The Fabulous Satellite Lounge Houston, TX September 27, 2002 ~ REH (UPI)- Kidding. But nonetheless fun to dream … so there we were.... knee deep in hand grenade pins and shell casings… wait … that wasn't me. It was much different than that … I believe it was April (AKA Texas Girl) that brought it all in to focus. "Uh, it’s like 3:30 and we are here".... We being The FTW crew (Brandi and the aforementioned April), that had banzai'ed down the battered pavement of I-45 south bound and arrived loaded to bear, WAY too early for the show at the Fabulous Satellite Lounge on Washington. This was just the tip of the iceberg. The facts lie herein … sometime in the early PM, let’s say for arguments sake 5:30-ish, the phone starts ringing and the usual suspects kick the "20 questions" part of the show into over-drive! 1st was Jazz … (Ok, Ok, I might have called him 1st) so we could arrange the post show grub session (if you've ever eaten at Biba's on W.Gray, you will understand.) with the H-town, NOLA, ATM, FTW and SA contingencies. Collectively, we were otherwise known as: Everlovin, April, Brandi, Simon (and his girl -- whose name escapes me -- sorry chief!), Dr. Donaldson (Mark), Mikey (Highway), Kim, Tonya "with an O", her "cooler than all of us combined" sister Tamara (from NYC), Lil' Teach, Gina (and associates), etc, etc, blah, blah, blah. As you may have gathered, no finer collection of the Reckin' Crew had ever been assembled. Of course, that would be in a perfect world (a planner I am not...) -- so by the time we got to the Fab Sat, the “who was going to meet who where” had turned into April, Brandi and myself sitting all by our lonesome in the back of the Fab Sat lookin’ for any one we recognized! Well, who is there to save the day? Good ol’ big bro Cody. We hadn't seen each other since late July and the last time he saw me I had hair that was getting to be "Braun length". Since I looked like Elvis Costello on a bender (but in a good way) at this particular juncture of my day, he was a bit taken aback. Well many "how yew?”and “ahm fahn's" later, we parted ways and Bass man Jimmy Jam (AKA Mr. McFeely) announced his presence with authority (since he is about as laid back as you can get, please note the hint of sarcasm). Has a nicer person ever been put on this earth? Nope. Anyhoo, we got off on some rant about Satan worshiping roommates (if I had a dime for every time THAT comes up in conversation, sheesh!). Jimmy was on the verge of "Horshack-ian glee"( huh?) in announcing that the boys were watching The Who in “The Kids Are Allright” --classic midnight movie fodder. I thought this might prompt some kind of My Generation reprise during “Hey Say May” (proven right later). Well by this time, the Mighty Diamond Back from College Station was on stage doing their damndest to chip away at the very biased RK crowd (we heard about this much: _____. Sorry guys.) Soon after this, the crew started to trickle in -- Lil' Teach (AKA Jenn) & Gina, Dr. Donaldson, Simon, Mikey and assorted other Reckin Crew members and associates! We even caught a glimpse of Tonya and her sister making a mad dash for the restrooms before the Boys hit the stage. Well as anyone who was there knows, the opening riff of “Baby's Gone Blues” will give you the chills even without the Sops as an opener (which if I may say, gives this particular journalist [who?] the friggin' chills). It was like trying to bottle lightning in a baby jar from there on out! The classics were played with some abandon -- which always makes it interesting. The normally staid Willy was all over the place grinning like a Cheshire cat and pounding out the tunes with Ramones-like pauses in between (read: as in none). An old favorite was brought back to life when “Hurricane” by Bob Dylan was let loose somewhere south of the midway point. I think some of the newcomers were taken aback by the force and history locked up in that song … Now I know I’m gonna catch flack for this, but RK's cover of the Stones “Wild Horses” used to make me all impatient to be over. Not anymore. It has slowly become the preeminent showcase of the musicianship that runs rampant in this band – absolutely brilliant. It may even overshadow the “So Lonely/ Next to You” sonic rampage! (Yeah I said it..) The quartet (I don't know what else to call a hat trick with 4 songs) of new tunes, “Jackpot (I Saw It Coming),” “Desolation Angel,” “Hiram (And His Old Lady)” and “Million Reasons” has some of the best that Willy and Co. have ever penned. Even if “Wicked Twisted Road” didn't get played, I got my fix. Things get fuzzy after this (and it’s not for the usual reasons -- more on that in a different editorial format) but I think I might have heard “Happy” by Mick and Keef in one of the encore slots (if any of you Reckers have a copy of the set list from this show zap one off to Gregg so he can make me look good). So now you know ... The newest members of Sugar Hill Records (kudos on that by the way) family left the stage in a cloud of nearly splintered instruments - ala The Who. Nice touch boys… Comin’ ‘atcha since '68, The Everlovin’ REH

all non-lyric text, © Copyright 2002 Desolation Angel