The Sideshow tramps are (l to r) Scott McNeil, Craig Kinsey, Geoffery Muller, Shane Lauder. (Photo L. John Powers)

There are live shows and then there are Sideshow Tramps shows. You simply cannot just sit back and take in a Tramps show, you have to live it and dive right in. Boasting some of the most prolific and admired musicians in Houston, the band bitch-slaps its crowd into a frenzy of dancing and whoopin’. This isn’t the polite and relaxed folk and Americana you will hear at a place like the Mucky Duck.* No, this is roots music with a furor and fire that resembles more a punk show mixed with a tent revival. Or to give you another analogy – let’s say your typical good live show is Miller Lite. If that’s the case, then a Sideshow Tramps show would be Old Foghorn. Sure, one will get you there but the other will fuck your shit up seriously. And because this is Houston and we like our shit fucked up, it’s almost become a requisite of being a resident to at least experience a Tramps show once. Tonight they play Rudyard’s with Vagabond Swing and so, yesterday, we interrogated the Traps’ drummer extraordinaire Coach L.C. Dupree (a.k.a. Shane Lauder).

FPH – What have you guys been up to lately?

Coach - Sideshow Tramps just made their silver screen debut with the release of Honky Tonk Blood. The soundtrack is getting a lot of global attention.

While waiting for the new record “Revelator” to be released, all of the Tramps have been doing other projects…

Scott McNeil has formed a strong psych rock band called The Mahas, which is doing well in the garage rock recording world after releasing a 7 inch single and “Dead of Night” LP through Cutthroat and Death Exclamations labels respectively.

Craig Kinsey is in the studio laying tracks for his second solo album, which will also be released by ZenHill. He is also touring the Honky Tonk Blood film with his cohorts, Johnny Falstaff, Hank Schyma, and John Evans.

Geoffrey Muller – He is by far the busiest working musician in Houston! He has been doing weeklies with Robert Ellis, and Kelly Doyle. He has created a lot of momentum with Grandfather Child as well. He swears he is going to pick I am Mesmer back up for a second record. I sure hope so, I enjoy doing percussion with that group.

Me, I am scratching out a meager living playing drums as a free agent / hired gun. I’m also teaching at my studio. I’ve restored three drum sets and some timpani in the past twelve months. [check out shanelauder.com] Currently I am playing with Tramps, Hilary Sloan, I am Mesmer, & Loretta Kovacic. I occasionally fill in with Dead Roses, Chase Hamblin, and Country Jim Sloan. I’m also learning to play authentic 1920s trap drum style.. I’m also playing weekly with Hilary Sloan. She is a master of violin, and a great song writer. Check her out sometime on a Tuesday at Brasil Cafe. On other fronts, I’m doing a new thing in my studio called Drum Lesson Cocktails which needs no explanation. Sign up!

FPH – I see the new album Revelator is nearing its release. How is that whole endeavor of recording, mixing, and all the other work involved going for you guys?

Coach - Revelator is complete and waiting for duplication, so be patient everyone. To be honest, It’s been a long process. We recorded these songs with Frank Davis in 2024 and 2024. After many listens, the conclusion was the way we play live wasn’t translating into good stuff on tape. So we reworked all of the material. When we were ready to cut again, Frank was too busy with other projects. Steve Christensen heard we were looking to record and invited us to Sugarhill to do it. We are all glad we took the time to groom and cultivate the songs. We will sit on those roughs from Frank, because he truly is a legend, and we may like them later when our hair turns to silver! We are thrilled to be releasing this through ZenHill. Ross Wells and Dan Workman are genuine guys, and we hope they do well for their sake. Meaning we will horse-whip them if they don’t get us on Austin City Limits!

FPH – Will you guys be playing any new songs from that album tonight?

Coach - We will be playing material from both recordings, as well as some stuff that will be on our third record that is in pre-production. Those songs will be hashed out on our next tour. We might do rough takes in Norman, OK with Travis Lineville.

FPH – That first album seems pretty hard to top. Should we expect a continuation of that first album or have you guys found some seemingly impossible way to kick even more ass on the new record?

Coach - Thank you for the compliment. We loved making Medicine Show. It was, just as Revelator is, an audio snapshot in time. We will let our audience and peers decide. We think the ship is steady. Some of us hold the opinion that this will be better if not bigger. Bigger in the sense that we have a huge cast of guest players featured on this thing augmenting what we already do.

FPH – The band you’re playing with, Vagabond Swing, who are they? You want to give us a briefing?

Coach - Mark Marker, our booking agent, turned us on to these guys. They are from Marion Louisiana if I’m not mistaken. Coincidentally one of their guys is a second cousin to Geoffrey! Small world. The drummer doubles as the vocalist and does a pretty “bang up” job of it. They seem to be searching, or achieving, a balance of old NOLA folk and gypsy junk rock with a lot of strings and brass. You be the judge. We are booked to play with them in their state next month.

FPH – OK shameless pitch time – give us one just good reason why people should go to Rudyard’s tonight.

Coach - Whenever I go see Devo, I always end up saying, “I sure hope I didn’t miss the Tramps! Let’s go see, they never start until midnight, and besides, I’m going back to the Montrose anyway. I heard they were giving away shirts.”

Or…

We will be teaching the bartenders how to make our patented elixirs, “The Sideshow Tramp”, “Lady Vodka”, and “Frisky Whiskey” all guaranteed to elicit bravery, strength, and confidence in the mousiest of men and women!

Sideshow Tramps and Vagabond Swing play tonight Friday, 25 March 2024 @ Rudyard’s British Pub. 21+ Doors 9pm

*No offense to the Duck intended but let’s face it, it is a sit in your seat venue.

I’ve been playing all of my old Jeff Beck vinyl this week and getting psyched for his show at the Verizon Wireless Center on Saturday. This guy is a guitar player’s guitar player; like I read in another Free Press article, if you play guitar, go see this show. He’s played in the Yardbirds and had a fairly successful solo career. His latest album is a little too vanilla for my taste but his discography speaks for itself otherwise. Surf-guitar virtuoso Gary Hoey will be opening for Beck.

The Edgar Winters Band and ZZ Top will be playing somewhere in Houston. I can’t find the venue but I’ll be seeing Jeff Beck anyway. I’ve seen Edgar Winters twice before and he’s great live and plays every instrument on stage at least once.

Friday night, at Walter’s on Washington, Beach House is going to play with Washed Out. Beach House plays quiet, dreamy, indie-rock while Washed Out, just one guy from North Carolina, does infectiously catchy synth-pop. For those of you who haven’t heard of Washed Out, check out my review of his debut album Life of Leisure – EP.

Local Natives and Suckers will also being playing at Mango’s Cafe on Friday. I’ll be seeing Beach House but I wish I could catch the local natives too. Their quiet rock sound is mildly reminiscent of Seattle, indie-folk rockers, Fleet Foxes.

To close up the weekend, indie-rockers Wild Moccasins will be playing with Sideshow Tramps at Jones Plaza.

No Beer or Jameson fueled review this week folks. This week I’m keepin‘ it straight edge. But even if you weren’t abstaining, I hope you were able to make it out yesterday to the Block Party! I kicked around until 5pm and had to leave due to some other obligations but five hours was still quite the overdose of music. In those five hours I caught 20 acts and the stupid thing is, when I had to leave, I was bummed about having to miss Elaine Greer, The Papermoons, Oh Pioneers, Young Mammals, Rusted Shut and a whole host of other bands. Is that crazy? You’d think I’d have been sick of it all and ready to leave but the day was too beautiful and everywhere you looked you kept running into cool people and cool music. So here are some highlights:

The McKenzies drew me in with their upbeat drums, organ, and poppy melodies. For me, they were my happy pop “discovery” of the day complete with bubble machine. What can I say, I’m a sucker for the well executed pop song. Sadly, no releases yet but they say they are working on it. Highly recommended!

Defenestration Unit were missing a guitarist yet, no offense to Jim Otterson’s skills, you never missed him. The band filled in the gaps beautifully and Charlie Ebersbaker’s work on the Korg was a great addition to the band’s palate.

Come See My Dead Person were a complete surprise. I walked in and there was this big dude with a small-scale acoustic guitar, a mandolin player, and a violinist, atop the usual drums, bass, and guitar. The singer was singing like some gypsy Tom Waits while the whole place was whooping it up. It’s probably the only time I’ve seen a band have this infectious a “drag you in” live performance since the last time I saw the Sideshow Tramps.

Antarctica Starts Here played one of the best sets I saw on Saturday. Oh, this is a band that loves a wash of echo, reverb, and delay ON EVERYTHING. Add the shimmering guitars and their patient buildups leading to some gorgeous crescendos and I’m mainlining.

Sideshow Tramps make it look so easy! I caught a bit of their set and there is the drummer throwing his stick around like some Bennihanna chef, the washboard bassist is taking a solo to hoots and hollers from the audience, the cigar box guitarist is sashaying across the stage like he’s Jimi Page, and the singer is making you buy whatever they are selling. Now, that’s all fine and dandy but I’d gone to see Perseph One and that stage running late so I headed back to Avant Garden then, sure enough, when I get back, the goddamn stage is filled with people dancing and singing along! Goddamn it, I can’t leave those Sideshow Tramps alone for five minutes!

Basses Loaded also fall under the category of bands that make it look easy with their cool bass lines, clever arrangements, and unstoppable skills. Fine cool I can deal with that and the fact that the whole American Sharks thing is also kickin‘ but I didn’t know until later that day that 1/2 of the band was in The Fucking Transmissions. Fuck that! That’s Bullshit! Attention Basses Loaded members, you have exceeded your cool band quota! Cut that shit out!

Buxton is a band I’d been curious to hear live since hearing them on Myspace and they did not disappoint. There’s a lot to like about them, strong songs, engaging vocals etc. but for me the thing that put it over the top was the lead guitarist. Here was one of those bastards that had an insane control over what he was doing – it was enviable. He’d constantly punctuate the songs with these little guitar lines and phrasing that added texture, nuance, and weight to an already heady brew. One of the best performances of the day!

The Fucking Transmissions‘ set was hip hop at it’s most musically witty. Ben (he of too much talent and too many cool bands) played guitar and bass simultaneously while the vocalists played off each other like droll school kids trying to outdo each other. Jovial and sharp, The Fucking Transmissions should quiet any naysayers who claim Houston Hip Hop is all out of tricks.

The Wild Moccasins got everyone in a tizzy. John Sears turned to me and said “Oh Shit they’re the new De Schmog!” We’ll, maybe if De Schmog was a bit more rootsy but, yeah, in terms of being upbeat, fun, and getting the crowd all nutters, they had it in spades.

I closed it off with Austin’s Death Hell Battle Tank upstairs at Avant Garden. The singer (is this the dude from Fuck Emos by the way?) sure had sass. He got on the balcony and began, with his voice running through an octave divider, to taunt the people below to come upstairs all the while addressing the Houston crowd as “Hey Dallas” and telling them how much they sucked. The band – dressed in military headgear, fully in character, and with fog machine in hand – then charged through a really fucked-up version of The Immigrant Song. It was refreshing to see someone just be purely stupid and silly. Now I’ll grant you, the shtick may get old but it was worth rolling this one at least once.

The Punk’s Not Dead Award though for the day has to go to Cop Warmth and Blackie’s guerrilla performance outside the bike shop. If you missed it like I did don’t feel to bad; it was thrown together on a whim after the band’s performance at Numbers . Cop Warmth are like excitable chimps and – fuck stages and set times – it was time to have some fun and fling some poo: get the equipment, set up by the bike shop, play, make some noise with Blackie, and hope it’s all done before the cops shut you down. Just looking at these pictures by Brent (Link) and listening to what people said, Cop Warmth may just have topped everyone else and brought some much needed real chaos to an otherwise orderly event. Amen!

Here are some snapshots:

The Defenestration Unit’s Mike Switzer
has come to kick ass and chew bubblegum
and he’s all out of bubblegum!

Generation Landslide
plays an exclusive set for Indian Jewelry

Skyblue72

Team Death Trap

Come See My Dead Person rips up Mango’s
and that’s without their entire line-up.

Swans Will Attack

Antarctica Starts Here lay down shoegazer
shit that makes your hair stand on end!

News On the March

Sideshow Tramps!!
I left for five minutes.
When I get back everyone was on stage.
Typical!

Mistress Green

Ill Advisory – the one man supergroup!

Basses Loaded!
Asses Kicked!
Mission Accomplished!

Lovie

Buxton! Holy shit they are good!

The Fucking Transmissions dropping some cognitive
dissonance on that one dude who writes-off Houston as
“a talentless hip hop sewer of uncreative ass clowns “

The Wild Moccasins
wowing an enthusiastic crown outside Mango’s

Piano Vines you got that one dude dancin‘!!

Death Hell Battle Tank!
Because sometimes you need to get your stupid on!

Cop Warmth & Blackie
proof that punk’s not dead!

More:

Blog Reviews:

Breakfast On Tour review and pictures by Cereal (Link)

Handstamp (Chronicle) review and Pictures (Link), more pictures (Link), and Video (Link) by Sara Cress

Houston Calling Review By David Cobb (Link)

Houston Press review by Chris Gray (with link to a slide show Link)

Impose Magazine review and photos by David deLeon (Link)

Pictures:

My Pictures (Link)

Brent’s Pictures (Link)

Groovehouse’s Pictures (Link)

William Cordray’s Picture’s (Link)

Send me you Flickr and other related links so I can add them, eh?