My favorite Austin band hit the road for another lovely show at the Tractor Tavern in Ballard! I'm too tired to attempt witty dialogue, so here are the pictures with minimal babble. Feb 10, 2002.www.asylumstreetspankers.com

The Spankers
Wammo sings the Beer song! Sex, drugs, and alcohol have always been popular tunes for this hard to classify acoustic, folk, vaudeville, metal, gospel, blues band!

The Main Players: Christina
Christina's the token femme of the group... playing banjo for the song.

The Main Players: Wammo
My favorite Spanker hams it up for the audience! I used to see this band every Wednesday night in college... and they never got old! Still don't!

The Main Players: Guy
Guy left the Spankers to form the fabulous Guy Forsyth Band. I was quite excited that he decided to join the Spankers for this tour... I hadn't seen him play in ages!

The Main Players: Stanley
Stanley kick butts! He plays the clarinet and sings like a man half his age!

The Band Plays On...

Christina and Wammo
The band tends to have great rapport with the crowd... that's probably why I used to use the Spankers as my "test" for dates back in college. If the guy liked them, he might get a second date. If he wasn't a Spankers fan (happily it never happened), he'd be out like yesterday's leftover cooked cattepillars.

Playin' my song!
One of my all time Spankers favorites is a ditty that requires both Christina and Guy. It's called "If you really love me..." and each chorus proceds to tell the other 'if you really love me, i'll tell you what you have to do.' Naughty and fun! So great!

Whistlin'
The great Stanley Smith belts out a tune!

Whole Heap o' Spankers
Quite a large group when everyone's on stage at once!

Hick Hop
Wammo released his own album called "Faster Than the Speed of Suck." In it he does a hilarious tune called "Hick Hop" - dedicated to a genre he forsaw long ago!

Blow, Wammo, Blow!
Who else can play the washboard, cymbals, and kazoo quite so well as he?

Love that Guy!
Even with the long hair on Guy and Wammo, these boys get my blood pumping! They really should come to Seattle more often!

Yes Yes Boys
The open band, highly unusual as it is to have an opening band, was the Yes Yes Boys. Apparently current Spankers' bassist Matt is from the area and used to play with these folks.

Bluegrass...
Their sound was pretty bluegrassy, and the crowd seemed to enjoy them! I personally would enjoy anyone at that point, as long as the Spankers came on stage next!