My band, The Rattlecats, played The Drumstick several times in 1982 and 1983. The first time we played The Drumstick was Halloween, 1982. We had played Kansas City the previous night and pulled up around 6 PM to load in. We were surprised to find out that “The Drumstick” was a chicken restaurant. Surprise Number 2 was when a large man in a dress came to the door and told us we were late and the show started at 8 since it was Sunday rather than the 10 PM time we had expected. “You’ll have to play last since the other bands (The Crap Detectors and Charlie Burton!) had already sound-checked and had their gear on stage. Surprise number 3: the man in the dress was the manager and he asked if we were hungry. Then he proceeded to cook up some great fried chicken! Surprise number 4: We loaded in our gear and headed to the Sleepy Hollow Motel where we discovered our room was straight out of a porno movie: red walls and leopard skin wallpaper. Surprise number 5 – back at the club we waited for our turn to play. The Crap Detectors did their set and then Charlie Burton and his band came on. The lead guitarist wore an ape mask through the entire set and Charlie Burton was a wild man! And we had to follow that! Fortunately, Charlie had thoroughly warmed up the crowd and we had a great night. Afterwards, we went over to Charlie’s drummer Dave’s house and listened to obscure garage rock records and had a few beers. The next morning we had a great breakfast at The Drumstick before making the long drive back to Austin. We would return! But that is another story…
Shared by: Glen Worley