From the moment we arrived in downtown Austin, until the second we left, I was on sensory overload. You can’t walk 5 feet without either being assaulted by someone handing out free advertisements, CD’s, flyers, etc. You also can’t walk 5 feet without your ears being blasted by whatever music is coming out of the bars on each side of the street. 6th Street is insane. I was completely overwhelmed the entire time.
We played a bunch of cool shows. I really enjoyed our showcase at Beso Cantina and West’s. The Agave show was probably my worst performance of the whole tour, as I couldn’t get comfortable at all during the set. I think it was doomed to fail for me as it started with having to lug all of my drums a bunch of blocks, only to find out that they had a house kit that everyone was using… That sucked. I was already dealing with a really nasty back injury that’s flared up, so lugging gear when you don’t have to is a total drag. Once set up, I just couldn’t get in the groove. It didn’t help that I couldn’t hear Matt at all, which was a serious struggle on certain songs. I guess you can’t win em all, but I would have liked to have played much better than I did. It bummed me out for the rest of the day.
While in SXSW I was able to see only a few acts. I saw She and Him, which I thought were pretty ok. Maybe I’ll check out the recordings, Mike says they’re pretty good. I saw the last few songs during the Le Loup set. I really dig that band, and I’m psyched we were able to open for them a few month ago. I also saw Devotchka, which was an eclectic mix of classical instrumentation and crafty melodies. My FAVE thing was seeing Billy Bragg. He only played 3 songs, but he was captivating and comedic. I really want to see a full show of his sometime, I think he’s a great performer and good songwriter.
We ran into quite a few people and bands we knew while we were in Austin. It was nice to walk down the street and run into someone and chat for a bit. We made some new friends and reconnected with older ones. That was pretty cool. I gotta say, I am fairly bummed I didn’t get to eat TX BBQ, next time we’re in Texas, I’m making it a point to try as much local flavor as possible.
I dug Austin. I mostly dug the SXSW experience. I think I’d like it better if I could just go to shows, instead of having to play. I’d love to be able to have the “fan experience”, I think it must be pretty awesome. I also hope that we play some AWESOME showcases next year, The Motion Sick is gonna kick Austin’s ass next year!!