"I just need to pee and eat a Twix and I'll be OK!"

I received an invite to join Aimless Gun in College Station...(GASP!) home of the Texas A&M Aggies. A fun little jaunt in the bands custom cruiser and we were there. It was scheduled to be a hella long set as they were hitting the stage at approx 10:30 pm and playing til their fingers bleed.

The venue is Zapatos Cantina ( http://www.myspace.com/zapatoscantina ). OK, I will NEVER bitch about the size of One2One or any other of our local Austin clubs and bars cause this place was crazy, CRAZY small. But, the outside was where the action was gonna be at. College Station is very much the antithesis of Austin for all of the obvious reasons and a few others. Most notable (as stated by Casey - the Aimless Drummer [oh now that's funny in itself]) "In Austin you start out with a hundred people and by the end of the night or the end of you set there's 12 people left. Here, you start out with 12 people and by the end of the night there's over 200!" Well said Casey and NO SHIT! what an effing great surprise. It took no time at all to have more people in the courtyard enjoying the sounds than you could shake a collie at.

With a well thought out set list of originals, and covers interspersed, Aimless Gun ( http://www.aimlessgun.com/main.php )really went at it in a grand fashion. They kicked off the evening with some uptempo tunes that had the folks there in the house singing along IMMEDIATELY.  As the crowd built up more people would join in, the girls dancing, people cheering, very nice to see a large crowd really enjoying this bands performance.

And speaking of performance, whether or not there were adult beverages involved, this is the loosest and most fun I have seen from these guys on stage EVER! Lead guitarist Zach was chiming in with remarks and digging at the audience between songs in the most fun way possible. The ever silent Miles Barker on Bass even spoke up and being playful as well. Front man Cody Rathmell was an absolute blast to watch. Talking it up to some of the folks out in the dirt, inviting all the girls down front to sing along. I was surprised and found myself actually laughing out loud when I saw Cody invite some of the crowd to sing along to the chorus of a song or two. With a well place, and I might comical slap of the hand, Cody would spin the boom arm on the mic stand around to face the audience down in front and away they would go.

This crowd  absolutely would not stop! Singing along to the originals and going crazy over the covers. It was just an awe inspiring thing to see so many people having that much fun and appreciating the sounds of some live Austin music. They even managed to get a couple of live videos, 'Good Summer' (which was uploaded straight to YouTube while they were still onstage) and their unique rendition of 'HeyYa' (to be uploaded later - look for it!) recorded with some fantastic and fun audience participation.

Here is the link for 'Good Summer' - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8zwuIVO4AI
and the link for their original cover of 'Hey Ya' - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ndaascAYYY
Laters