two tons…

saturday evening i was originally planning to go to bryan/college station to see atarimatt (two atari 2600 systems, some custom cartridges and software, and a couple of old tvs…bleepin’ rock’n’roll) and the sk-1 project, but i couldn’t find anyone to go with me so i decided to stay in town.
instead, i was treated to an evening of music at the continental club by two tons of steel (thanks jay!). i’d gone to their website in the past and listened to a few tracks — i thought they sounded okay but sort of average, so i never went to a show while they were in town. i was wrong. they put on a great show. their steel guitar player wasn’t there because evidently he (like herb remington) is a legend and is thus on the older side and doesn’t enjoy staying out until 7am. (the band is from around san antonio.) but they had a stand-up bass, guitar, drummer, and acoustic/singer. they were energetic and sounded good. it probably also helped that a dance class had sent out a mass mailing to show up to dance, so there were a lot of people dancing (mostly pretty well) the whole evening.
the oddest thing occurred though. about an hour into their set i was watching them and i suddenly thought “hey…that drummer looks familiar.” the more i thought about it, the more sure i got. i mentioned it to jay and judith (a friend of jay’s who was there). later in the set he took his boots off to play the set in his socks, and it even made me even more positive it was him. after their show, when the singer came off the stage jay went over and asked him what his drummer’s name was. he came back and said “yep, that’s him!” so when the drummer was getting off the stage, jay said “hey, do you recognize your friend here?” and i said “i’m terry…” and he responded “yeah, you’re linc’s brother!”
it was chris dodds, who played drums for love coma with chris taylor, and also played some for matt slocum (who had been in love coma) on tour when he was later doing sixpence none the richer. he’s evidently been in two tons of steel for about five years, if i recall correctly. i hadn’t seen him since probably 1991 or 1992 or something…at least between 10 and 15 years. we talked a little while, then he had to break down. that was a pretty weird experience, running into him randomly like that.
after the show i also talked with the lead singer for awhile and went ahead and picked up their most recent release, two ton tuesday live! (from gruene hall). it’s two discs — a cd and a dvd.
monday after work i called up brad and he and kelli and i rode over to the alabama ice house and hung out there a few hours. later we were joined by jason and a friend of his. then later we all went over to late night pie and had a bite to eat. you know, brad and kelli and jason are really cool folk, and i like hanging out with them and riding around. it’s just pleasent and fun. it’s too bad tamara didn’t stick around to enjoy things like this.
tonight after work i headed over to jay and cynthia’s. it was a great evening — good food and good company.