When Hank III came to town

Hank Williams III and his band "Assjack" played at the Ridglea in Fort Worth on Monday the 22nd. I had never seen him before but had heard enough about his shows to make me want to go. Unfortunately, I got there late and only managed to catch the last song of Hank III's country set. When the cowboy hat comes off and the ball cap goes on, look out! That's when the punk / metal stuff starts, and all hell breaks loose. Hank and his band played 20 minutes of high-tempo speed / punk / thrash / metal, then Hank left the stage and his band continued to play for another 30 minutes. It wasn't the best sounding punk stuff I've ever heard -- actually, it was pretty bad -- and I've got an ear for this kind of stuff, having grown up during the 1980s honing my musical tastes on such punk legends as the Sex Pistols, Dead Kennedys, Minor Threat, and Black Flag -- and more metallic-sounding stuff like Agnostic Front and S.O.D. I actually found the crowd to be a lot more entertaining than the band. It was the first show I've been to in four or five years where there was a mosh pit... I was tempted to join in, but thought the better of it. It would have been hard to justify a sprained knee or a separated shoulder to the wife and kids...

The crowd was the strangest mix I have ever seen at a show -- one-third hick/hillbilly, two-thirds punks/metalheads. T-shirts in the crowd ran the gamut from Johnny Cash to the Misfits. And there were trashy women galore... I counted more than one miniskirt / fishnet stockings / leather boots combo. One young lady wore a t-shirt displaying the words "I'M THE C--- (rhymes with "hunt") IN COUNTRY", a reference to Hank III's song "Dick in Dixie". I bet her daddy was proud. In all, it was an ok time, but I sure wish I'd made it there earlier. I really dig Hank III's country stuff, both the music and the statement that he makes. It's a breath of fresh air among all the sound-alike, watered-down Nashville garbage and even some of the more mainstream-sounding Americana acts, and it's good to see a country artist with the cojones to play fast and loud and be wild and rowdy. As a statement of my approval, I purchased a shirt and a copy of the new cd "Straight to Hell". Maybe next time I'll catch the whole set.

Too much shootin', not enough computin'

I'm planning on purchasing a new desktop system soon, so as to better acommodate my needs as a digital photographer. At a time that I should be clearing out my compact flash cards and backing up my files, I've been spending entirely too much time shooting new photos. M and I were out shooting last Sunday afternoon and evening, and I was out again on Saturday morning. I guess I'm just gonna have to call it quits until I get my new setup. In the meantime, here's a photo:

SD90MAC leased to KCS leads a southbound near Justin, Tx.

May 21, 2006

It's Memorial Day weekend (and my rest days) so please excuse me if I take the rest of the weekend off. See y'all in a few days.

WSC

np: S.O.D. - "Fist Banging Mania"

nr: Stephen Ambrose - Nothing Like it in the World