live funk rock

PT’s Inferno, Friday! Discount Coupon

Tonight’s (May 12th 2010) show starts at 10P sharp. If you print out this coupon, or show it on your smart phone, you’ll get a $3 discount off of the $10 cover charge. You can also text your phone number to 512-626-7898 and I’ll text back a code you can show at the door for the discount.

PT’s has had some incredibly bands in the past, including The Doors and Cream. It may or may not also be a strip club; rumors abound but no one can confirm personally. One thing we know for sure is “PT’s Club Inferno is known for being a pretty wild place to party.” Plus, Achachay! is known for bringing the party. So it’s going to be a kickass time. See you there!

More live footage: Sunshine + Rock People

We just discovered footage on youtube from Boston and New York on the last tour! Both are Sunshine. We also have an iPhone recording of “Rock People” from Ell’s in Oklahoma, although the quality is fairly low.

Videos of Achachay! playing the Ruby Room in San Diego

Playing Friday night at the Ruby Room was sweet. Check out these videos of us playing our funk medley (James Brown, Chic, and Stevie Wonder – “Get Up,” “Good Times,” and “Superstitious,” respectively) and “Get Funky” – caught on video for the first time ever!

- The owner, Steve, is a great guy

- The bar is really cool, as it the area around it. Well know for being lgbt friendly, I of course got hit on by one of the male bartenders. Too bad I’m taken and straight; he was pretty cute

- It was great staying with Sara and Trevor. They got the party started!

- Plus, they’re responsible for these videos and photos (thanks guys)

- Plus, they fed us delicious food the next morning.

- The place got crazy with everyone dancing and loving it

- The bands The Attack and Archery for the Bling rocked as well.

- We’ll be back, for sure.

Pascagoula – the Best Night (so far)

Our third show on this tour was at a bar called The (World Famous) Celtic in Pascagoula, Mississippi. We played there once before, on our last tour, but we had such a different experience this time that I think I’ll look back on this show as the real first time we played at the Celtic. Last time it was a hot, May night and there was hardly anyone there—more or less a fairly lame show. This time was different.

After spending the day in New Orleans with some friends, we headed to Pascagoula with low expectations. We knew we would put on a great show, but I expected it to go on much like last time with a small crowd and a more or less quiet night. We’ve been couch-surfing on this tour (successfully I might add) and we arranged to stay with a guy named David in Pascagoula. He was the only person listed on the site for Pascagoula that would take 3 travelers at once, so we didn’t have much of choice if we didn’t want to pay to stay somewhere and based on his profile he seemed like a cool enough guy to give it a chance.

The whole crew: David, Jordan, Hooch, Michael, Chris, Ryan, and Lindsay

David and his friends Lindsay (sorry if misspelled your name!) and Michael along with another couch-surfer named Chris all came out to the Celtic to check out our show. We met the group briefly before the show and talked a bit—everyone seemed down to have a good time that night and came off really friendly, but there was still that semi-awkwardness that comes with meeting a new person. I should also mention that I was in a good mood after witnessing one of the closest wins in Texas history over Nebraska, which automatically pushed the evening in a good direction. So we got on stage and fucking wailed for around 80 minutes, even throwing in a cover of “Good Times” by the band Chic. We got off stage feeling like we rocked it, and based on the response from the 30 or so people there we knew we did something right.

David and Michael came straight up to us after the show gushing about how awesome it was, and we couldn’t have been happier to please our hosts for the night. At that moment something changed. The “wheels came off” and we all started to get along really well. David at one point even said, “We were glad that you guys didn’t suck, cause that would have been weird.  Might have had to point you in the direction of the nearest hotel!” That awkwardness from before completely went away and in about 20 minutes from when the show ended the feel was less like meeting strangers and more like hanging out with old friends. Shit! We had a good time! We probably got off stage around 1:20 or so and we ended up hanging out and talking until the bar closed down around 4:30.

David christens "Hooch"

It was a night with many hilarious moments. Some how the idea that Ryan, our new bass player, needed a nick name in order to avoid the problem of having a 3-piece band with two Ryans came up. David took one look at him and in a matter of seconds said, “Hooch. Your nickname is Hooch.” No logic, no real reason other than David thought he looked like a ‘Hooch’. The name has thus far stuck and we get a laugh out of it almost every time. So if you meet Ryan now, be sure to call him Hooch!

Jordan talks with Chris, fellow couch-surfer

Eventually it seemed like half the bar was sitting in our circle and just joking and having a good time. I can’t remember a better time with people I had met only hours before. The other couch surfer, Chris, was a really cool guy who is biking (bicycling) across the US. It was pretty cool to talk to him about his treks across the South all the way to Toronto on bike.  He even told us a story or a time in Alabama where he asked to join a family in their pool because it was so hot. The mother said yes and he got in. After cooling down for a few minutes there was a ruckus from the porch, and a man (presumably the father) started firing rounds from his gun and yelling, “What the hell is going on!” Chris had to make a run for it that time and narrowly escaped.

Now I have to talk about Mark Twain. Everyone knows who Mark Twain the writer was I assume, and if you have ever read one of his books, namely Huck Finn or Tom Sawyer you know his writing style is in a southern-dialect and vernacular that was common in the South in his time around the mid 1800s. In the Celtic on this wonderful Saturday night was a man dressed in a suit, who looked like he had just stepped out of the “Smooth Criminal” video—fedora hat and everything. This guy was a trip. I went up to the bar to get another pitcher and he struck up a conversation with me. If this guy didn’t sound like he was a fucking character from Tom Sawyer then I don’t know what he sounded like. It was like talking to Mark Twain, hence the nick name he received for the rest of the night.  Mark Twain proceeded to talk about his forty-two day ‘tour’ of the United States, where he walked, hitched, and bussed his way to California and back having never left Pascagoula in the twenty something years of his life. I cannot remember his real name for the life of me, but I tell you what, I’ll never forget this dude’s face or his way of talking. It was one of a kind, dated back to the 1860s. Just brilliant!

Ryan and Lindsay, football aficionados

So after everyone was well acquainted and the bar couldn’t serve us any more drinks, we headed back to David’s (about 7 blocks and a minute’s drive away). We continued to talk and have a good time until about 5 AM. The next morning David cooked us all breakfast and we hung out sharing music until the afternoon. It was also a pleasure to watch Lindsay yell at the TV as the Saints (Who Dat?!) pulled off another astonishing come-back win against the Redskins.

All in all that was the best night on the tour thus far (at least for me), and definitely the best couch-surfing experience I’ve ever had. If you haven’t checked out couchsurfing.org and you like to travel cheap and meet new, interesting people I suggest you do it. We have a bunch of new friends in Pascagoula now and a new one in Atlanta (Chris the biker) as well. What a night!

- Ryan Greenblatt

Red Eyed Fly – This Saturday Nov 14th – Last big show b4 the tour

This show is going to be huge, and awesome. You have to make it out! Here’s why:

- We’re going to have a TRUMPETER, for the FIRST TIME EVER

If that isn’t enough to convince you:
- It’s our last big show before the tour (Thanksgiving, then we leave on Dec 3)
- It is likely the last big Austin show of 2009 (we get back December 23rd)
- We have NEW MERCH, such as sunglasses and hand towels
- Most of the proceeds of these sales go to Leukemia-Lymphoma Society
- Everyone else is going to be there

Help Spread the Word

Check out these flyers, print them, hang them up, pass them around, email them, just get them out there. Remember there are incentives if you bring people to the show, including Ho Bus rides.

Click for a bigger version. Mac users, Control Click and select "Save Image As"

Click to get a bigger pic, PC right click and "save target as"

Youtube Videos Up!

Check them all out at our Youtube account

SWEET! I’ll probably later shorten this post and have only one video, plus links. Austinites can request the whole thing on channels 10, 11, and 16 (Time Warner Cable’s and Grande Communications’ Austin viewing area). http://www.channelaustin.org/ not sure exactly how you request but here’s a number to try 512.478.8600