I hadn’t paid attention to their various spin-off bands, so this was a surprise to me: at the Rick Downs Casbah birthday bash with Mojo Nixon, all three of the surviving members of the Beat Farmers were there.

When I saw the Beat Farmers case on stage, my first thought was that musicians can’t afford to throw anything away. And then I started remembering heading down to Ocean Beach on the occasional Wednesday night to see the Incredible Hayseeds¹.

I remember two rumors as to why they played under a different name; that they couldn’t have played such a small venue under their real name, and that they wanted to play a more country version of themselves. Listening to their albums, I don’t think the latter makes sense—it’s just like what they used to do at Winstons.

Except at Winstons they drank more, yelled more, and spilled more. And used more profanity. Especially during Lucille or The California Kid.

I remember Country Dick Montana making up stories at Street Scene, about getting into bar fights, to explain the scar on this neck.

I don’t remember their children showing up at any of their shows. But some of them showed up on stage last night.

That was weird.

But it was a good show. And it was great to hear the Beat Farmers live again. Between shows of The Farmers and The Mentals, Jerry Raney, Joey Harris, and Rolle Dexter got on stage to do a song or two.

That was pretty damn good, too.