Austin Tour Diary: Funeral Suits

Going to the world’s largest alternative music showcase, South By South West in Austin, Texas requires a great deal of organisation. You have to arrange concerts, accommodation, crew. Our preparation isn’t helped by the fact that we’re just back from our European tour. We’ve been away over a month and generally suffer an emotional comedown once a stint on the road is at an end. We’re a band on our first record on a small label with a DIY ethic and a small budget. Were it not for the grant from Culture Ireland and First Music Contact (FMC), we wouldn’t be able to make it to SXSW at all.

Our trek to America hits a speed-bump before we’ve even left as there’s talk of cancelling all US dates due to complications. Happily, some luck comes our way and we’re quickly back on course. We fly to Austin via-London, where we play a show. We’re still not 100 per cent sure how things are going to pan out in Texas. Accommodation and transport aren’t fully confirmed until late on Thursday, March 7.

Friday, March 8:
Arrive in Austin
It’s our second visit to Austin. On the last occasion we arrived at midday. This time our plane hits the tarmac at 9pm. It’s a very different feeling. We’ve been flying all day so go straight to the hotel. Last time we stayed in Round Rock, a 25-minute drive north on the freeway from Austin. Now we’re at East 6th St. It’s the epicentre of anarchy for SXSW. We check into our hotel, The Firehouse.
The promoter who has arranged our accommodation can’t be reached so reception offers ‘the penthouse’. That isn’t quite as lavish as it sounds. In reality, it’s the same as all the other rooms. Plus, we are too far away from the Wi-Fi hub for the internet to work. Still, the view and roof-top access trump the downside.
Our first show isn’t until Monday. We head down 6th Street. It’s coming to the end of the interactive festival that precedes SXSW proper. The city is quiet. We know it won’t be like this in a few days. It’s nice to be here before all the mayhem. We end up in a bar in the Latin Quarter playing pool and drinking mojitos with local Austinites until we get tired and head home.

Saturday & Sunday, March 9 and 10:
The in-between days
We spend two days wandering Austin. Me and Dar rise early the first morning and walk the length of Austin to Zilker Park. It’s on the banks of a river where we find hundreds of turtles sunning themselves. We chill in the heat, grab some food and watch people row past for most of the day before we head back into town to meet Greg.
On the second day me and Brian head down to the convention centre to pick up our passes for the music festival. We pop in to say ‘hi’ to Angela and Steve from FMC at their stall and return to the hotel. On the way back we bump into Terevan, the boyfriend of one of the girls working in the hotel. He rents bikes to tourists but is a healer too. He has a beautifully uplifting personality. During the course of talking to him he pauses and starts humming in a high pitch. I don’t know why but I couldn’t help but have the biggest smile. Whether a person can heal another through touch or not I can’t say. Some people make you feel good just through their presence...

Monday, March 11:
First show
The music festival still hasn’t started but some live events are already underway. We’re playing a show for Daily Motion, to be broadcast live on the internet. It’s the biggest venue we’ll play at SXSW, very different to the grimy rooms where you perform the rest of the week. Both have their advantages. We’re first on the bill so get there early to soundcheck. One thing we’ll remember is how nice everyone running the shows and people from Austin in general are. We’re excited and a little nervous. Things go well. Unfortunately we aren’t able to use the lighting we’d like as it wouldn’t translate well for the guys from Daily Motion. Afterwards we hook up with the chaps from Kid Karate and have a pretty relaxed night as this photo shows!

Tuesday, March 12:
A day for relaxing

Wednesday, March 13:
Brew exchange &
Irish showcase
Our first show as part of the music festival proper is at the Brew Exchange. It’s nine blocks west from our hotel. We borrow a trolly to transport gear. Outside the hotel a guy shouts at us to, “Go do what you do”. Chatting to him we find out he’s a reformed man who’d spent 16 years in a penitentiary for robbing stores all over the South.
We walk the nine blocks in the mid-day heat. We meet Erin, the promoter, and the guys working at the venue. Everyone is sound. We play and afterwards say “hi” to some people who are down to see us. Erin wants us to come back later to play again. We’re really happy to have another venue to go straight to. It’s Maggie Mae’s for an Irish showcase, happening that night. A short soundcheck later and we head back to our hotel to rest, having spent so much time in the sun and not being able to handle it, like all good Irish people.
One thing that me and Steve from FMC will talk about later is the great vibe between all the Irish bands. Squarehead are amazing. They have some technical difficulties but it doesn’t hinder their set. It’s nice to play with Delorentos too. It’s a great night. Everyone puts in a cool set. After the show we end up hanging out at the alley beside our hotel with Kev from Kid Karate skateboarding around us on the street. A nice ending.

Thursday, March 14:
A day for relaxing (some days are hard to remember…!)

Friday, March 15:
Irish Breakfast &
Brew Exchange, part 2
We’re scheduled to play the Irish Breakfast at 4pm but get a call at 3am to see if we can soundcheck at 8am. Soundchecks are a rare commodity at SXSW so we’re happy to get in and grab ours. This show is so important to us. Angela and Steve in FMC help out Irish bands in so many ways and we want to nail it, for them as much as ourselves. It’s the most enjoyable date we play at the festival. The stage is in the front of the bar with windows that open out onto 6th Street. The venue is packed and there’s a queue outside. People hang in at the windows right behind us. It’s a bit insane playing a foreign country and seeing kids singing your songs word-for-word right up the front. And to be going on just before Ash, a band that I first heard and loved when I was nine.
Come 10pm we’re back in the Brew Exchange for our second date there. It’s great to see Erin again. She has so much positive energy. The bar is busy and the show goes really well. There’s a little bit of confusion on the length of our set. Erin wants us to play some more songs. We get to perform most of the album.
Later we head back across to the Latin Quarter with our manager Brian and Steve from FMC. We go to bar called Rio Rita’s and chill out and talk about life and love and the universe. Some of the guys head home early, so it’s just me Sean, Steve and Dar. After the bar closes we walk out and there’s a silver bus with ‘Interstellar Transmission’ across the side. Steve is like a child at Christmas. He saw the same band play on top of the bus four years previously, again at SXSW. He’s been trying to find them every year since. Now they’re playing inside the bus and we all need to get on! When we do, the bus is busy and we can’t see the band. It’s painted silver inside. Suddenly it empties and we clock the musicians for the first time. All our minds are blown simultaneously. It’s one of those moments you look at one of your friends and, without speaking, know you’re all thinking the same thing. The band are covered in body paint and shrouded in feathers and beads. They seemed oblivious to the people on the bus. They are playing the most amazing music, are completely submerged in it.
When it comes time to head home I climb in one of those bike-driven rickshaw things with Dar and feel like the kid from ET : wind blowing in my hair, the driver cycling as fast as he can downhill, not breaking on turns. I feel like we could have flown.

Saturday, March 16:
Fairwell Firehouse
Our last day in Austin and our final show is in the bar of our hotel. It seems fitting. Everyone working there has been so nice. The show goes well. There are some familiar faces from previous gigs around the city. Later, me, Sean and Steve end up going for farewell Austin drinks. Me and Steve resolve to get tattoos. Steve’s is going to be a key on the inside of his elbow. I want to get ‘the flaming lips’ on the inside of my lower lip. My girlfriend has a unicorn on the inside of hers. We get to the shop and Steve’s all set but they don’t want to do ‘the flaming lips’. There are too many letters to fit inside your mouth. I leave Austin the next day starting a North American tour, hoping to find a tattoo artist that is careless enough to try this…

Lily Of The Valley is out now on Model Citizen records.