18-06-98 Deep Ellum Live. Dallas, Texas.

Texas is mad. It's the heat. It makes people crackers. It's 100 degrees outside the air-conditioning of the chrome shark. I hide in it.

The club is big and full and we have a great show. I manage to dive over the security and the 6 foot barrier into the crowd without getting my shirt sleeve torn or my skin scraped by fingernails. A small triumph.

I can hear people singing the words to the songs again. This is turning into an epidemic. The Southern ladies here again tonight, the Dallas chapter. They bounce and gyrate and wiggle and scream. Very odd.

We finish playing and run off to the beautiful cold of the bus. I am accosted by a clutch of autograph hunters before I make it to the shark. They came prepared, marker pens in hand. For some reason none of the girls want their posters or stickers signed. They only want their bodies signed. Very odd.

I sign a couple of stomachs and a thigh before one woman wants her breast signed. I sign the top of her breast so she doesn't have to expose herself. She smiles and thanks me and then whispers in my ear,

"Do you wanna little toot toot?"
"A what?"
"A toot toot," (she points to her nose).
"Marijuana?"
"No, a toot toot."
"Cocaine?"
"No, a toot toot."
"What?"
"Crack. It's good stuff. It'll keep ya awake all night."
"No thanks. I'm fine for crack just now thanks very much for asking."

WHOAH! Now we have fans that know all the words to our songs, want my signature on their knockers, and smoke crack while we play. Land of the free . . . basers.

After show I hook up with Shelley ( the guy who does all those cool silk screen gig posters for bands like 'Clutch' and 'L7'). He takes me to a bar across the street where the 'clone' band of 'Man or Astroman' are thumping out their psychobilly meets Devo madness. Sean from White Zombie is there with her other band (a collection of 'female monster super heroes'). I say hello and head back to the bus ride of madness.

The madness is a 6am flight to London from Dallas airport. We fly home tonight . . . for one gig. The gig is with BLACK SABBATH and it's an honour to play with the most influential guitar band of the latter part of this century. The down side is a 10 hour flight each way with a few hours sleep on the plane and then straight back to New Orleans to rejoin the Gravity kills tour the next day! Madness!