Vallejo and Pushmonkey
For the past four years or so, two of Steamboat’s best-drawing weekend anchors have been Pushmonkey and Vallejo. For the latter band, which moved from Birmingham in 1995, the ‘boat represented the promised land from the start. “Before we moved, we saw the Ugly Americans at Steamboat,” says Alex Vallejo. “We were standing on the stairs and I remember we each left saying we need to move to Austin and play this club.” Once they moved and begged David Cotten for a slot, Crooks and Cotten instantly became Vallejo’s two-man fan club, promoting a year’s worth of Wednesday night shows virtually nobody saw. “If Danny hadn’t paid us out-of-pocket, we would have probably packed up our bags and gone home.”
This article appears in September 24 • 1999.