continued…..
March 25
I woke up after a good night’s rest and after catching up with Grubby on our lives, he offered me the use of his van for the night, since he had a gig of his own across town and wouldn’t be able to catch my show. It was a very kind thing to do and all he asked of me was to not lose the key because it was the only one he owned.
I drove to the Mohawk on Red River and checked in with the staff there. I loved the room and felt excited the second I looked at the stage. I was early so not many people were around. Eventually, Exene, surrounded by several Austin musician friends and fans walked in and, as she passed me, I waved, smiled and said, “hi Exene!” and she responded with a “hi” back but walked right on by. It was apparent that she didn’t recognize me. No big deal. I meet a lot of people too, especially at gigs and what-not. I certainly don’t recognize everybody who walks up to me, even folks I’ve met in the past. I hung out and a few minutes later, she walked up to me, this time a little more familiar and said, “hi Kevin! It’s good to see you!”.
She did a soundcheck with the musicians she had backing her for the night, including well-known Austin guitarist Will Sexton (younger brother of Charlie who, y’know, only has played with Bob Dylan and the like) who came up after my soundcheck and introduced himself and seemed like a nice enough fellow.
On her way to grab her merch, Exene told me she was going out to eat with friends and asked me if i would stay with her merch and keep and eye on it. No problem, i said. I had thought about grabbing some coffee but would go look for some once she got back. I set up my merch and talked with the guys from AVV who were opening the show. They appeared to be devil-worshippers but seemed super friendly, friendlier than many Christians I know, so what the hell. There was no sign of Exene or her merch so I just assumed that she would take care of it once she got back from dinner.
AVV went on and I watched bits of their set. The crowd was trickling in but was looked promising. Exene got back to the club about 2 minutes before I began my set. She and her posse brought in boxes of merch as I began to play.
I loved my set. The stage gave me room to think but wasn’t too big. The sound was phenomenal and if I could remember the name of the great soundman that night, I’d share with you his name because he did an AWESOME job. The crowd was friendly, loud and enthusiastic and I think I did them well. It was definitely a great set to kick off a tour, if I do say so myself.
After my set, I walked over to the merch table to try and sell my CDs and vinyl. Raven (a woman who had been traveling with Exene and would be driving with us until we got to Memphis where she lives) handed me $20 because she had kindly sold a couple of my CDs while I was playing. I talked with quite a few people, fans of my solo work and 7Seconds, and enjoyed every bit of it. I even got a kiss from a beautiful redheaded girl who had seen 7Seconds in Houston in the ’80s which seemed impossible because of how young she looked. This doesn’t happen all too often these days so when it does….well shit man, it’s pretty nice.
Just before Exene went on, she came over to me and sort of grumpily said, “I need you to watch merch for me. It’s not Raven’s job and she shouldn’t be stuck behind the merch table”.
What the fuck?! I just got off stage and rushed over to the merch table to sell my own shit cuz I had no one to help me and now I’m getting mildly bitched at for not being around to sell HER shit? Plus, like I said, Exene and her merch didn’t even show up until right before I went on, so how in the fuck would I have been able to help her? I wasn’t sure what Raven’s “job” was on the trip but I was pretty sure she was ok with helping out with Exene’s merch, at least occasionally. I was a little taken aback. My understanding was that, since we were traveling together, just her and I (and now Raven), we would help each other out and get each other’s backs. You know? Stuff musicians, artists and decent humans do for each other when they can?
Boy was I WAAAAAY wrong about that, I would soon come to find out.
I caught most of Exene’s set which was fun. But I was feeling slightly off-balanced and paranoid about straying from the merch table for too long.
After the gig and some great conversations with some lovely people, including a couple in their 30’s who had been longtime fans and were getting married soon, I packed up, got paid and headed off in Grub’s mini-van to find I-35 to get back o his place. I got on to a frontage street along 35 and came up to a stop light. As I approached the small car in front of me, I heard this horrific crash sound and instinctively, my body tensed up and eyes closed tightly shut.
2 seconds later, BOOM! Someone had smashed into the back of the mini-van and pushed me a few feet into the left lane next to me. I gasped and then, once realizing that I was alive and seemingly uninjured, I jumped out.
I first walked up to the car in front of me who I had tapped lightly. The couple inside were fine and our cars suffered no damage. I then walked back to the car that had plowed into me, a beautiful gold, 1965 Chevy El Camino, and looked inside. It was the sweet couple I had just talked with at the gig! He was in the driver’s seat and on the phone to 911, visibly upset and frustrated by the many questions he was being asked. She was in the passenger side, holding her face and crying uncontrollably. Her face had hit the dash, there was some blood and it appeared that she had cracked some teeth and cut up her gums quite bit. They both hopped out of the totaled El Camino on their own and once they did, me and the driver walked back to check on the driver who had plowed into them with is mammoth black SUV. He said he was ok as well but seemed severely confused. Later on, after seeing all the beer cans and bottles in his car, we’d come to realize that he was wasted.
I started to walk back to the mini van to check on the damage done to the back end when I heard the El Camino driver yell, “MOTHERFUCKER!”. I walked back and he told me that the SUV driver ran off. Son of a dick!
The Austin fire department and EMS people were there within minutes. They checked on all of us and when one of them asked me if I was alright. I nearly lied because I felt embarrassed to admit to the mild whiplash I had received, only because whiplash is the first thing people claim after an accidents and I’ve seen way too many bad TV shows where someone is faking a sprained neck or something to squeeze a little extra money from someone. I hadn’t hit my head or body on anything and I felt pretty ok.
The police were called and several drove past the accident scene, as did obviously drunk drivers who passed us and actually heckled us and the accident. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like that. The El Camino girl was standing outside of the beloved and badly destroyed car she had gotten when she was 15, bloody and crying, and these hipsters cocksuckers are making fun of her and us.
To make a long story short. It took Austin PD 2 hours to finally make it to our accident. The fire department (7 firefighters and their 2 trucks) stuck it out with us the entire time and did what they could to calm and attend to us. When the cops got there, they were visibly annoyed, short and almost accusatory, as though the accident was our faults. One of the cops even flipped me a little shit for being from California.
Eventually, a tow truck showed up and we were allowed to go. I drove Grub’s mini-van back to his place and paid attention to how it drove. It seemed ok to me.
It was almost 5 am by the time I hit South Austin and Grub’s. I got out of my clothes, brushed my teeth, texted Al a ‘goodnight. I love you’ and off I went to sleep.
to be continued……
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