Ft. Worth garage rock wonders The Cut*Off are finally coming home after a couple of months spent touring places far beyond their normal haunts. Out supporting the impressive new effort Packaged Up For Beginners, the Cut*Off headed to Chicago after SXSW and even ventured across the border for the first time. Guitarist Jayson Hamilton took some time before a show in Memphis to pontificate about some of the tour’s more interesting moments...
- The band lost lead singer Kyle Barnhill before even getting out of Austin. Barnhill was eventually discovered at 4 a.m. with members of The Drams just in time to get aboard the van. - In the Windy City, the guys couldn’t find the apartment a friend had offered them to crash in. They ended up discussing music during a snowstorm with some guy from Texas who went by the name of “Red Rawker.” - In Toronto, a deejay dedicated Stevie Ray Vauhan’s “Texas Flood” to the boys while some French guy plied them with drinks--only to demand payment moments later. Asked by the bar’s owner to help throw the frog out, the guys gladly complied. - After being banned from a hotel in Danbury, Conn., because the band members used a window for a door, things only took a turn for the worse in the Big Apple, as the band's van collided with a taxi. The air conditioner was the only casualty, thankfully, and the NYC show went off without a hitch. - Making their way home, the guys played a "great venue" in Morristown, Tennessee--only to find out that their accommodations consisted of one power strip and an ancient toilet. “It was the best night of sleep we had,” admits Hamilton.
...“and these stories are just the tip of the iceberg,” Hamilton says.
Sounds...fun?--Darryl Smyers
[Editor's Note: Catch Darryl's review of Packaged Up For Beginners in the next issue of the Observer.]