Puro Pinche!

This is just a Puro Pinche note to express my gratitude to everyone who was involved in making the Puro Pinche Presents show at Hi-Tones a great success!

The Max Baca show turned out to be way more than I could have ever expected! As soon as I arrived at Hi-Tones, Los Texmaniacs’ manager Jesse let me know that they decided to go ahead and perform with the FULL band! I was thrilled to hear that and I knew the audience would be also. The band had done a sound check earlier in the day so all of their equipment was on stage and they were ready to rock. GRAMMY Award Winners Max Baca and the other Texmaniacs introduced themselves, Gabriel Zavala from Tejano y Mas was filling in on drums, and I was quickly introduced to Tejano star Stefani Montiel. Max Baca’s nephew Josh Baca joined them to perform on the push-button accordion. So many surprises right from the start!

Los Texmaniacs allowed me to present them to the crowd and the night got started. Everyone was into the music and people started dancing cumbias when the band covered “Que Metida de Pata” (originally by Jay Perez). Hector Saldaña from the Express-News, and of the band The Krayolas, showed up and joined the Texmaniacs on stage for their second set! Together, they covered “She’s About A Mover” and “Mendocino” from the Sir Douglas Quintet (you should know about Doug Sahm, he was also in the Texas Tornados). Saldaña continued on stage for a few more songs and soon enough, Stefani joined them to sing a couple also! I saw many familiar and new faces on the dancefloor dancing non-stop until the end of the night.

Hi-Tones had a great vibe that night. They’re definitely constantly improving the look and feel of the place and are always changing drinks specials according to what their customers really like. Their signature pickle, chamoy, bomba roja and pica piña shots are always great and they’ve even added a Chango shot! Los Texmaniacs loved performing there and I could tell by the amount of dancers on the floor that the crowd was enjoying it as well.

Thank you again to Hi-Tones, Los Texmaniacs, DVS Design and all the wonderful Puro Pinche supporters who showed up that night. 

Please join me for the next Puro Pinche Presents: A Night of Chunk Music with T Bird and the Breaks Saturday, January 5th, 2013 at the all new War Room!

To the Musicians here, I just wanted to share a brief recap of the process involved in holding this event.

1. Booking - Worked with the venue and band manager to organize event. Emails help to keep everyone on the same page and organized. Use a contract if you can.

2. Promotion - Created press release, sent to all local media, followed up with media to invite them to show and requested coverage, posted event on all online community calendars, had flyer designed, printed posters and put them up around town, created Facebook event, personally invited friends.

3. Day of show - Double check on everything! Sound check, set-times, load-in area, stage/equipment, guestlists, drink tickets, etc. Get there early or at least on-time (before/by doors). 

4. Try to have fun in all of this but be professional. As a venue, band, or promoter, things will run a lot smoother for you if you treat your show like a business. Just be flexible when you need to!