Saturday, March 18th, SXSW continued

I don't know what I was thinking really. I had plans of doing lots of things--seeing cool bands and interviewing folks for www.i-see-sound.com as well as meeting new people and promoting my new record. So, far, I've made a few new friends but I have done nothing else. The internet connection in our room is not working this morning so I'm not going to get to check in with my online class either. Crud. Oh, well, I have to go play this show with Allison at the book store. Maybe that will be interesting. But I feel bad that I'm leaving all my other room mates to fend for themselves. Oh, well, I don't have a choice.

The bookstore was cool. Bookwoman, a women's bookstore in Austin, just W of the capital a few blocks, is like everything else in Austin--really neat. Brian Baker from City Beat stopped in to say hello, which was nice because I'd never met him in Cincinnati. The sound was really super strange, but we were running it so it was to be expected, I guess. Everyone there was really nice and I found this very strange photocopied book called, "So Midwest." I was getting quite a kick out of it so I bought it. I'm sure you'll hear more about it in the near future.

Anyway, Allison and I headed out to Ruta Maya, this really cool club in some business complex (music equipment, sound companies, advertising, graphic designers, etc. ). We talked with Bob Baker (www.thebuzzfactor.com) and then rushed off to Vanilla Girl (clothing store) to hear our room mate Jennifer do her set. On our way out, Madalyn informs us that Melissa Ferrick will be coming to perform for an hour and told us not to leave. But we couldn't blow off Jennifer so we ran to see Jennifer and then grabbed she and Jenn Franklin and headed back to Ruta Maya. We caught the last few songs but it was good. However, I had to give the sound guy a dirty look for just sitting there and not adjusting her guitar level on the last song. Why do they do that? It's so annoying.

We weren't there long when it was time to go again. Finally, Dale Johnson called and asked me to meet him at a private party where the Minni Thins were playing. We dropped one Jen off at the Four Seasons to schmooze and Allison and I headed over. What a cool place. It's an apartment complex with retail stores in the bottem, and a covered outdoor picnic/ampitheater place. Who knew? It was good to see the Cincinnati gang--I'd been trying to reach them for a couple of days.

After that, I had to take Allison to her Indie Grrl gig way out in BFE. We got to see lots of Austin on this trip and we got lost on several occassions. She was playing at Y Bar and Grill. A pretty fancy place. I sat and leisurely and ate a steak (yes, I'm a carnivore) while listening to the tunes. Allison got free dinner for playing. Mine was okay, but way overpriced for the quality. Anyway, we rushed out of there to head back downtown to see if I could possibly get into Rhett Miller's set at Emo's. On the way, I received a text from my friend Jim from www.sonicbids.com . He said that his co-worker, Heidi, was getting ready to hit the stage at Trophy's so we decided to head there instead. We picked up Jenn Franklin and managed to pick up the other Jen too and headed over. Heidi is in the all-girl, EJ Labb and the Association. The were hot. I cannot explain to you--seriously you had to be there, but it was the bomb. I don't even like rap, but this was cool. And then I realized that apparently it's a thing with Jim and I since he was with me last year for Vanilla Ice. After that, we made space in the car and took Jim downtown too and tried to see what we could find. Rhett was over, but Okkervil River would be onstage in about an hour and 15. Already the line at their tent was down the street. Again, I would not be seeing the band I so wanted to see. Fine. I give up. Let's see what else we can find.

We meandered down Sixth and looked at signs posted on the doors of clubs and couldn't find anyone we knew of or were thrilled to pay to go see. Finally, at the same club I was turned away from the night before--Martha Wainwright was onstage now. And up next, Josh Ritter. We were all singer/songwriters so we felt comfortable with our decision to stop searching and pay the $15 cover. Martha is good. She was sweetly singing and mesmerizing the crowd as we were struggling to find a place to watch her. We finally headed upstairs and found a place to sit though we couldn't actually see her. We were all tired and didn't really care. We had done it, we found a real show to get into. For Josh Ritter, we secured a spot behind the stage, though above it--a very strange vantage point. It was freaking me out a little, but it was cool sitting on top of the drummers head. It was a good show, but nothing amazing which led me to wonder, why do some people make it and some do not? A question I pondered with my friends Damon and Derron from the Minni Thins when we noticed they were standing next to us. They both recommended that we stay for Two Gallants as they had interviewed them earlier in the week. So, when they sucked, I thought that I was too tired or they had really horrible taste in music. I was told later that they also left the show because the band was just awful and exhausted from playing so much that week. After we dropped everyone off, we made our way to the hotel and crashed once again.