SXSW - the tally so far....

Whew. it’s already day three of sxsw, we’ve played three shows, we’ve hunkered down and settled in; three days and already adventures to fill ten lifetimes, ten blogs, ten video diaries, ten hours of campfire stories, ten years worth of fun.our first set was at this wonderful little artist’s conclave set back into the woods on the outskirts of austin, a place called the Enchanted Forest. the stage was set far far back, over a rickety little creek with a rickety little creek bridge, past makeshift kiosks offering different handmade wares and objects d’arte. to get all of our gear within walking distance of this quiet little oasis we had to wend the van through several hundred yards of narrow dirt road, flanked on either side by stockpiles of stuff: great piles of discarded instruments, appliances, wandering dogs, fellow band geeks all pasty and pale in the warm noonday sun, stumbling in search of the rumored keg. with some help from the locals we managed to pushcart our shit from point A to point B and set up, but the show itself amounted to little more than an open air rehearsal. What can i say. Sometimes you just wind up in front of the wrong crowd of people. a strategic error on my part was starting with “lost not found”, probably the baddest-vibed song out of our set. by the time we got to “i’ll never let you go”, we’d lost not found just about everybody. alas. the wood nymphs weren’t in the market for a twenty minute exploration/diatribe about ugly relationships and horrible shaming sexual mistakes. oh well. As the Bishop Solomon Burke sings, “you can’t love ‘em all”. But then we made it downtown. And things were Different.Stubbs. Weds March 12th - the night REM was playing. After a minor wait for security clearance we got our stuff inside and strapped on the feedbag for some sweet sweet Stubbs bbq (not as good as memphis but better than most everyplace else), and it was surreal -- here we were, setting up on an inside stage, where 25 yards away thru a set of double doors, one of the most internationally successful rock bands of our lifetime was setting up on the Outside stage. not bad!anyway, it was a great great crowd and i’m really proud of how well we did. i put the whole set up on youtube for everyone to see it (look for the link below). we really did good that night. AND we got to see Nicole Atkins and the Sea! they played after us and were kind enough to let us use their stuff -- i hadn’t ever seen her before, but damn i wish i had been more on the ball. Dave Hollinghurst (also of Steve Shiffman & the Land of No), her guitarist, is a friend of mine and i’ve always wanted to catch a show but i had no Idea she was That great. wow. what was the comparison.... like Olivia Newton-John meets Julee Cruise. Fuckin’ A Right!So Stubbs left us in very high spirits indeed. And we were lucky enough to have our friend Sam Wainwright Douglas on the scene to shoot the vid (which is why the stubbs vid is so markedly better quality than any of our other vids, which usually fall into the category of “static wide shot of band playing on stage for forty minutes”). Anyway, Kyle C., Beth and I got the gear back to the hotel while the others burned the midnight oil and stuck around for REM. I’ve been crashing pretty early since we got here; ever since having a kid, the prospect of sleep is a pretty powerful trump card, not to mention the fact that my body clock seems permanently set to wake no later than 8:30am regardless of how late the previous night ran. whatever. tonight will be my late night excursion. But more on that later.SO - yesterday we had one show at 6pm for Amoeba Records/Carsondaly.tv at the Compound. went to the convention center, got checked in, registered, wristbanded, etc, hit the paste party hoping to run into steve labate, but the place was jammed and sweaty, so we bailed pretty quick, got tacos on E. 6th Street then walked out to rendezvous with Schatz at Todd P.’s dayparty. There we saw sets from Castanets (some of the starkest most depressing and depressive music i’ve ever heard in my life, like if the Velvet Underground & Nico fired Lou Reed and hired Nick Drake - or maybe if they just let Nico write all the lyrics) and from our soon-to-be tourmates Deer Tick (outstanding). from there we meandered back to town, running into Oscar from Nakatomi Plaza on the way, then stopping off to catch a few songs from Kimya Dawson, and running into the fine folks who put the After the Jump Showcase (of which we are a proud participator) together. they gave us postcards to help flack the show, then i ran back to the hotel to collect the kyles and the van and truck out to the Compound. There we were reunited with our friend and tourmate from 2006, Quincy Coleman, who had flown in that day to do the set following ours. Also there were Geoff and Stuart from her fantastic band, who it was great to catch up with. Not there, however - her drummer. But The Teenage Prayers are brave warriors, each and every one of us, so when Q. sounded the distress call, Kyle Wills stepped up and sat in like the champion that he is. Impressive stuff. Harrowing. Gripping. He nailed it. Anyway, we stuck around there for a bit then made it back to the hotel -- the more youthful and spritely of us turned around and took to the night in search of more fun. Terry went to see Times New Viking play, Beth went to go hang w. Oscar Nakatomi Plaza & company, Wills and Schatz had their own sinister agendas. Kyle Chrise and I found Our fun in sweet sweet slumber. But i’ve been banking all this rest to crank it up tonight and tomorrow -- the day will start today at 12:15 with a set from ANDRE WILLIAMS!! PSYCHED. then at 1 or so, the Silos play. then we beat feet to Flipnotics to go hang w. the Dead Trees. then if i can, i want to make it across the river to go see my buddy Jump Back Jake. Then maybe ditch the van, get some food, then make it over to the Merge showcase to go see the Radar Bros. Somewhere in there i’ve got a phone interview (don’t forget, don’t forget) and want to try to find my friend Meredith who i know is down here somewhere. So many things to do. I’ll file a report of the rest of it all on sunday when we’re driving to new orleans, after the dust has cleared.meanwhile here are the three most recent video diaries i got up: