Diary – First Day in Austin

Tuesday saw us with our first day proper in Austin. We got up sharpish
in the morning (having been up for about 24 hours the previous day
everyone slept pretty soundly…), and those of us staying with our host
Sue were particularly chipper due to the liberal use of her espresso
maker. We headed in to the convention centre in the middle of town to
get our wristbands, with only minor confusion as to whether we were
Broken records or the representatives from “Broken Wreckords”, whoever
they may be. This left us with a whole day free, so Sue took us to “Juan
in a Million” for breakfast, insisting that we hit the “Don Juan
Breakfast Tacos” which left everyone a bit subdued afterwards by their
sheer scale…

We left Sue to go and meet up with our other hosts
Jen and Haylie, and ventured into Austin for the afternoon sans local
knowledge. After checking out some of the venues we would be playing
later in the week, we headed to Buffalo Billiards on 6th (where we would
be playing the 4AD/Bella Union showcase on Thursday night) and decided
it was about time for a beer. The local brew was Firemans 4, a drink we
were destined to see a little more of as the week progressed, and after a
few pints we hit the pool tables and discovered the game of
Shuffleboard, which was a bit like a very small-scale version of
curling, with a layer of salt replacing the ice and played on a very
long, narrow table.

As it seemed to be a day for trawling the
pubs, we met our hosts a little later in the afternoon and headed to the
East side for some “getting to know you” action, in the most
appropriate format of getting shown round their favourite boozers. The
east side was supposedly the cool end of town, and the bars all had a
kind of run-down garage or old shed-type vibe about them, with loads of
people milling about outside drinking cans of Lone Star (the Texas
equivalent of Tennents, and a drink so cheap that, according to Sue,
“You have to double-fist if you’re on the Lone Star”, ie. drink two cans
at a time).


It became clear around this point that I was not
going to be able to keep up the pace with Sue. Maybe for a day or two,
but at some point in the week I was going to bale. Or die.

We
spent the evening going from one place to the next, playing pool,
watching bands, hitting some of the free parties, and generally having a
bit of a ball. Not knowing my way round town by this point, it is hard
to say exactly where we went. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it…

Sleep
came pretty easily on account of the Firemans 4, and was more than
welcome what with the St Patrick’s day gigs coming up on Wednesday.

Tonight’s
installment: St Patrick’s Day of Doom