Saturday, May 05, 2007
Muso Tour Diary, Part 2:
Delicious is our Business
The next day crawled by. A 9 hour drive turned into 12, thanks to all the small towns on the highway with speed limits of 45mph. We missed a tornado by a few minutes, but for much of the way, the East Texas clouds looked like they could still unleash hell on us. What if we got swept up and dropped off at the club in Dallas?! In our tired, loopy minds, this was a seriously hot fantasy.
The show in Dallas was fun, even if only a few friends came out. We spent as much time un/loading the trailer as we did on stage.
The next morning, procrastinating the road to Austin, we shot this masterpiece in the hotel.
Austin was our tour destination. It was South by Southwest and we had 2 shows scheduled for the week.
We had to make one stop on the way.
Home base was The Great Nils' apartment, which we shared with a couple DJs from LA. Josh and I got the sleepaway camp treatment.
The Great Nils' driveway was S-shaped, which made navigating the trailer in and out an adventure. Not to mention we had to turn around and unhitch it before/after every gig, so that we could take the car out. With 3 guys, you could do it with back pain. With 4, it was a special day.
Most nights were spent walking around Austin, braving the SXSW mobs, and going to parties sponsored by websites, energy drinks, and record labels. This meant schmoozing, live music, hipsters, and free beer.
Our first show was Wednesday at Ego's, an old Austin staple for poetry slams and incongruously, punk rock. We had a great crowd of friends and family, all of whom responded well to our new songs. We got this reaction from a few: You guys are a lot better than last time.
Fair enough.
For Thursday, Parker had hooked us up with passes to see Peter, Bjorn and John, and The Buzzcocks. You have to pay for wristbands and badges to see bands during SXSW, and they're not cheap. It's a steal for industry folks who aren't paying for it anyway.
But Thursday morning, my phone rang. It was Dave from The Tonight Show. He wanted us down on Sixth Street as soon as possible. Wayne Coyne, singer of The Flaming Lips and coolest muthafucka on the planet, was going to interview us for a bit on Leno.
