An American Tour

Homeward bound

Monday March 22^nd Houston ‘George Bush’ airport.

Dan and Andy left to get the bus but it was just leaving as they got there so they jumped into Chad’s car and chased after it until it stopped then they jumped out and caught it. Rival Schools made Andy reminiscence of his school days. The singer, called Walter, was really energetic on stage and has a great voice – he really got the crowd going. Although it was cold outside we enjoyed it very much. Emma watched ‘The Squid and the Whale’ a great depiction of a NYC-based family on the verge of meltdown – apparently Noah and the Whale based their band name on this film because they liked it so much. After managing to get a good night’s sleep, we woke up on Sunday feeling more energetic. We watched King of Kong which was a hilarious documentary about competitive King Kong video gaming. We then went downtown to the river and did a fairly long walk around Town Lake, a beautiful park area in South Austin. There were large terrapins/turtles sunning themselves on trees really near to the path and lots of people jogging, as well as a little train to transport people (that didn’t like jogging) and some beautiful tropical plants and trees.

After our walk we then went to a vintage shopping area in South Congress and went on a mission to find a pair of affordable fitting cowboy boots for Jasmine. Dan found a perfectly fitting marine jacket (to make its debut at a gig soon…) and Andy found some more nice shirts with ‘pearl snaps’. In between shopping we stopped for Elgin sausage burgers and amazing cupcakes from a tin caravan– injected with a cream filling (the whipper snapper option). South Congress was also host to several craft stalls where we purchased some smaller souvenirs.

We then went to the Capitol - the central governmental building for Texas built in 1888. There was no entry charge or tour we just explored the building. At the centre of the building below the cupola (dome) there was a tiled star with a crack through it where someone had jumped from the higher balcony and died. The lone star of Texas was everywhere – in the hinges, lightshades, walls, floors, office furniture etc. We then got a bus home and had a final meal out plus more margueritas with Chad at Hoovers. We went to bed after being handed some handpicked music from Chad to suit each of us individually.

Austin has been a really cool city – the buses are regular, on time, cheap ($1 per ride or $2 for 24hrs) and went from Chad’s door to all the places we needed to go. Apparently there is free dental and heavily discounted healthcare for musicians and their partners in Austin. There was also free biodegradable poop bags in the parks. The weather has been lovely and the people really friendly. It is a really colourful city with a little of murals on the buildings. The taxi drivers have been pretty interesting too.

We got up at 4am this morning to fly to NYC La Guardia via Houston and now the boys are heading back to the UK this evening.

Saturday 20^th March back at Chad’s.

We left Chad’s house yesterday evening around half 6 to head downtown to our showcase gig at Mohawk, about a minute later we started crossing the main road when a car screeched and skidded to a halt narrowly swerving to avoid one standard fare drummer happily wandering across the road admiring the tarmac. The bus journey was enough time for Dan, Emma and Jas to recover from the incident, Andy seemed totally oblivious to the whole thing.. We got to Mohawk and met with the photographer Dominick we’d met in New York last week; he was really nice again and took some photos of us with a stuffed bear striking a grizzly pose, quite in keeping with the bands style. After setting up our gear and one male guitarist from standard fare getting two pretty gnarly electric shocks from two different microphones, we were ready to play.  The place filled up quite nicely and we played 9 songs which went down better than we could have hoped, with some ear piercing whistling from the crowd. On the whole we were pretty happy with how we played and the response; it was a nice finish to the ‘shows’ on the tour.

We left the venue to head back to Chad’s to drop of our gear before catching some of the other bands, after a few minutes we managed to hail a cab. It was one hell of a cab ride. ‘Shaggy’ our ‘chauffer’ was a true Texas redneck with a hooting laugh (hhHHHaaaauuurr!!) and many stories to tell; some rather factual, others including men, trees, & drunken desire. Although it felt like the longest cab ride of our lives, he did wait whilst we got changed and we did kind of enjoy it. Back in town we grabbed some tasty grub from ‘Kebabalicious’ and headed back to Mohawk to catch the end of the Summer Cats set, the Australian indie poppers we met in Boston, by all accounts they were sounding pretty good too. We’d heard Evan Dando, singer of The Lemonheads, was playing an acoustic set that night so we trekked a several blocks to find that he’d played the night before, so we marched a few more blocks to the place Sum 41 were playing to find a queue longer than their set, soooo we stomped across town to the Alphabeat gig. We got there and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club were still playing, the place was pretty busy and we were impressed with the way the female drummer was putting so much power into the drum beats. After their set we decided rather than wait for Alphabeat to set up and play we would head back to Mohawk to see The Pains of Being Pure at Heart.  Outside the temperature was getting a bit cold and the venue was a bit away so we caught a bicycle powered taxi and he gave us a special deal $20 for the four of us. We then raced all the other bicycle taxis with solo travellers and were way faster! The guy must have cycled us around 10 blocks, some uphill, which seemed pretty far at the time. We went past a packed secret Muse gig with lots of flashing lights and crazy guitar stuff. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart definitely lived up to the hype we’d heard and they went down really well in the small packed venue. The lead singer thanked Standard Fare at the end of his set and told us afterwards he attended our first US gig in the Cake Shop, NYC, last week. Unfortunately it then took us a good hour and a half to catch a taxi as there was a desperate hysteria around flagging down taxis.

Overnight there was a very dramatic storm and Andy felt the floor shake. Emma continued her habit of waking up the whole household with her loud sleep-swearing and panic and was the only one who slept sound all night!

The temperature has turned very cold today but we ventured out and warmed up at a genuine TEX-MEX restaurant called Chuy’s (pronounced Chewey’s) with lime marguerita’s with extra shots of tequila and some very cheesy chicken burritos.  We then drove downtown to wander round the guitar trade show and poster show. Andy bought one poster and we helped him get a couple that had been flyposted to the pillars. We did a little shopping and headed home. That evening we had dinner in a cafe adjoined to a supermarket which had a lot of ethical/organic type stuff and after ordering the food at a counter we were handed pagers which buzzed and flashed when the food was ready! Dan and Andy have gone to see Rival Schools tonight and I (Emma) have stayed in to watch some films.

Saturday 20th March back at Chad’s. We left Chad’s house yesterday evening around half 6 to head downtown to our showcase gig at Mohawk, about a minute later we started crossing the main road when a car screeched and skidded to a halt narrowly swerving to avoid one standard fare drummer happily wandering across the road admiring the tarmac. The bus journey was enough time for Dan, Emma and Jas to recover from the incident, Andy seemed totally oblivious to the whole thing.. We got to Mohawk and met with the photographer Dominick we’d met in New York last week; he was really nice again and took some photos of us with a stuffed bear striking a grizzly pose, quite in keeping with the bands style. After setting up our gear and one male guitarist from standard fare getting two pretty gnarly electric shocks from two different microphones, we were ready to play. The place filled up quite nicely and we played 9 songs which went down better than we could have hoped, with some ear piercing whistling from the crowd. On the whole we were pretty happy with how we played and the response; it was a nice finish to the ‘shows’ on the tour. We left the venue to head back to Chad’s to drop of our gear before catching some of the other bands, after a few minutes we managed to hail a cab. It was one hell of a cab ride. ‘Shaggy’ our ‘chauffer’ was a true Texas redneck with a hooting laugh (hhHHHaaaauuurr!!) and many stories to tell; some rather factual, others including men, trees, & drunken desire. Although it felt like the longest cab ride of our lives, he did wait whilst we got changed and we did kind of enjoy it. Back in town we grabbed some tasty grub from ‘Kebabalicious’ and headed back to Mohawk to catch the end of the Summer Cats set, the Australian indie poppers we met in Boston, by all accounts they were sounding pretty good too. We’d heard Evan Dando, singer of The Lemonheads, was playing an acoustic set that night so we trekked a several blocks to find that he’d played the night before, so we marched a few more blocks to the place Sum 41 were playing to find a queue longer than their set, soooo we stomped across town to the Alphabeat gig. We got there and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club were still playing, the place was pretty busy and we were impressed with the way the female drummer was putting so much power into the drum beats. After their set we decided rather than wait for Alphabeat to set up and play we would head back to Mohawk to see The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. Outside the temperature was getting a bit cold and the venue was a bit away so we caught a bicycle powered taxi and he gave us a special deal $20 for the four of us. We then raced all the other bicycle taxis with solo travellers and were way faster! The guy must have cycled us around 10 blocks, some uphill, which seemed pretty far at the time. We went past a packed secret Muse gig with lots of flashing lights and crazy guitar stuff. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart definitely lived up to the hype we’d heard and they went down really well in the small packed venue. The lead singer thanked Standard Fare at the end of his set and told us afterwards he attended our first US gig in the Cake Shop, NYC, last week. Unfortunately it then took us a good hour and a half to catch a taxi as there was a desperate hysteria around flagging down taxis. Overnight there was a very dramatic storm and Andy felt the floor shake. Emma continued her habit of waking up the whole household with her loud sleep-swearing and panic and was the only one who slept sound all night! The temperature has turned very cold today but we ventured out and warmed up at a genuine TEX-MEX restaurant called Chuy’s (pronounced Chewey’s) with lime marguerita’s with extra shots of tequila and some very cheesy chicken burritos. We then drove downtown to wander round the guitar trade show and poster show. Andy bought one poster and we helped him get a couple that had been flyposted to the pillars. We did a little shopping and headed home. That evening we had dinner in a cafe adjoined to a supermarket which had a lot of ethical/organic type stuff and after ordering the food at a counter we were handed pagers which buzzed and flashed when the food was ready! Dan and Andy have gone to see Rival Schools tonight and I (Emma) have stayed in to watch some films.

Tuesday 16^th March 11am La Guardia airport.

After our trip into downtown Boston we headed back to the house to dry off a little and warm up. The weather still hadn’t eased off and it was getting colder. We drove over to the venue to be told we’d need our passports to get beer even though we all had driving licenses. So we had to drive back to pick them up - Grrrr. But at least it had finally stopped raining. We met up with some of Emma’s friends and had some really good Edyamame (salty soy beans) and then we all chose the same dish – chicken terriyarki (sp?) with rice mmmmm  - coincidence?! Restricted budget? Conservative tastes?  We scurried back to the venue, the Great Scott, to catch the Summer Cats – an Australian five-piece that we’re also playing with in Austin next week. They are releasing a record with our Sheffield label Thee SPC too.  We played next – the bass was cutting out a bit during the first song but we got back into it and enjoyed the set. After several attempts we managed to start ‘I know it’s hard’ to the amusement of the crowd. The final band was the amazing One Happy Island – we’ve loved this band since we first played with them last summer and it was brilliant to see them again. They always give such a diverse performance (distorted ukulele solo – oh yeah!) and Emma was singing along loudly at the front. We are very pleased that they are releasing their album in the UK with Trev this summer, and we hope they come and play across the pond soon. Unfortunately there was not much time to party as we had to set off at 6am this morning to return the Dodge to La Guardia Airport, New York. Finally we are seeing some sunshine although apparently the weather in Austin is 11 degrees C. and raining. Still hoping that we can get our sunnies, shorts and thongs out though! We’re now in the departure lounge sipping coffee and waiting for our flight to Austin (via Minneapolis).