My arrival was pretty brilliant. I’m walking from my car when I’m approached by some fellow who looks a bit worse for wear at the homeless shelter.
“How’s it goin’?”
“Uh pretty good. How you doin’ my friend?”
“Oh pretty good. I just got some rock cocaine. Feelin’ it right now You wanna share?”
While I wisely and politely turned down the offer I had to think to myself, “Goddamn if that isn’t hospitality!
Well here we were again in Austin; our first time since the ill fated SXSW performance. This item though we were a bit better off from the get-go as we were (generally speaking) under a lot less stress and there was none of the insane hurrying involved with SXSW – this was going too be much more relaxed and groovy.
I arrived a bit tired but some coffee kind of woke me up somewhat. My mistake though came later at the club when I was offered some smokes. Yea, it was offered up so nicely that it didn’t occur to me why I stopped smoking in the first place. Basically I had to stop because it makes me completely detached from what goes on around me. I clam up and observe but I have no connection to what is occurring – I am a completely neutral observer. I’m there but I’m not. I hate that especially when I should be putting all my energy into playing my best. But hospitality can kind of throw off your better judgment and, well, it’s better to err on the side of friendship.
The first band Triple wide was pretty good with this Velvet Underground vibe but their “This is for my ex. We call it fuck you!” kind of banter was a big turn off. Sorry guy I don’t give a fuck about your ex. Don’t know her, don’t care but you sound like an asshole. Now shut the fuck up and play!
The DJ was pretty cool I wish I’d been able to hear more of his stuff to be able to report back but at least he left the audience wanting more.
When we came up, while I had an off night due to the smokes, (not bad just not inspired) Clinton and everyone else performed smashingly and we had a set that got us a lot of good comments from people we’d never met. Now, I’m kind of glad we revamped the set after the press awards – it was definitely a smart move.
Lori Varga aka Lori Surfer’s films that were projected for all bands were truly inspired and just shows how far we have to go in our multi-media presentations. Lori is also super nice but goddamn it we never got to duet on Tapatia…well next time…
ST37 closed with a stellar set (like I’ve ever seen anything less from these guys. The new guitarist worked out well and the drums sounded massive.
After the show I said fuck it…I’m heading back to Houston and armed with a coffee and Jerry Jeff Walker headed back to Houston to arrive at a sleepy 5am to my sleeping family and comfy abode. Now that is rock-and-roll.
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