Austin The Moment

10/3/12
An early rise for the boys; our flight to London was at 6.45am. On arriving at Belfast City Airport we realised that two of James’ guitars (not one, as we’d previously thought) were still in the Olympia after Thursday night’s Meteor Choice award show!! Amid some confusion, there was nothing we could do about it but board the plane..
On arriving at Heathrow, we had two hours to kill before our connecting flight to Chicago. Time for a pit stop and a Bloody Mary! The flight to Chicago took roughly 8½ hours. Some of us tried to sleep, whilst others opted for some vino...
Next up: Chicago to Austin. On arriving, we had to make our way to our digs. A CO-OP was putting us up, which is basically a Fraternity house with about twenty students living in it. The deal for them is that they’d get free passes to SXSW if they put up a band. A lot of people in Austin do this; tickets for SXSW are very expensive. Tired, weary and hungry, we hit Pluckers for some food and a few Lone Stars. One meal could probably have fed all of us… Texan portions are serious!!

11/3/12
Free day today, time to settle in and explore!
We split up into two groups. Danny, Ronan and I went on a pay-and-go mobile phone hunt, while Stuart, James and Phil went to pick up our wheels for the next week. The CO-OP is situated bang in the centre of the student area of Austin, right beside the University. Lots of cafes, retro clothes shops, cool bars and stuff like that everywhere. Took a picture of Daniel Johnston’s famous mural “Hi How Are You”. We’re very honoured to be his backing band when he plays the Empire in Belfast on 4th April. On visiting a few local bars along the way, we discovered that everyone around here is really friendly and accommodating. Plenty of free Lone Stars — Nice!!
In the evening we all got the bus downtown to 6th Street, where most of the SXSW action is happening, with hundreds of bands playing in hundreds of venues. Ended up blagging our way into a movie after-show party with free beer all night! Austin rocks!

12/3/12
Gig day no.1! NI Showcase @ The British Embassy, Latitude on 6th St. The gig itself wasn’t until the evening so we spent the day exploring the local area again, buying some new threads and sampling the local beers and craic. Sweet!
On arriving at Latitude we bumped into many friendly faces from home. Foy Vance, The Wonder Villains, General Fiasco and And So I Watch You From Afar were all on the bill. Free beer and food was laid on too, what a treat ;-)
Being the first show of the week, everyone stepped it up a gear. All the bands played really well, ASIWYFA were incredible! We squeezed onto the stage and rocked it!

13/3/12
No gig today. We had to officially check in at the Convention Centre to pick up our passes etc. After this we hit the Mohawk to see White Denim, Stuarty and James’ favourite band. Outdoor venue, sunshine, free beer, food and White Denim, doesn’t get much better. White Denim laid down the law; their drummer Josh is one of the best drummers I’ve ever seen live, and the band were amazing. James also met his doppelgänger at the gig, which was hilarious! On our way back to the CO-OP we bumped into Matt Sorum, ex-G ’N’ R and the Cult. He seemed a really nice guy, and told us a couple of Axl stories. Good times all around!
After this we got invited to play at a house party, which never came about due to there not being enough equipment for us to plug into. Nevertheless the party was good fun: DJs indoors and out, fire breathers, dancers and genuinely really nice people. Then I lost my phone and spent an hour (or maybe three) in a drunken haze trying to find it, with no success. Nothing worse than losing your phone in a foreign country!

14/3/12
Woke up feeling pretty terrible: hungover, dehydrated and it was as hot as Hell. Good news though: I heard that someone found my phone, then went back to the party house and picked it up. Happy days! Checked out a few retro clothes shops on the way back to the CO-OP and picked up a seriously lethal shirt. Even with the hangover from hell, it was a good day. Then off to our second gig at Tap Room on Colorado St., just off 6th. This was another NI showcase with General Fiasco and The Wonder Villains on the bill; word had it that there were a lot of ‘industry people’ coming to see us play too, so the nerves were kicking in, probably not helped by the hangover. The stage in the venue was very small and we found it difficult to fit all our gear on it. As it turned out, our sound was terrible, but everyone enjoyed the performance and we were really up for it. Big sigh of relief!

15/3/12
Early gig at the Brew Exchange on West 6th St, ANTI POP Showcase. Kick off was at 2.30pm. The PA was pretty poor but we punk rocked it and everyone seemed to really enjoy it, leading to nice compliments from all the punters. After this we were off to play the IATP Showcase at The Vortex, slightly further out from all the madness down 6th St. Really cool venue, we set up on a deck outside in the sunshine. All the kids from the CO-OP came down to see us play, really good atmosphere!
Yet again the PA was terrible, but we played really well. After the show, we hung out for a while and checked out an Italian band called Lilly’s From Mars, who Danny reckoned sounded like Björk meets Slint. It was a good show… After this we kept it real and I was actually in bed for 11pm. I must be getting old!

16/3/12
Gig no.5! The Irish Breakfast at BD Riley’s on 6th St. Stage time was at 3,50pm. We knew this was going to be a hectic one, with a 10-minute changeover time between bands. Cashier No.9 usually work with 32 channels consisting of a full drum kit, bass rig, 2 electric guitars, 2 acoustic guitars, synth, 4 vocals, congas, percussion, harmonica, 2 laptops etc etc, but today we only had 16 channels to work with (and a 10-minute changeover time!) The venue was packed and there was no room on the stage for my percussion set-up, so I was relegated to the floor. It took us at least 20 minutes to change over, which meant we had two songs cut short. Even at this, we blew the roof of the place and the audience really digged the show.
Found an outdoor free food/bar for artists and hung out there, then went to see ASIWYFA play a blinder again with the General Fiasco lads… Paddy’s day tomorrow and our final show at Friends at 10pm on 6th St, cannot wait!

Cashier No.9 play the Academy, Dublin on April 20.