Last week when OurStage artists shared their opening act experiences, there wasn’t enough space to fit in all the great stories we received. We promised you more and here it is! The Petticoat Junkies’ lead guitarist Stephen Scott shared with us the band’s incredible story from their time opening up for The Mountain Goats and Kaki King.
“Although these shows were so much fun and a great opportunity, it was the unluckiest week we’ve ever had on the road. Herein lies a sordid tale filled with flat tires, broken keys, nightclub shootings, Austin police, alleged crack cocaine use, and fights w/ fast food employees.”
The band had just finished playing a killer set at Antone’s in Austin, Texas. Bassist Cody Ruth was absent; he’d gone with some friends for the night… and taken the keys to the band’s truck with him. After standing outside the club for about two hours and paying a locksmith $60, the remaining three members were finally on their way to find their beds. It wasn’t long before they noticed a police car was following close behind them.
“A few seconds later there’s another, then another, then another. We eventually realize that there are four or five cops following us through this neighborhood. We get around a corner and, like a flash, all the lights go on and we are surrounded by seven police cars. The three of us no sooner pull over to the side of the road and get the window down, when hear a megaphone shout, ‘Driver! Turn off the vehicle with your right hand, throw the keys out of the window and step out of the vehicle with your back facing me. Hands up, a**hole!’”
As you can probably imagine, this wasn’t the best way to have a conversation start with a bunch of police officers.
“Brian, being covered in tattoos and seemingly less than officer-friendly, does what they say. The officers proceed with the same protocol for me and Davis. As soon as I get out of the car I realize that there are approximately 8 glocks and 3 pump action shotguns pointed directly at us. One officer grabs me, throws a knee in my back, and cuffs me, all the while screaming, ‘Where’s the gun!?!’”
“After about twenty minutes of listening to the police scanner and watching my drummer cry in the back of a separate car, I start to realize what’s going on. Apparently there was a shooting at a nightclub up the street, and somehow we fit the description of the four mid-30′s Mexican gentlemen fleeing the scene in a Nissan truck. As three incredibly white twenty-somethings in a Ford F-150, we understood the confusion.”
Of course! It all makes sense now. Wait… what?!
“Eventually, they let us out of the cars, took the cuffs off, and… let us go, right? Almost. After they remove the handcuffs, an officer comes back from our truck and whispers to his sergeant, who then leans back on a squad car, and says, ‘Well fellas, we cleared ya on the shooting, but you need to be honest with me. Would there be any illegal drugs in your vehicle? You boys need to tell me when the last time you smoked crack was.’ Brian immediately retorts, ‘I’ve never smoked crack in my life.’ He then looks at me and I respond, ‘Seriously, if I smoked crack and still weighed this much I’d be really pi**ed off.’ Davis, all puffy-faced with tears brewing, yells, ‘I’ve never even seen crack!.’ An officer shouts at us, ‘There is a distinct odor that smokin’ crack cocaine puts off,’ he turns to Brian and whispers menacingly, ‘You smell like it.’ My immediate response is that it must be the truck stop cologne that Brian had purchased for a quarter back in Houston. The sergeant then leans forward once more and proclaims, ‘We found a substance in your vehicle that resembles a crack rock.’”
The guys were told they had to wait for a different officer to arrive and perform a field test on the offending substance.
“Apparently there is only one crack test in all of the state of Texas because it took another thirty minutes for officer #12 to show up with it. Turns out the “crack rock” was a piece of frosting from a doughnut. Who keeps their crack ground into a floorboard anyway?”
After all was said and done the officers became quite friendly and apologetic; the sergeant even gave his card to the band and told them to give him a call if they got in any more trouble. A few photos were taken, and the next day The Petticoat Junkies received a MySpace friend request from the sergeant with some kind words about their music.
“Along with this fiasco we got locked out of the truck three or four times, had a flat tire, numerous hangovers, and a near fist-fight with a server at a burger joint. All included it was probably the most fun I’ve ever had.”
Check out The Petticoat Junkies’ current high-ranking rock track, “Mother’s Milk,” which will be on their upcoming album!
