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Yesterday, the band played in the 2008 Houston Art Car Parade. I’ve been to the parade several times, but never been in it. First, to the right, is a photo taken by Jason McElweenie that has now become among my favorite photos taken of me performing ever (I cropped the original a bit with his permission). Now, on to the details of the parade, before during and after.

Thursday

Yes, the parade was Saturday, but the fun craziness began on Thursday. Mind you, this was our first Art Car Parade and, being rookies at this, it took some thinking to figure out what to do. We rented a trailer and borrowed my step sister’s truck. Of course, I didn’t want to hot glue oranges all over it, so we bought a roll of magnetic sign material to cut up and stick all over the vehicle.

I got the trailer and hauled it to my house - not a particularly easy feat considering I was driving someone else’s truck and pulling a 20-foot flatbed for the first time in my life. My next door neighbor, who has managed to help me out of more domestic problems than I care to recount thanks to my apparent lack of handiness, helped get the trailer in the driveway.

By 6pm, my mom, Chris and his wife, Tammy, our friend Renee and her son, my friend Christina and the band’s former violinist, Amy, were out in the driveway working on the car.

I should stop here and say that my mom is the awesomest. Not only did she provide a bunch of the art supplies for the parade, but she made the coolest ever orange out of an exercise ball to go on the roof AND rode in the parade with us.

We spent about 5 hours decorating and did a pretty freaking awesome job considering most of us had about as much experience working on art as a 3rd grader without a smock.

Friday

On Friday, we were up early to appear on the KHOU show Great Day Houston (video here and here). The people at Great Day are really terrific. They were very helpful and seemed to really like the band.

I should also mention here that there are an abundance of attractive women working at KHOU. I don’t know if they have some sort of a pipeline or special staffing service, but aye!

Friday afternoon was mostly off time for everyone. Chris and George had to pick up a generator and I had to run to Home Depot and Target for last minute supplies, but nothing serious. The calm before the storm.

Saturday

Several times in my life I’ve had to play multiple times on the same day. Most of those occasions were in my 20’s. Once I played three times - all outside - on Cinco De Mayo and another time, I did two-and-a-half hours in the boiling sun in the middle of July before packing up and playing another three hours at a club nearby. Saturday was comparable.

The band plus Tammy and her three girls, my friend Christina and George’s friend Denny (the driver) and his son all arrived at my house around 9am. We loaded gear and figured out how many cars to take and were on the road by 10am. I pulled the trailer to the parade route and it took a few turns to find our way onto Allen Parkway.

I grumbled that things were disorganized only to realize that we had entered from the wrong spot because, well, I’m an idiot.

We found out spot fairly quickly and began unloading and setting up. It was still a bit overcast but hot as hell. It took well over an hour to get set up and, after a few minor glitches and a quick sound check, we were as ready as we would ever be.

Chris and I took a minute to sit inside the truck with the a/c on high. Frankly, if I hadn’t done that, I’m not sure I would have made it the whole parade. There is NO WAY if we do this again we’ll do it without the benefit of some cover for the trailer. In the shade, it really wasn’t awful outside, but standing in the direct sunlight was brutal.

Several more people met us while we waited including my mom (again, awesome), my friend, Tara, Amy and her husband, Bernard, Bernard’s cousin (and our good friend), Jill and her kids among others. I also saw quite a few people along the parade route including my step sister, Jenny, and friends like Erin, Kymberlie, Gavin (and his sons), Matthew, Jason (he took the pic, duh!) and more I know I’m forgetting.

By 1:30, we had managed to start inching our way down the parade route. If you’ve ever tried to stand up in the back of a truck as it drove in rush hour traffic, you’ll understand just how difficult it is to stand up on a trailer. Now, try doing it while playing an instrument and performing your material. It was pretty comical at times. At one point, I was convinced Chris was going to tumble right off the back of the trailer, but I guess his skateboarding skills kept him upright.

The crowd for the parade was awesome - tons of people and all very responsive and fun. There were some really hilarious people in the crowd and they all interacted with us throughout the trip. I have to admit that playing to a ton of people in that outdoor setting was a lot of fun. I particularly enjoyed riding through downtown with people hanging out of the parking garage.

There were a few small mishaps along the way but nothing of the train wreck variety and the whole thing seemed over much more quickly than I anticipated.

Let me say here a HUGE HUGE thanks to Tammy, her daughters, Christina, Tara, my mom and Denny for their incredible help during the parade. Tammy, Christina and Tara, in particular, ran along (and I do mean RAN) handing out postcards we printed up to people. They basically ran the entire distance WE DROVE. Amazing support from our dear friends.

Afterward, we made our way back to the parking lot near the AIG building where Steve’s van was parked. We tore down all the gear in our near-heat-stroke conditions and headed back to my house to unload. I had only a bit of pink on my face, otherwise I was un-toasted. I was completely exhausted and felt like crap from all the stress and heat, but I still had another show to go.

The Rudz show that night was nothing special. We played well, but we were all pretty burnt (literally and figuratively) from the long day.

I think we were all really happy about the way things went and the people at the Orange Show who put on the parade are amazing. They do such a fantastic job and if you’ve never been, you need to go next year. I’m pretty sure we’ll be back. It was a blast.

A very special thanks to all who made it out and to those I saw and didn’t see. Special nod to the following:

• All the folks who made the devil sign at me during the more heavy songs
• The lady with the creepy fake baby headbanging to our music
• The drunk guy who high-fived me
• All the volunteers who handed us water
• The radio guy who announced the band over the PA system as “Jeff Balke’s Orange Is In”
• The aforementioned people hanging out of the parking garage on Brazos who made us feel like the Rockets after a championship
• My singer, George, for re-attaching my strap after a failed attempt to pose like a rock star (see above photo)
• The people on the bridges we went under who didn’t spit on us
• The people under the bridges who were no doubt deafened by our loudness bouncing off all the walls and creating some awesome feedback
• The children scarred for life by the sight of us
• The guy who shouted out “DYNAMO” because of the jersey I was wearing
• The street cleaner who came up to Steve (drummer) right before we got started and said, “Now, THAT’s what I’m talking about” after our impromptu Latin jam
• The people who clapped for our silly blues jam George entitled “Great Day for a Parade” (I hope that didn’t make it to video)
• Windy from the Orange Show who is just beyond awesome
• That group of really hot girls near the KHOU building who screamed and danced for us
• The guy who gave us free burritos that no one ate
• The one guy (yeah, just one) who yelled “Play some Skynnard!”

and finally…

• All the people who faked singing “Suzanna” after George yelled “sing it if ya’ know it” before the last chorus.

You are all freaking awesome.

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