of new Jimmy songs
• Encore: The aforementioned Gin and Juice with . . . uh, well, I don’t remember what it was with but it was a medley with a really great cover. Trust me on this.

The Gourds, Longhorn Saloon, Ft Worth, June 27, 2009
It was about 3:00 or so Saturday afternoon when I called our friends in Ft Worth to cancel out on the evenings festivities. It really did look pretty hopeless at that point; stranded in a 7-11 parking lot off I-30 in Arlington, sweltering in the 100 degree heat, waiting for a tow truck to come and take our badly overheated car back home.
Then I suppose it was due to the angels intervening on our behalf but things all started coming together in our favor. The tow truck showed up hours before we were expecting it and got us home just in time for a neighbor to offer to loan us his car and just like that, it was on again!
So after all the high drama we still made it out to the Fort Worth Stockyards and got to the newly re-opened Longhorn Saloon plenty early enough to score a choice table.
It’s a very nice room, that Longhorn Saloon, with a couple of levels, three bars, reasonably good sound and it’s got a whole lot of history too. After Saturday night’s Gourds show, they can probably add another chapter

We had plenty of time to kill, so after a couple beers I wandered over to one of the guys who work the bar and asked who was opening the show… “Some band” he told me.
“Some band” turned out to be The Gourds’ own Kevin Russell, doing one of his all-too-elusive Shinyribs solo sets. There just can’t be a better way to start an evening of Texas’ best roots-dance-techno-jug musical amalgamation than with the folksy acoustic singer- yodeling poet-performance artist at the very heart of much of that music. He told funny little stories and sang songs straight from the fetid underbelly of what they’re calling “Americana” these days. It was kind of like a big fat bonus grub worm for all of us early birds, strong satisfying stuff.
You could pretty much feel the buzz in the room when The Gourds finally took the stage. That may or may not have had something to do with the girls who came by earlier passing out sample shots of way-too-sweet Southern Comfort and lime (it took another shot of real whiskey to clear the palate of that gawd-awful stuff). By then the crowd had filled out to a perfectly respectable but not at all uncomfortable size. You could easily walk through the dancers to the stage or see the band from your table and still feel like you were at the party that night.
They started things off fittingly enough with “Country Love,” the first track on their latest album, Haymaker! They brought the whole terrible arsenal… mandolin, banjo, tambourine, fiddle, accordion, guitars, keyboards and a set of drums that got a thoroughly rhythmic pounding by Keith Langford.
Now even on an off night the Gourds are better than 95 per cent of the live music you’re likely to find playing anywhere but on a good night they can be downright transcendental. This was no off night.
At first I thought maybe it was just me being all happy to be there and shit; but no, it was definitely them. Other people there confirmed that for me, I wasn’t just hearing things…voices were in key and strings were in sync and every note sounded exactly right. They did less of the between song banter than usual but more than made up for that by playing every damn thing they played just about perfect. As usual, it was a mix of old and new. (…and yeah, that describes the audience as well as the set list. Funny thing about even the most raucous Gourds shows… you never feel like the oldest guy in the room, even if you are).
The three primary Gourdian singer-songwriters, Russell, Jimmy Smith and Max Johnson did their usual song swap repertoire and even the songs I wouldn’t normally list as favorites were sounding great. I don’t even think I can point to any highlights. Everything sounded as good as I can imagine it should sound. The band was having as great a time as the crowd. It was like a shared delirium, which is how it should be.
One thing I’ve learned following these guys is that a good deal of that contagious musical delirium can be credited to red headed accordion slinging keyboard player Claude Bernard. Like everyone else in this hippiefied traveling tent show of an ensemble, he’s an essential element. And like all the others, when he’s on it always makes a big difference.
A question we had all pondered at some point that day, how would they pay tribute to the week’s biggest media saturated news event. They answered that in high style the very end of their four song encore- a straight up disco, note for note cover of “Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough.” You could be forgiven for expecting a “Gin N Juice” treatment of that one, or for them to fuck it up somehow but, maybe out of respect or maybe just for the sheer hell of it, they kept it real with Kev singing the falsetto lead over Jimmy’s pounding bass and some authentic disco sounding keys by Claude. OK, so Max played a banjo but still.
They’re coming back to these parts in a couple months to play The Granada in Dallas and that’s another venue where they never fail to deliver the goods. And I’m pretty sure that one is gonna be a whole lot easier for me to get to.
We got your set lists here:

Shinyribs*
Devil SongSea Of Galilee
Church On Fire<
Never
Horny Toad Blues
Fisherman’s Friend
Poor People’s Store
Crown Out
When The Cat’s Outside
Country Cool
Buy You A Drink
(T-Pain)
Gourds
Country Love
Shreveport
Dying Of The Pines
Trampled By The Sun
Mister Betty
Red Letter Day
Blanket Show
Pill Bug Blues
Roll & Tumble
Blankets
Layin Around The House
Thurman
Pine Island Bayou
TTT Gas
Omaha (Billy Joe Shaver)
New Dues
Luddite Juice
Lower 48

Encore

Promenade
My Name Is Jorge
El Paso
Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough (Michael Jackson)

*Thanks, Steve!

Photo by jitter

I shamed Gracey into coming with me. I’ve been trying to force her to listen to the Gourds for about a year. Truth is, it’s really hard to get her to listen to much besides the Drive-By Truckers and her local Wyoming bands (see Hogback). But there were other, more worldly, folks coming down from Wyoming (peer pressure still works) and I promised her some corn chips. That did the trick.

Of course, she was wearing a Drive-By Truckers shirt (I think that might be all she owns). A guy offered her $1000 for it. That’s when she started believing me that Gourds fans are fun, and maybe more than a little whacked out.

And she wasn’t disappointed. I was too lazy to take notes or anything but I can swipe the playlist from other places it’s posted. Surprisingly, they didn’t play anything from their second-to-latest CD (which I count as one of their best) Noble Creatures – except Cranky Mulatto which doesn’t count ’cause it’s an old song – but they played plenty of tracks from the latest CD, Haymaker! and plenty of older tracks as well.

As the Wyoming crowd predicted, the first song was "Country Love." It served the purpose. Maybe it was just because I was down in front but it seemed like everyone in the place was up and dancing – some of us better than others. I should admit that I am grossly impaired as a dancer, even drunk (once, at a Gourds show, some woman bitched me out because of it), but that is where having Gracey along comes in handy. She has all the moves and she uses them all so no one even notices me.

Jimmy Smith played my favorite song on Haymaker! – Bridget – and it’s even better live. With Max playing the fiddle, it reminded me a lot of Roll and Tumble, one of the all-time great Gourds songs but these lyrics are even funnier ("thanks for the lift, you old geezer"). And Jimmy is so sincere when he sings it.

We had a primo spot right front of Claude (Benard) and Jimmy. Claude, who has shaved since I last saw him, was looking mighty fine. I took a picture of him and his accordion with my cell phone but I think my phone maybe had a little too much to drink before the show.

Kev (Russell) was high stepping all over the stage. I kept waiting for him to trip over all his cords but he was far too nimble.

Jimmy had the wild hair thing going. Again. Always fun to see how that is going to turn out.

They treated us to many of the old favorites: Caledonia, Maria, Blankets, Trampled By The Sun . . And then they came out for the encore and we got El Paso, Jorge (for my cat), Waxy’s Dargle, and that song from the Growin’ A Beard documentary, cause we were sneaking up on St. Patrick’s Day. I don’t remember when they played Dirty Plaid Coat but I was mighty glad to hear that one too.

Yeah, they played some great songs. 26 of them. And I guess they can’t play all my favorites at every show but I can’t wait for them to come back again and play me some more. Seeing the Gourds live is the best deal going.

Edit: Hey, look what some nice person posted on YouTube! Claude singing Whiskey in The Jar for St. Patrick’s Day.

This isn’t so much an indepth review of the CD (alright then – here’s the review: It’s good. Go buy it. You don’t really need me to tell you that, do you?) as it is a discussion of dem Gourds and how they make people happy.

You know how I know that? I listen to their stuff. I make my friends listen to their stuff. I make my kids listen to their stuff until they know all the lyrics. It’s good for their vocabularies. Even my cat likes to twist and juke to the Gourds. . .

If you like the Gourds just okay and don’t know what all the fuss is about – go see them. No one I know who has gone to see The Gourds has come away less than amazed. I’m going to see them (again) this weekend down in Denver. I’ll stand down as close to the front as I can and I’ll be shocked if I don’t laugh the whole evening. And I bet I’ll see a lot of the same faces that I’ve seen the other six of seven times I’ve been lucky enough to get to a show. One time I saw John Hickenlooper right down there in front, dancing and singing along. More proof that he’s the coolest mayor ever.

There’s a lot to those Gourd boys. First of all, you’ve got the three really strong singer songwriters. Yeah, Max (Johnston) maybe isn’t quite as prolific as Kev (Russell) or Jimmy (Smith) but his songs are among the best the Gourds have to offer. Which is saying a lot.

Then you’ve got those interesting blends of musical styles, folk, rock, bluegrass, Cajun, even a little fun. It’s all in there and it all works together.

And there are the lyrics. Half the time no one can figure out what they mean but you come away with bits and pieces that paint pictures in your mind. Lots of time they’re funny pictures and they’re always interesting.

I like it when Max plays the fiddle. A lot. He plays a lot of other instruments too. In fact, he plays most of them. I’m not going to list who all plays what but the list of instruments is pretty impressive. Accordion, piano, organ, acoustic guitar, banjo, the afore-mentioned fiddle, lap steel, resonator slide, mandolin, drums, harmonica, electric guitar, bass, and someone barks like a dog somewhere in there. I particularly enjoyed that. And they all help with the singing. Plus they are all somewhat silly. . .

Once again, regarding Haymaker: It’s good. Go buy it. And get Noble Creatures if you missed it. That was one of the best ones yet. Also, I can’t really say that Heavy Ornamentals was anything to sneeze at. So I won’t.

P.S. Can’t resist this. Favorite songs on Haymaker include “Bridgett” – a song by Jimmy about a surly hitchhiker, “Shreveport,” “Tighter,” and “Tex-Mex Mile.” But my favorites are known to change.

For one thing, I’d never been to Central Market in Ft Worth. I’ve been to the one in Dallas and couldn’t quite envision a band playing there. But there it was – a Thursday night free Gourds show at a grocery store.

We got a late start, nothing unusual about that, the show was 6-9 PM and we got on the road at about 6:30 thinking that the opening act was going to give us a little slack.

So after a 40 minute drive straight into the setting sun (who designed I-30 anyway?) we pulled in just after seven and could hear Kevin Russell singing “Roll and Tumble” on the huge outdoor patio/veranda that made the Dallas Central Market look puny by comparison. I was thinking that had to be their first song as I dropped off our party at the patio and found a parking space to the strains of “Bottle and a Dime.”

After a fairly long hike from the parking space I could feel the energy as I approached the stage area. Sure enough, this was just about the coolest venue you could imagine.

The weather was perfect. About 70 degrees under some light clouds with a nice breeze blowing and a huge crowd with the Gourds in full swing.

Kevin Russell was commenting on what a cool venue it was when we found our Ft Worth friends at a table on the second level of the patio. You could go in the store and find an amazing selection of cold single micro-brews and imports in the 1-2 dollar range and a deli with an incredible selection of the best prepared food at any super market I’ve ever been to. Then just take it all out to the patio and catch the band.

The Gourds are fairly well known for their love of Ft Worth and last night you could feel the love for miles around. The crowd was totally into it; according to our friends – who make it out there every Thursday night – they usually have a cover band playing, so hosting the Gourds was a pretty big thing. It’s a kid friendly family atmosphere (there’s a playground behind the stage) so there were lots of happy families enjoying the show.

They played anything they would have played in a club and it wasn’t the abbreviated set I was expecting on a weeknight at a grocery store. The only real drawback was that they wouldn’t play their notorious cover of Snoop Dogg’s “Gin and Juice” despite numerous requests from the audience. Kevin Russell finally said “Sorry, but tonight it’s gonna have to be milk and cookies.”

So people started yelling “Milk and Cookies!”

They did play a surprisingly complete Gourds show covering every record they’ve put out and playing a lot of requests from the enthusiastic crowd.

A real highlight came near the end when they did “Grievin’ and Smokin’” in full jam mode and worked a real nice version of “The Only Hell My Mama Ever Raised” into the middle of it.

The band was was enjoying it as much as the audience and they played for just over and hour and a half and I went away thinking that it was as perfect a show as I’ve seen in some time.

After the brutal summer we’ve had to endure here in North Texas, it was a real nice reminder of why it’s not such a bad place to live after all.

They don’t get this kind of thing in Oklahoma or Kansas, you know.

Big props to Fort Worth Weekly for hosting and big props to Bryan and Carol for the heads up!

Co-front man, Kev Russell, puts together his best four-punch yet with "Shake the Chandelier," "Pill Bug Blues," "Education Song," and the long-awaited CD appearance of the quintessential Gourds song "Hooky Junk." This doesn’t include two more traditional Russell songs, the more traditional-type Russell song "Burn the Honeysuckle," and a sort-of first, the slow-waltzy "Our Patriarch.&quot Russell is prone to sometimes overuse references to food and blood, but he keeps those references to a modicum in this latest effort, which may be the band’s first commercially successful CD. Russell, who may have been able to give Jimmy Swaggart a run for his money as a southern evangelist had he not chosen the music path, preaches tolerance in “Those That Know – The Education Song.”

Jimmy Smith steps further out front, with more originals, passion, and charming eccentricity. The Gourds, known for their image-creating, story-lacking, stream of consciousness lyrics, change things up with a slightly different writing style on some Heavy Ornamental songs. Smith’s “My Roommate” is the best example of keeping the quirk while adding substance. Instead of a catchy hook line without equally compelling verses, “My Roommate” paints five vivid vignettes into a charming tale most can relate to on some level.

Although the Gourds often seem under-promoted and aimed slightly off course of the credit and respect they deserve, the plan seems to be coming together. The Gourds are still not afraid to include profanity and references to illegal drugs, not to shock, but because those words are what the songs are about – the image is real. The Gourds have a huge tightly-knit fan club that follows the band across the country through its Yahoo group Cucurbitaceae (the scientific name for the gourd family). Several of the group’s members came to Austin the first week of February to catch four Austin and one Houston show in five days. What the hard-core fans are finding at each show, are a growing number of younger fans who know the lyrics as well or better than they do. Someone said that I make Gourds’ fans sound like a cult.; Again, the image is real. However, the cult is growing and as long as the band intentionally goes its own way with its music, an ever growing cult-like following isn’t necessarily a bad thing – see Grateful Dead.

The Gourds, classified Americana by many, have once again changed their sound, making the band once again unclassifiable. Russell now plays electric guitar on many songs. Max Johnston plays lead with the lap steel. Johnston, who doesn’t have a lead vocal track on the CD, puts in his finest performance with some of the sweetest string licks on not only the lap steel but the mandolin, dobro, fiddle, banjo, and guitar.Claude Bernard brings it with not only the accordion, but a melodic keyboard. On previous CDs, many songs not suited to the accordion left Bernard’s impressive talents out of the mix. The new keyboard sound makes the frequent comparisons to Doug Sahm and Augie Meyers even more apparent. At one of the CD release shows at Austin’s Continental Club, a group of fans gathered in the back noting that the Gourds were rocking the joint with a newfound thunderous electric sound.

The band’s vibe reaches from its home state Texas to New York and Montana without missing a beat. Part of that reason may be the beat itself from drummer Keith Langford, who somehow keeps this group, seemingly headed in four different directions on an even keel.

Much too often categorized as “swampbilly”, the Gourds are much more and less than that. Their music has always been fun.  Now it rocks as well.

- Doc Fisher

Doc Fisher is a sometimes musician living in Austin, Texas, frequenting the bars and clubs that feature many of the SlackerCountry artists. He has a journalism degree from UT-Austin and lived in Austin during early 70s, returning again full-time in 2001.

The Texas State Fair is held every fall in Dallas.  It’s maybe the biggest fair in the U.S.  Maybe the world.  It’s big.  And famous.  If you’ve seen the movie “State Fair” – well, that’s pretty much it.

My biggest complaint with the Fair is the ever-escalating cost. Every year, it costs more to get in and more to park or eat, drink etc.  Most people with families that I know don’t even attempt to go anymore, which is kind of ironic considering the huge crowds that swarm the event every year.  Anyway, it wasn’t very crowded on a rainy Monday night, so that part was okay. 

We got off to a good start when we scored the best parking spot imaginable.  It looked bad at first.  The parking lot was 9 bucks and offsite parking was even worse – 10 bucks – but the street between the two lots – about 20 yards from the gate by the stage- was free!  Can’t beat that.  And we could hear them playing while I parked the little truck.  I didn’t recognize the song but that was Jimmy Smith singing.

As we approached the Chevy Main Stage, we could see a small crowd gathered.  The band was gearing up to play “Blood of the Ram”.  The sky looked threatening and there was a hint of rain in the air.  More than a hint, it started drizzling as we parked on a couple benches.  It was fixing to pour.  We managed to catch a couple of songs before the rain got intense.  After “Blood of the Ram,” Jimmy stepped back up to the mike and they started playing “Spanky.”  The crowd left the benches and huddled up near the stage, but even that wasn’t working.  Then they played something else but by then we – along with the rest of the crowd – were seeking the shelter of the Hans Mueller Sausage Tent.

At that point ,the band quit playing and just hung out on stage while it rained.  Kev Russell (guitar, mandolin player, singer, and spiritual leader)
wandered off, then came back with a sandwich.  I suspected the previously mentioned sausage tent.

As it seemed that more music was not forthcoming, we managed to find some fine Hefty trash bags to wear as ponchos and we wandered around and took in some ambience to kill some time before the second set.  I met Jimmy (the bass player) at the coupon stand.  He said he was going for a corndog.

We returned for the 8:30 show to find only about 25 people tops waiting to hear some Gourds.  The band took the stage – which, it bears mentioning, was the most garish stage I’ve ever seen. It was about 4 stories high with brand new model Chevy’s perched on platforms in the risers.  Think of a giant, towering showroom in the sky.  The actual performance area within all that promotional space was huge too and the band seemed tiny up there, unlike a smaller nightclub stage which they and their equipment fill up. 

On more than one occasion, Jimmy made a point of telling the crowd that the set would be G-rated since we were at the fair.  This had to be a challenge for the Gourds since, it’s safe to say, their songs are not exactly PBS-for-kids material.  Still, they gave it their best shot – Jimmy even sang a ‘bleep’ for the word “shit” in “Triple T Gas.”  Of course, there were those people yelling for “Gin and Juice.”  But, as the man said, it was the State Fair, for cryin’ out loud.  There were also a few shout outs for “Hellhounds” – a song about befriending the bearded lady at the fair.  It seemed that would be a good one to play – but they didn’t. 

They did play some new songs in the 2nd set, as well as “Lower 48,” “Bottle and a Dime,” “Do 4 You,” and “Growin’ A Beard,” which they dedicated to the little town of Shamrock, Texas. 

I was watching the crowd head for the exits and saw several folks, previously on their way out,  notice the band and make a detour for the stage instead.  By the middle of the second set, there were maybe 50 people there.

One of them was Dollar Bill Johnston (pedal steel, banjo and fiddle player Max’s father).  The band spotted him and invited him up.  He had to go wandering around to find a way to the backstage but, after a short while, he managed to get in and played "Smoke Bend”  from “Cow, Fish, Fowl or Pig.”

While Dollar Bill was working his way to the mike, Max said, "He’s working the Fair again and this time he’s not running the Tilt-A-Whirl" which prompted Dollar Bill to spend a little time reminiscing about all the rides he used to run at the Fair and how they don’t make the big complicated ones like the Tilt-A-Whirl these days, in favor of rides they can fold up and load on the truck in a hurry.

The Gourds closed with a Neil Young cover – “Ready for the Country.”  After that, everyone stayed and whooped and clapped and cried out for more.  For  just an instant, when the stage lights flashed on, it looked like there might be an encore.  But then circus music started playing over the PA and everyone left.

As we walked to the truck, the moon was a thin sliver in the sky, and I saw a funnel cake that had been dropped on the ground, then rained on, just outside the gate.  Drained of any color, it kind of looked like a wet brain lying there.

And, of course, they employ every instrument in their repertoire.

A truly great surreal American band, the Gourds’ disparate parts make a pretty impressive whole. Kevin Russell has the most authentic Texas twang and a slightly bent approach to songwriting which contrasts very nicely with Max Johnson’s Appalachian yodel, and then there’s Jimmy Smith’s . . . well, whatever you want to call it.

This one kicks off with “Lower 48”: an accordion and fiddle-driven homage to the country at large with wickedly clever couplets and ends with a roll-call of the States.

Russell sounds particularly strong on this record, but Smith scores a few as well.

Even the two songs that sound like he tossed them off pretty quickly, “Wired Old Gal” and “Let Him In” have a tendency to grow on you.

"Escalade" is a Memphis soul-drenched number that has Russell channeling Al Green and delivering a sarcastic look at the futility of even trying to be concerned with global warming.

"Illegal Oyster" is a Jimmy Smith effort with a slow plucking banjo and theramin sounding saw.

"Arapaho" has Russell mixing up some very strange religious imagery with some terrific lines like:

“When in analog Rome, do as the analog Romans do.”

But the album really gets rolling after Max Johnson’s single effort “On Time”

“Do For You” is another stomping Kevin Russell accordion throw-down and “Cracklins" is a hooky little story about a very unlikely bank robbery and the perpetrator’s even more unlikely escape.

But the real highlight is the title cut, which tells another tall tale in a decidedly Waylon Jennings style with heavy bass-lines and steel guitar, this time about a randy sheep who’s blood washes away the whole town when it’s slaughtered.

The album ends with one of Smith’s more annoying songs in concert, but the studio version redeems itself with a particularly funny sample inserted near the end.

Typically crazy stuff from these white motherfuckers, but it seems to get better with each subsequent listen.

They did a great job of refurbishing the place, leaving the murals and ornate, carved wood molding intact, and installing a state-of-the-art sound system. The Granada now boasts the best sound system of any venue in Dallas. And if you don’t mind parking two blocks away on the street or shelling out 10 bucks for the close-in lot, which was free a year ago, then you really can’t beat it.

Yeah, they make you pay. An act that would cost 10 bucks anywhere else is gonna run you 15 or 20 here. And if you want to have a waitress bring you a beer instead of waiting in line at the bar or the conveniently placed, iced beer troughs, then you’ll pay an extra dollar per beverage. I doubt that’s club policy, but it’s how our enterprising waitress did it at Friday night’s show.

Still, all of that seems like pretty petty grievances considering what you got for your money last Friday when they showcased three great bands in a five hour plus show.

The Drams opened shortly after 8 pm. It was their second-ever Dallas show; and on that big stage with that big sound system, it hinted at big things to come for Brent Best and company. The Drams sounded crisp, tight, and powerful. They’re still not playing any Slobberbone songs, but if you’ve heard any of the live show tapes circulating or caught one of their rare appearances, then you could hear a marked improvement with these guys. And they were already pretty damn good at that first show. They also drew an impressive crowd for a set that early on a Friday night.

To be honest, I didn’t even realize the Bottlerockets were still together. Turns out they’d been on a hiatus for a while. They haven’t released anything since 2003’s “Blue Sky.” They came out with all their blonde wood guitars and played a set of old favorites like “Welfare Music,” “Ray Gun,” and “Thousand Dollar Car” mixed with a bunch of new songs from an as-yet-to-be-recorded new record. They closed a rocking set with an encore of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “They Call Me the Breeze,” the second time this summer I’ve seen a touring act play that one. Is this the start of a trend?

It really wasn’t the ideal placement for the Rockets. The real excitement that night seemed to be around the Drams and the Gourds. During the middle act, there seemed to be a lot more people hanging outside in the little roped-off smoking section under the marquis. Too bad, because they rocked in that Bottlerockets way of rocking.

But the place was fully packed when The Gourds hit the stage. They started off slowly with “Web Before You Walk Into It” but kicked things up right after that with a faster version of “Illegal Oyster“ That song benefits from the more leisurely pace of the studio recording; you couldn’t really hear the banjo, but Claude Bernard’s accordion, Jimmy Smith’s animated performance, and Max Johnston’s backing vocals kept it interesting.

Jimmy, Max, and Kev Russell all looked to be sporting recent buzzcuts, making them look like the shortest-haired band in all of alt country. It was most noticeable on Max and Jimmy- who’s pretty much all face now. All the better for mugging, I guess.

Since this was a Dallas show, Max’s father, Dollar Bill Johnston joined them for a great rendition of “Smoke Bend” from 2002’s “Cow Fish Fowl or Pig.”

They played a bunch of new songs from an as-yet-unreleased record mixed in with old favorites like an extended bluegrassy throwdown on “Pine Island Bayou” and big crowd pleasers like “Do 4 You” (with the riff from REM’s Seven Chinese Brothers” worked in) and “Lower 48”. They also delivered on an early-in-the-show promise. Well, actually Kev wouldn’t promise when someone yelled it out, he didn’t want to commit, or something, but hinted that they would play “Gin and Juice,” it being a special occasion and all. They closed the night with it.

The Gourds have been called Austin’s best band for the last six years. I can’t really think of a better band in all of Texas. At the very least, they’re the most fun and inventive.