THE PALATINES INVADE THE HALF MOON WHILE TRANSVESTITES ROCK LA MOVIDITA!

The few minutes between sets at a music gig can be frantic as amps, drum kits and pedals from one group are removed, replaced by the equipment of the next.

As I saw The Relapsers make way for The Palatines last night at Adams Street's Half Moon Saloon, I recalled John Mayall of John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers screaming thirty years ago at Riverfront Park when a Little Rock stage hand tried to unplug his amp.

"Don't touch my stuff!" I remember Mayall shouting. 

No shouting or screaming last night at the Half Moon, at least between sets, just a bartender handing the bass player three draft beers for the group.

"Thanks man!" said the guitarist.

"You won't like the music, Dad," Diego Lee Rot had been telling me all week, "but The Palatines are at least a real group."

The Palatines' drummer looked like a punk rocker, but the other two players in the McAllen outfit were at least 50 lbs heavier than the 60's guys Rot had been "educating" me about lately, giving some credibility to the theory that tacos are more filling than cocaine.

Having done my due diligence at the Half Moon, once again sitting in those comfy chairs Ben Neece long ago took from the decaying El Jardin Hotel for his Crescent Moon Saloon, I walked toward my car.

I was unable to pass La Movidita without buying a Budweiser to watch the transvestite show.  One of the "ladies" briefly interacted with me much to the delight of the bar room crowd.