I don't go out much. After I "retired" from government, I went back to work. For the government. Only now, I have the hardest job ever.Most nights I am just completely spent.
But I want to go out. I want to live the life I imagine, the one where I hang out at music clubs wearing Hawaiian print shirts, hobnobbing with legendary bluesmen, and photographing girl bands. I live in Austin, Texas, where you can have the concert experience of your life any night of the year, so it isn't like there's no opportunity to realize this vision. And yet it is so rare I have the energy to actually do it. I have to plan (something I'm not good at at all), and I have to drink a big glass of iced tea, and sometimes take a 12-hour sudafed, if I am to have any chance at all of staying awake until the first act takes the stage.
Recently, at the very end of South By Southwest, I happened on a band, The BlueBonnets, who are everything I'm looking for in a concert experience: great, photogenic musicians who rock the house. After taking a few photos of The BlueBonnets, I managed to contact the band and arranged to photograph them again, at Austin's premiere blues club, Antone's, on 5th Street.
I showed up on a night in April and got some shots, but the lighting was impossible and I'm no Barry Doyle, so I was somewhat less than delighted with the results. So, I had been sort of emailing and FaceBooking back and forth with one of the women in the band, and found out on Wednesday that they would be playing Antone's again tonight. So, after a big glass of tea and a 12-hour, and after celebrating my wife and my daughter's birthdays with about a million bikers who had come to town to see Robby Knievel jump over the state capital, I showed up at Antone's to get the latest shots of The BlueBonnets.
I was somewhat more pleased with the results this time, so I wanted to show off some of these shots I have taken of the BlueBonnets.
Dominique Davalos plays bass for the BlueBonnets. She has also played in the Go Go's and the Delphines.
Eve Monsees plays lead guitar for the BlueBonnets. She also plays in her own band, Eve and the Exiles (which, as band names go, just about can't be beat). Over the years she has played in the Go Go's, as well. They were saying tonight that Ms. Monsees is the new owner of Antone's Records.
Kathy Valentine plays lead guitar for the BlueBonnets. She also was a founding member of the Go Go's and played in the Delphines.
Dominique, in the April show, where I never could get her in just the right light.
Eve Monsees again. This is one of the best images I have ever taken.
Kathy and Dominique having fun earlier tonight.
Kathy Valentine rocking the house.
One more of Dominique Davalos, since she's been so nice to let me photograph and keep me in the loop on upcoming performances.
The BlueBonnets, June 14, 2009, at Antone's nightclub on 5th.
Pinetop Perkins was celebrating his 96th birthday at Antone's, by the way.
The moral of the story: in Austin, even if you have so much work you can't even get out of town on the weekend, it is ridiculously easy to go out for live music, and still get home in time to watch Saturday Night Live.
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Comments
People no doubt find my constant Austin boosterism tedious, but I've lived here for over 30 years and I've still not gotten over how extraordinary the music scene is. That a band like The BlueBonnets, composed of stellar musicians with a resume that includes a genre-defining band like The Go Go's, is an opening act, and that they can be so accessible. It is, in a way, unbelievable.
These photos are really fun and put me right in the front row where I like to be. This is rockin' good fun. Thanks!
Nice pics. Thanks.
Stacey, it is funny you would mention Muddy Waters. Muddy Waters was the very first act I ever saw at Antone's, way back in 1976, in its original location on E. 6th Street, not long after the venue opened. I was drunk as a skunk that night and don't remember anything he played, except "Boom Boom".
And yet: You're right: hot, hot, hot. Thanks for mentioning that: it sounds much less like leering when you say it.
keen, there is no place quite like Austin. And there is no club quite like Antone's. I've never, until possible the last year or so, been a regular at Antone's nightclub--the club's founder, blues promoter and enthusiast Clifford Antone, passed away a few years back, and I never knew him--but I have to tell you the people who work there are the kindest people I know at any of the venues around town. I always feel welcome there, and I have never been to a show there that wasn't excellent. That I happen to have found a band--a wonderful band--who have chosen to indulge me in this way, is truly special.
which i have been collecting "forever" ( about 40 great ones, some, not so great,I just liked the patterns), and i'm glad I did. The Blue Bonnets can go. but you are a lot like me, Big ambition"s, but the ole' body just don't wanna' follow.Great Post
Q
yeah I think everyone has that fantasy of being in a rock band sometime in their life.
try Rock Band or Guitar Hero. great for some of those cravings man....