Once, pre-Internet, tour diaries were pretty much confined to 'zines and fan club newsletters, with rare exceptions running in the mainstream press. Today, huge quantities of this unique form of travel literature are available to all and sundry through the miracle of a little creative Googling. Some are first impressions, and others come from people whose relationship with H-Town goes back decades, but in either case, they afford us the opportunity to find out what visitors here really think. Here's a sampling of what we came up with a while back...
The stoner rock band Glasspack rolled through town in October 2001, when the city was in the throes of an invasion of certain multi-colored fiberglass bovines: "Houston is cleaner than a can of Lysol and every street we drove down had a cow on every corner. Houston looked like Andy Warhol had been reincarnated into a milkman. Every cow was horribly decorated in a pop art fashion. We called our new friend Yvette to show us around Houston before the show. [She] explained that it was cow week in Houston. We took some photos with the cows and then headed back to Yvette`s apartment to let her dog water his favorite tree... Yvette, the Captain, and I visited some artistic meditation center in downtown Houston and the silence nearly blew my eardrum."
The metalheads in Superjoint Ritual -- a band that once included local Michael Haaga -- love it here, especially the Engine Room. "Off to Houston, Hot Hot Hot, fucking Hot! Houston's always great, always," they enthused in 2003. "The Engine Room is a really cool club. The crowd is right there. No barriers, a band's dream....We got ready and ripped that place a new asshole. Gotta love Houston. Lots of friends, even Billy Gibbons showed up. Thanks Houston!"
Le Tigre's JD Samson also felt pretty revved up (and overheated) after a set at the Engine Room with Electrelane last year: "I can't believe how hot it gets down here in the summertime. Dana, the sound person for Electrelane, and I tried to play badminton but we got so sweaty and hot that it was just gross. So we gave up. I decided to wear my contact lenses for the first time during the show and it was pretty fucking weird, especially since there was so much smoke in the club. I felt like my eyes were about to roll offstage and into the crowd and then people were going to jump on them... But it was fun anyways to just see Houston a little bit and hang out with the kids from our tour that came along for support. When we got back I realized how much fun this tour was, and it made me really happy."
Dave Hill of Cobra Verde, on the other hand, viewed the Engine Room with less enthusiasm. His band played on the J Mascis (ex-Dinosaur Jr. guitar ace) bill a couple of years back. "I was really psyched about playing these shows since I've been a huge Dinosaur Jr. fan for years," Hill gushed. "Plus, J's got Mike Watt rocking the bass with him and George Berz from Dinosaur Jr. on the tubs and I totally dig their playing too. The show that night was at a place called the Engine Room, a longish bowling alley-type facility where one could easily imagine Yngwie Malmsteen or perhaps even Dokken taking the stage at any moment, a feeling that was further underscored by the inexplicably bad metal the club kept playing in between bands all night."
Speaking of Mike Watt, few tour diarists are as prolific or have made as many trips to Houston as the legendary Minutemen bassist and solo artist. He calls Houston "a Texas version of Los Angeles," and reminisces about meeting up with Matt Sonzala, who brought Watt in to interview on his hip-hop show Damage Control. (Watt's hip-hop connection? He used to play with Schooly D back in the day.) "Matt plays some old Minutemen and a song I did for NORML w/ Petra, Perk and George Hurley called 'Sidemousin' the Bong,' which prompts me telling the story of when I saw Bob Marley in 1979 w/Richard 'Fuckin'' Bonney," Watt remembers. "I'm sure glad Matt had me over and we got to talk about things. There's a part of Houston I've now found out about that I really didn't have any idea of, even w/ all the tours through here. Shows to go you [sic] that life is about being always open to learn and find things out."