When Tom Foote of the Loco Gringos passed away in 1990, it marked a point when the devil may care innocence of american punk seemed to slip away. The first ten years of the hardcore music scene were characterized by a sort of collectivist lifestyle, people/bands were too poor and the scenes too small to go it alone. There was no money in the music, no factory t-shirts or tattoo parlors in malls. It was just for fun cause there was little glory. Known to many as simply Pepe, Tom was a guiding light of punk merriment in America. The Loco Gringos were the demented poster boys for hard drinking, music playing fun. The music, the props, the hearse and the sheer gap-toothed grinning lunacy was enough to make everything else seem unimportant.Til then punk scenes were really just underground words of mouth. You had to know someone if you wanted to get in. Shows were invariably in peoples back yards and parties turned into weekend long sleepovers. Gringo Manor in Dallas was one of the wildest no holds barred good humored booze-a-toriums of all time. DC9 At Night has a terrific write up about The Gringos and Tom. And though times have changed the bands rage on. So if you have some spare time this Saturday and you happen to be in Texas go play tribute to the old days. The Hickoids will be there and that just can't be beat. Tip a Schaeffer to Pepe for me and kiss Jeff Smith on the lips.
Saturday, January 10 at Lakewood Bar & Grill
6340 Gaston
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3 comments:
I was actually at that Gringos tribute show and the Reverend Horton Heat got so shit faced he could no longer play his guitar. He just sat down on an amp and started mumbling to himself. A couple of his pals tried to get him off the stage and he threw a fit, tried to start playing again, then sat back down on his amp. It was a beautiful disaster.
I remember a couple of gringo manor nights. That was during the regularly scheduled weekend non-culinary mushroom tasting classes. I have one very vivid memory of someone's face smashed against the hood of a cop car for a little mid evening fun!
Oh, dear. It's starting to come back to me in jagged little flashes. I have a vague recollection of the same incident... right outside of the Gringo Manor if I'm not mistaken. I think even Rob the Cob partook of some of those shenanigans. The crazy thing about Gringo Manor was that virtually anyone could walk in there off the streets and be treated like an old friend and welcomed with a can of beer, in spite of the fact that it was a fairly daunting scene as viewed from the street. Back in the days when Big D had a little bit of soul.
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