Apparently Django Mack just threw another concert on the calendar for Thursday November 29th 2012 at 8:30PM @50 Mason Social House in San Francisco. The last gig there was a lot of fun.
Despite having just released an album and two videos, Django Mack has had some twenty odd more songs in his sights for the live repertoire and upcoming recordings. He’s been putting the band through the hoops learning new covers and originals. It’s actually MORE work putting together the covers because doing songs (the Django way) is its own craft. When Django Mack is in rehearsal/writing mode, all nonessential personnel get to roam free. Those who got families get a chance to swing back round for a visit, those who don’t, recreate. Django seems to know someone almost everywhere we go, so finding rehearsal spaces, recording studios and hospitality along the road is usually not a problem. Right now, the band is still hanging around in San Francisco where they have access to a studio in the city.
The venue that Django Mack last played at ( 50 Mason Social House ) found out he was still in town recording for a while, so they asked him to come back and play again this month. Django took them up on it as a good chance to test drive some of the new material in front of a live audience. So, I guess that means the end of our downtime is in sight.
Before I sign out, on behalf of Django Mack , the entire band and crew, we all wanted to offer our thoughts and best wishes to our brothers and sisters impacted on the East Coast.
May you recover quickly and we hope to see ya soon!
For anyone who wants to donate to help the folks who have been impacted by Hurricane Sandy, you can do so at:
Django Girl
A lot of people think of a musician’s lifestyle as one set in a cornucopia of Girls, Rock & Roll and endless parties, and there is some truth in that, even for lowly “roadies” ( such as myself.) There are often fringe benefits, even for those of us who merely get to bask in the glow. Life on the road with Django can be awesome; He knows how to have a good time and he treats us like family…but like any family, someone’s gotta do the “chores”.
It is this far less romantic aspect of being a professional musician that is often forgotten …the tedious, tiring day in day out business of making this all happen.
Today that tedious chore is stuffing promotional packages and slapping postage stamps and mailing labels on hundreds yellow bubble mailers.
The new Alcohol of Fame CDs have all arrived, boxes and boxes of ‘em!
So, contrary to the general “Rock Star” image we all love to cherish, today’s Rock & Roll excitement begins and ends with a trip to the post office…and thanking God for self adhesive stamps!
The show at 50 Mason Social House in San Francisco was pretty awesome. The band brought some new material out and highlighted tunes from the new album “The Alcohol of Fame”.
Django Mack Live at 50 Mason – San Francisco 2012
Cocktails flowed and it felt like a much deserved party after a long stint of nervous thumb twiddling.
Django Mack -Live
The time we had off waiting for Django to come back with the bus may have been time off, but it was no kind of fun “vacation”! We were stuck in the middle of nowhere with very little cash and, let’s face it, sitting on pins and needles hoping he would get back in time. But true to form, Django found access to some money… somewhere; somehow…maybe the label wired it to him. I’m not sure I want to know. In any event we went on a well deserved, real live vacation which of course included toolin’ around San Francisco, and a trip to wine country (while we were in the area).
Django in Wine Country
The bus seems to be screamin’ along after the repairs, no problems there. There are the times on the road that can be really awful, and then there are those times that are really grand that make it all worth it.
This would be one of those latter times!
Wine Country
So for now we are enjoying our free time, but this too shall pass.
See y’all back on the road soon!
I saw it through the motel window. At first we thought it was a mirage…but with a few blinks the unmistakable orange and yellow tour bus emerged from the dusty road.
Not only did Django get back (albeit with only about 3 hours till showtime and we still have to load the gear and drive to the venue), but when he got off the bus he had a crate of CDs with him! It seems the Fates may be on our side…this time.
Django Mack – “The Alcohol of Fame” CD Release
The new Django Mack album “The Alcohol of Fame” is done… And we got em in time to make this San Francisco gig our CD release party!
So come on down to 50 Mason Social House TONIGHT – Thurs. September 20th 2012!
Gotta run if we expect to be on the stage by 8:00 P.M.!
So here we are again, a couple days till our gig in San Francisco and Django has still not come back with the bus. We are stranded here till he gets back. We received a disquieting phone call from the man himself five days ago. Django may not carry around a cell phone, but he does know how to use a payphone… although findin’ one these days is sorta like huntin’ dinosaur!
Photo: Xnatedawgx – CC 3.0
And that’s precisely where he called us from to “enlighten “ us to the fact that in order to get the bus back he had to spend all the band’s money…money that was supposed to be reserved for payin’ the sound guy that mixed the Alcohol of Fame album (due out any day now). Of course Django assured me there was NO reason for worry, but that he would have to make a side trip to arrange some “negotiations”. Django says he’s known this dude forever and everything will be cool, but this picture I found of him makes me nervous about the WAY Django said the word “negotiations”!
In any event, if everything goes well, Django will have the bus back here just in the nick of time (as per usual) and we should all be at the gig at on Thursday, September 20th in San Francisco at 50 Mason Social House
Crossing fingers – sometimes ya just gotta close your eyes and have faith!
Sometimes the most dangerous thing about life on the road can be the downtime time between gigs. It’s a good thing we’ve had off since Reno. I mean, we have tour bus issues to deal with and this whole last year has been pretty non-stop with recording, and rehearsing, and videos, and shows etc., etc. so some R&R is well received – BUT… Once again Django has somehow convinced us to let him go off by himself to get our tour bus back and return the loaner to whoever he got it from (sometimes it’s better that we don’t know the details about these kind of things;) He’s left us at some two bit, flea bag motel without transportation (I’m not even sure what town we’re in yet). All the gear is piled into one of the 3 rooms we had to book to fit us all in.
Django Mack – DownTime
The one thing he did not leave behind with us – the contents of the liquor bar we kept on the bus! There was enough whiskey in that mini bar to last Django ten days!
Strangely that is coincidentally the same number of days till the September 20th show in San Francisco at 50 Mason Social House ! (furrowing brows in concern as I write this).
So now it’s just about killin’ time and biting fingernails till Django gets back with the bus!
RENO has come and gone! We had a few days off after that gig…all of which (including the gig) are now a blur (after some heavy celebration). The long awaited album is finished and at the presses and (unbeknownst to us) some of those times Django had been disappearing, he was not simply slipping off to some clandestine tavern!
Turns out he was shooting back and forth from San Francisco and sneaking in a second music video shoot (for “That’s Life”) we knew nothing about! He finally let the cat out of the bag…
AND if that’s not enough to celebrate, management just booked us a gig in San Francisco on Thursday, September 20th (8:00 PM to 10:00 PM) at Ed Ivey’s – 50 Mason Social House. This is the first Django gig in San Francisco in many years and we are all excited to be back! So come on down! Ed’s an old friend who mixes great drinks, and Django Mack will be slingin’ tunes.
I know you’ll have a great time.
Nope that’s not a Bob Hope/Bing Crosby film. It’s where we are right now, with Django Mack in a hot and noisy Havana tour bus. We called in a big favor to get someone to come get the ‘DjangoMack Mobile’ from the middle of the freakin’ desert. But all that is behind us now.
Ahead, the road to Reno…
We hadn’t gotten but a few miles down the road when we saw something hazy in this distance, like a mirage…a big red dusty mirage which looked more ominous the closer it came. Suddenly we heard Django’s voice shouting over the loud ass engine, as an enormous antiquated beast pulled up beside us.
“ The bad news is I couldn’t get parts for the DjangoMackmobile…the good news: We got us a new tour bus” … for the moment. So climb aboard, we got us a show to get to and we still gotta get back to the band and move all the gear into this thing”
Photo by Thierry H – http://weblog.ch
I didn’t even bother to ask Django how he’d arranged to get his hands on this thing (as junky as it was). He only had about forty bucks on him when he took off, (which he could’ve easily pissed away in seven minutes at the first saloon he stopped in). We got in and prepared to be creaked and jostled across the desert, back to the band. I’d tell you guys to have a cold one ready, but after two days in the desert about the only thing cold are the feet of some of the greenhorns for whom this is their first tour with ‘The Big Mack’. If they can hang in there, they’ll probably be ‘ lifers’ like most of us, but some folk are not cut out for this sort of adventure. Only time , sand and the beating sun will tell;)
Alright, following Django’s trail, we hitched a ride from a ‘local’ and finally found ‘Rhino’, at another saloon in Beatty Nevada.
Rhino told us that he had steered Django to the only shop he could think of that might have parts for our particularly peculiar old tour bus. He cordially pointed us in the right direction, but not before showing us his pride and joy, the ‘ Suicide Chopper’ Django had managed to help him repair.
So now it’s off to find some mysterious auto shop (with no name) run by some guy named ‘Tweaker’ in the middle of nowhere Nevada, in hopes that Django will still be there! I am skeptical, but there is very little time left if we hope to get the bus fixed and get ourselves to the next gig on time. (Of course that didn’t stop us from sharing a drink or two with Rhino, since we were already at the saloon anyway;)
Well, Lazarus and “New Guy” (as we like to call all the new roadies till we break ‘em in) phoned in the first clue and only hope to finding Django in time to get the bus fixed and make it to our gig in Reno. They stopped in some town in Nevada called Goodsprings, and sent us the pic below. They are keeping us posted via cell phone.
Lazarus reported that the guy at the bench said he saw a man fitting Django’s description yesterday. Apparently he drank there for about six hours, then helped some guy named ‘Rhino’ fix his chopper and they took off together on it. Well, at least we know we are on the right trail. If only Django would carry a cell phone! (But alas, he refuses).
Lazarus and one of the new roadies pulled the shortest straws. Hopefully they won’t get sucked into drinkin’ themselves stupid at the first tavern they run across (which is where many of us suspect Django may have made a pit stop). The last time we lost Django was in Texas at the establishment pictured below. We tried to drag him out but ended up on an all night bender from which it took most of us two days to fully recover!
He knows just about all the watering holes across America. The ones he doesn’t know about? … He can smell ‘em from a mile away! This wouldn’t be the first time Django has made a breakaway to the bottle, but I must admit, everything goes a lot smoother when we can keep the team together.
As hot as it is in the daytime, the desert can get mighty cold at night! That’s probably why Lazarus is wrapped up in the carpet normally used for the drum riser. None of us had had much sleep and we all look like hell ass zombies. And Django is still missing. We are gonna draw lots to see who gets to go hunting for him this time!
Somewhere on that ride we got stuck in the desert. Low on gas, low on supplies and lacking the parts to make the needed repairs, Django headed off on foot to find a town and left us behind to man the bus. I had a funny a feelin’ about letting him go alone… one I probably should’ve acted on…
Photo By Dim {cc-by-sa-2.0-fr}
That was twenty four hours ago. We got a show in Reno tomorrow.
Where the hell is Django Mack?
One of the roadies (who we call ‘Flash’) got bored and set us up with a “blog” so we could spout off about our tour, vent a little here and there, and kill time between shows. I happened to be standing behind Flash watching him set this thing up, so I guess that’s what got me elected to make the first post…so here goes!
Django was born in the backseat of a ’42 Packard traveling 50mph on a dirt road. He’s still kicking up dust.
