The Gourds at Gruene Hall
Friday night I made it up to Gruene Hall to see The Gourds.
The last time I saw The Gourds was in August when they played at Gruene, and I was a little disappointed with the show. They had begun playing more and more electric-ish music, and it didn’t have that Gourds sound. But when I was at Bart’s CD Cellar in Boulder a few weeks ago I noticed that The Gourds had released a new album, Heavy Ornamentals, so I bought it. Its possible that this is their best album yet, and its definitely their best work since Bolsa de Agua and Cow, Fish, Fowl or Pig. So with all these great new songs I had high hopes for the show, and I was not disappointed.
I knew it was going to be a great show as soon as it started because they opened with one of my favorite songs, “Ants on the Melon.” 
They followed it with “El Paso”, which is probably my favorite Gourds tune. The show only got better from there as they played “Pick & Roll” and “Declineometer” from the new album, as well as a bunch of other favorites such as “Ceilings Leaking”, “Blankets”, and “Lower 48.” All in all, it was a fantastic show. I didn’t stay for the encore because invariably at Gruene there are some idiots who yell and scream for “Gin and Juice.”
If you’ve never seen The Gourds, and you like alt-country, you should check them out. They’ll be playing in San Antonio at Rebar on April 7th, I’ll definitely be there.