Flanfire

WOW - I went to Ego's and when I got home my clothes did not smell. Which is very good news, given the quality of great music being played there on a regular basis.

My musical evening actually got started at Jovita's where I stopped in to see old friends Eric Leikam and Shelly Knight (and the fabulous Antone) and catch some of the tunes Shelly has put on her brand new CD, "Shelly Knight and the Livin' Dead," which features Eric on bass, Fred Schultz on lead guitar, and Andrew Wood on drums. The band is part of a five bands for five dollars blowout at the Red-Eyed Fly on January 7 - and I believe I heard Shelly say that the price of admission will also get you a free CD. [Also on that venue are the Addictions!] Shelly and Eric wrote all the songs on the CD, and Shelly got extra help from guitarist Kyle Judd, bassist Sean Backius, drummer Brian Reed, and Riley Osbourne on organ.

The CD is pure rock and roll (Shelly is an aficiando of power rock like Led Z and Big Brother). The first song on the CD that in any way reminds one of the earlier "Eric and Shelly" CD is "Radio," and it is followed by "15 Years," a song which shows forth Shelly's sassiness [as much as the first three songs show her angst]. Now, Mister Schultz has some chops (at Jovita's he did quite well reprising Big Brother leads). Shelly is a long-time friend and neighbor of the Addictions' Beth Richard, and her vocal style has gained from that association. Shelly is - or at least was - the top FM-radio DJ in Austin - that is, until Majic 95.5 FM let her and three other key staffers go as a pre-Christmas present (thus allowing the Christmas music month to cloud the fact that these people no longer work there). There are quite a few good songs here - including "Runaway Mama" and "To Love You." But one hopes that Shelly will realize that she is more Annie Lennox and Pat Benatar (whom I just saw on an old Dharma and whazziz name rerun) than Janis Joplin and Nancy Wilson.

It was only a short jaunt over to Ego's (of which I will write more in a separate entry), but after Clifford's set there I popped over to Antone's to catch Austin's hottest (keep your teenaged daughters on a short leash!) high school boy band - The Steps. [Well, they DID win a recent battle of the high school bands by a wide margin, and the Thompson twins -- okay they are first cousins, with Will IV at 17 and Sam at 15 both on guitar -- will one day soon be wearing Rod Stewart/Roger Daltrey shirts. The band also includes Alex "Z" Lynch (also 15) on drums, and this kid is already a real pro, and the rubber-legged Travis Perlman (whose other gig is as a co-lead singer for the high school punk band Swift as Snakes) on bass.

This Austin High quartet has the energy of the early Who, the musical tightness (especially instrumentally) of the early Kinks, and, yes, they ROCK! Now, at Antone's I felt they were not always getting their vocals across through the mike, but who cared? The place was JUMPIN! Mind you, these kids were opening for SOULHAT, an Austin legendary band that began playing under that name at about the time the two younger members of The Steps were being born. And the sizable number of SOULHAT fans were lovin' these kids - hardly realizing just how young they are. Will's dad and Sam's as well were beaming at the applause their kids were getting - and if the other dads and/or moms were there, they were, too. Watch for an upcoming gig at the Flamingo Cantina or any other place around town. Did I mention they write all their own songs?

I did take the time to get a great shoeshine while waiting for the band to start playing - one of my favorite things to do at Antone's.