Peace,
Chris

Saturday night (Sunday actually) 1:30 am catch Chris Poage on the Village stage performing solo on guitar. Also on that bill is Olivia De La Cruz and Michael Gonzalez.

Later on that same morning. . .11am catch Panda’s bassist turned Uke player Sandy Dickerson on the beer garden stage. Good times! See you at MELTDOWN!!!

Performing on the Vajara Stage located at Republican & Broadway at 1:45 this afternoon.

Lost Gonzo band (mid 70's)

Never heard of this group? If you were not born in the 50′s you probably wouldn’t have. The only reason we know about them is because of TJ’s crazy vinyl collection. After doing a little digging, I’ve come to find there may be more to the Lost Gonzo band then meets the eye.

This group of Robbie Robertson inspired Texans performed at Austin City Limits 3 times in their 40+ year career. Not to mention a set at Willie Nelson’s now infamous 2nd Annual 4th of July Picnic!  With names like Jerry Jeff Walker and Michael Martin Murphey, (Now a member of the Texas country music hall of fame!) you know they’ve gotta be good!

To make a long story short Panda Conspiracy will be covering one of their songs at next weekends Brewers festival at St. Edwards Park. The tune is called Wilderness off of their 1976 Thrills album. The song has an elusive reggae feel to it blended with great lyrics and sweet changes. To me this song is a clue in understanding why Bob Marley choose to mix his brand of reggae with Texas studio musician John “rabbit” Bundrick just 3 years earlier on the album Catch-A-Fire. Apparently American country musicians were listening to reggae in the early 70′s and were more open minded then most people think! But don’t bother rushing to download a copy or searching for a youtube version of it online. . .It doesn’t exist! It’s crazy that such a piece of history is not online in a digitally download-able form!

So much to blog about so little time! I’m going to do some back peddling the next few days here and try to recap the last week because it kicked so much ass! So for this post I will start with the epic Laser Prom party we threw with Delhi 2 Dublin on June 3rd. Sometimes concerts aren’t really worth writing about. Trust me, Ive seen enough to know this as truth. Luckily Panda Conspiracy doesn’t do those kind of shows. Take Laser prom for example: Thursday night, Sold out, Laser madness, crowd surfing and an all round great time! I may be a dude but I love to decorate and appreciate an eye for style as well as creating atmosphere. That is where DJ Shape Shifter came in and KILLED it! He draped colorful black light sensitive fabric and converted the Wild Buffalo into a magical neon palace. Not to mention that he’s my new favorite DJ! Shapy spun sets at the beginning middle and end of the night and always picked the choice cuts keeping the crowd pumped up and dancing the ENTIRE night! We did our part to warm up the stage and welcome BC’s Delhi 2 Dublin to rock the 2nd set.

One thing I’ve learned over the years is it is just as important to do a killer opening set as it is to headline. My goal is to be associated with great concerts start to finish every time regardless of who plays when. Big thanks go to the crew responsible for pulling this off! Austin with Build Strong, Ken from Soulful Elements as well as Marika, DJ element, Jeff Silverman and Chris with Nth Degree Lasers, and the Toledo. We are fortunate to be surrounded by such talented and creative people in our scene!