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This Past Weekend in TX (All This & Eddie Money Too)
Mon., Oct. 16. 2006 12:08pm EDT
Every time we're deep in the heart of Texas, the ApologetiX fans there endear themselves deeper into our hearts. This past weekend in Houston (Cypress), Austin, and Galveston (Dickinson) was no exception. Our friends in the Lone Star State made us feel like stars, but they never made us feel lonely.
Speaking of stars, when we first arrived at the airport in Houston on Friday, we wound up at the same baggage carousel as classic rocker Eddie Money and his band. A former New York policeman, Money had a string of hits from the late 1970's through the early 1990's, including "Two Tickets to Paradise," "Baby Hold On," "Maybe I'm a Fool," "Gimme Some Water," "Shakin'," "Think I'm in Love," "Take Me Home Tonight," "I Wanna Go Back," "Walk on Water," and "Peace in Our Time."
Being shy boys, we didn't want to disturb them, but Eddie saw we were also gathering our instruments, and so he approached us and asked what band we were in.
"Led Zeppelin," replied Hubie, stealing one of Karl's patented responses. "Didn't recognize us, did you?" That elicited a hearty laugh from Eddie. J. then told him we were in a Christian rock band called ApologetiX.
"That's great," said Eddie, shaking our hands. "Nothing like playing music for Jesus, huh, guys?" J. said, "We know who YOU are, Mr. Money," and told him he especially liked one of Eddie's lesser-known singles, "Endless Nights," from 1987. "That's a good song," said Eddie. "We should put that back in our shows."
Although ApologetiX has never recorded a song by Eddie Money, we did perform a spoof of "Two Tickets To Paradise" a few times back in our early days at the Paradise Club.
As Karl remarked later, Jimmy's bag got two tickets to Albuquerque instead of Paradise. Due to a baggage mix-up, his main piece of luggage got accidentally sent to New Mexico. Unfortunately, among his belongings in that bag was the device he wears while sleeping to help him with his sleep apnea. But God had everything in control; it just so happened that a lady named Amanda, one of our helpers at the church in Cypress, had one of those devices that she longer needed, and she gave it to Jimmy to use.
That wasn't the only pleasant surprise God had in store for us. We also had surprise visits from a number of old friends, including:
Randy and Mandy Hyde, who have coordinated and/or run sound and light for various concerts in Southern California over the years. Although based in Riverside CA, Randy has seen us in locales as far away as Texas, Arizona, and even New York. Of course, considering the fact that he just came back from Morocco, even New York shouldn't seem like such a big deal! Randy, who is also a software programmer, author, and Christian parody writer, saved the day for our sound crew in Austin on Saturday, with his electrical expertise.
Darrell Doesken, who was our concert coordinator/tour guide in Wichita KS this past June.
Johnny Carson (no, not that one -- this one actually prefers to be called "John"), who was one of our
first fans in Texas, and came to see us that very first weekend when we played in the Houston area six and a half years ago.
Russell from Austin, who met us on a plane during our first trip to Austin back in 2001, and has attended numerous concerts with his family since.
Maria Hill and her daughter Sylvia Romo, who both drove four hours from Corpus Christi to see us on Saturday.
Terry Hahn and his wife drove three hours to see us this weekend. That's especially noteworthy, because they live in the Houston area, where we played both Friday and Sunday. Terry told us in advance why they would be driving so far:
Thanks for the update, but I can't attend either of the shows in my backyard. Last July my beautiful wife decided to surprise me with tickets to the show that was, at that time, the closest you were going to be to us. She went on line and purchased them for the Austin show this Saturday.
We're celebrating 22 years of marriage as of October 6th also, so we're combining my birthday gift with an anniversary get away. So, after we've spent a couple of months planning our trip, we hear you're going to be right here in the immediate Houston area and we can't attend because we'll be out of town attending an Apologetix concert in Austin.
Special thanks to:
Our concert coordinators: James Roberts (Cypress), Sherland Priest (Austin), and Alan Marsh (Dickinson).
Honorable mention to Lynn from Dickinson. Much more importantly than working at our merchandise table, Lynn is expecting her fifth child, and she already has four of them, ages 4, 3, 2, and 1. Counting baby #5, that would make their ages 4,3,2,1,0, which is a standard way to count in a place so close to Houston and NASA. Who said having babies isn't rocket science?
Our merchandise coordinators: Emily, Steve, Jackson, and Blake (Cypress); Mandy (Austin); and LaRona, Lynn, Carl, and Manuel (Dickinson).
Mitch, the owner of the Rudy's Barbeque chain in Austin, who provided the traditional pre-game spread for the band on Saturday, and also sang some Elton John for J.
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