Vintage Video Friday

Hi! Kat here, with my first Vintage Video post!

Shooter Jennings and the .357s were one of the most influential bands on our early rock + roll awakening.  Along with Jack Ingram and Reckless Kelly, they were one of the bands we were willing to trip around to see when we still lived in Iowa.

The first video of Shooter's to hit our consciousness was 4th of July.  I couldn't seem to find a good YouTube of it, so here's "Gone to Carolina." Close enough.

And now for some bonus material!

The first time we ever saw Shooter was at The Mill in Iowa City on June 20, 2005.  I remember walking downtown when MJ spotted a poster for the show taped to a lightpost.  The show was on a Monday night and MJ rocked out to the entire set in a hot hazy fever.  Really, she had a cold.  It was pretty bad, but did she let it stop her?  Not a chance!  We stuck around to meet Shooter after the show and I nerdily made him sign my ticket.  

I really barely remember this show.  I think I had been contemplating getting one of his "Put the O back in C untry" teeshirts, then deciding I'd get one later.  I never did and I kind of regret it.  The First Avenue Club was in the basement of a nail salon or something in a strip mall in Iowa City, can't quite remember.  Part of the floor was carpeted, and sometimes for shows they would duct tape plastic down over the carpet to minimize destruction.

Ah, Paris...Arkansas.  Saturday, June 24, 2006.  The night before this festival, we saw 'em in Mount Vernon, Missouri at the Snorty Horse Saloon.  For some reason we thought it would be a good idea to keep heading south into Arkansas and see them the next night, too.  And we were right; it was.  The festival was in a big open field and it was quite a pleasant experience until the festival coordinators decided to turn on the floodlights after the show and you could see exactly by whom you had been surrounded without the benefit of darkness.

The Majestic Theater, Madison, WI, September 30, 2006.  The Majestic was a nice venue.  The highlight of this show was being able to see the incomparable Drea de Matteo (Shooter's then girlfriend, now at least the mother of his two kiddos if not wife) up in the balcony wings.  Shooter done good for himself.  I had to spend the show making sure not to gawk, as she is one of my personal badass style heroines.  

Whiskey Roadhouse, Omaha, NE, October 14, 2006.  This was a bar in the Horseshoe Casino.  The waitresses had to wear these tight little pleather hot shorts and we actually saw one of the bar managers smack one square on the ass.  Maybe this was some kind of in joke between them, but it looked pretty slimy.  

The Zipper, Festina, IA, July 5, 2008. This was my favorite Shooter show ever.  It was in rural northeast Iowa, just about 45 minutes from where I grew up and where my father still lives on the family farm. The Zipper is a little bar in Festina, IA (approx. population 1,433) and I don't think I actually set foot inside the bar.  A makeshift outdoor venue was set up once a year for a big summer show, and in 2008, Shooter was it.  MJ and I roadtripped up from Iowa City and picked up my old man (I do mean 'father' here) and brought him out to the venue.  Wonder Creek, my friend's local Northeast Iowa blues trio, opened the show.  I kid you not, I ordered a Jack and Coke for $2 and basically got a six ounce cup of Jack.  What value!  Maybe someday I can do an expanded recount of this show, but for now, we'll leave it at that.

These are certainly not the only times we saw the band play, but they're the only ones from which I still have the ticket stubs.  Hope you enjoyed my Friday skip down memory lane....