Fred LeBlanc demonstrating how he can play the drums and sing the lead circles around Phil Collins or Don Henley in their salad days
Most of you who don’t live in the Louisana-Texas area are probably going “Who?” at the mention of this band. Maybe your memory would be jogged over their one big, national hit “Jenny Says” from 1996-7 which got them on MTV and some airplay. They never really went away, especially around here since New Orleans has some cultural ties to Austin, they’re both cities with reputations for having a good time. Cowboy Mouth played at Antone’s this time which I think is a much more appropriate setting for them. I finally saw them in 2003 at Stubb’s (outdoors) which is the only decent outside venue in Austin but it doesn’t work for reasons I’ll explain later. Anyway, last night was my first time at Antone’s in its current downtown location, I used to go in the Nineties when it was near my apartment on Guadalupe. The building is a tad odd with everything be laid out horizontally in a building that is rather deep. Maybe Clifford wanted a larger stage for the performers. I think I will be shooting to go more often after seeing how the layout is. Again, for my out-of-Austin friends, Antone’s is considered the Blues place of the region and it’s where Stevie Ray Vaughn (amongst others) got his break, I’ll explain more in an Austintatious story in the near future. The band (Fred, Vance, John-Thomas & Regina) hit the stage at 1030 PM. Then it was an aerobic marathon of jumping, screaming and clapping because those are the ground rules laid out by Fred at the beginning. Thus, a Cowboy Mouth show isn’t for anyone who likes to enjoy a concert passively. Believe me, I gave it my all since I was in the front row, right in front of bassist Regina and in Fred’s line of sight. I’m still hoarse plus I will be logging this as activity on my Wii Fit (I just didn’t this morning due to the batteries being low). Oh, yes, I did have a great time and Somara even more, they’re one of her favorites. Last night’s set consisted of several songs from their upcoming album Fearless which will be appearing near the end of September, you know I’ll be buying it ASAP at Waterloo Records. The rest were past singles out of the band’s past catalog of records: Are You With Me?, Mercyland, Easy, Uh-Oh and the more recent, post-Katrina release Voodoo Shoppe. For the encore, they kicked off with an Otis Redding song, rather fitting and appropriate given where we were.