The Psyatics, Thee Swank Bastards, Big Like Texas at the Double Down - Friday August 6, 2021

It was with a bit of trepidation that I ventured out for my first live gig in about a year and a half on Friday. Glad that it was in the familiar surroundings of our local hangout, the Double Down Saloon and with lots of familiar faces.

 The Psyatics had a record release show for Devil You Know planned back in the early days of 2020 before the pandemic hit, so this was the gig to make up for that non-happening, as well as to celebrate our pal John Armstrong's birthday.

Starting the night off nice'n'early was Big Like Texas, a 5 piece combo mixing a bit of Americana, a bit of blues, a touch of Southern Culture on the Skids, a little surf, and kinda whatever else they felt like throwing in! The sound was a little muddy, but they got the early crowd movin'n'groovin' with their upbeat sounds. (Sorry, I tried to take some photos but had forgotten how badly my phone's camera works in low light! And it was plenty dark in the DD this night!)

Following them was the always-entertaining Thee Swank Bastards, this night leader/guitarist Jesse was joined by Jeff Murphy on bass and Turbo on drums for an especially powerful'n'rockin' set of their own style of instrumental surf. All three are terrific players and they were totally on for this evening. It was great to see these cats again after all this time!

As for the Psyatics, our set combined brand, spankin' new tunes with numbers from Devil You Know and a bunch of earlier works for a well-rounded set, if I say so myself. It was also the debut of our new drummer, Ron Hudy (ex of Water Landing) and he did an incredible job of nailing the entire set after just a few weeks of practice. It was kinda weird playing in front of people again and I think I forgot just how loud we were (my ears are still recovering!) but I think it went well overall and hope that people dug what they heard. We'll be returning to the DD at the end of October but other things may come up in the meantime, depending on the plague.

Unfortunately, since I had not stayed up that late for over a year and a half, I needed some rest once we were done and I missed a DD favorite, Sector 7-G, but I'm sure that they continued the party in grand fashion!

Let's all try to stay healthy so we can continue with live music - it would be nice to have this happen on a regular basis again!