SXGLMSW: Day Two

Austin, the great foot-killer. With a 1am showtime at the SoHo Lounge looming in our distant future, we arrived downtown at noon. Killing time and watching bands for 13 hours should be effortless and fun, right? By 7pm we were sleeping in the van, sacked out barefoot on curbs and trying to force water into our abused, beer-soaked, brisket-heavy bodies.

In between, I managed to catch half-songs by about 10 bands whose names I never learned, eat a bunch of random street food, lend my skateboard to a nice English couple and weasel my way into the Spin day party at Stubb's. I had a great FAIL moment after skating like mad back and forth between the Hilton and Stubb's with the Spin passes only to arrive as Justin Hawkins shredded his last note and yelled "Thank you, good night!" The former Darkness frontman's new band Hot Leg was one of the only bands I really wanted to see at the festival. My disappointment was lessened a few hours later when I got to see Echo & the Bunnymen at the same party. Perry Farrell introduced a pea coat clad Ian McCulloch and the rest of the band and they still sounded damn good.

Our showcase eventually began and we all did what was necessary to generate energy and summon rock spirit for our set. We followed a shredding set by labelmates The Hard Lessons and played hard to the late crowd. The mix was blisteringly loud and not entirely pleasant. I felt pretty good about the set, but I fear we may have fallen victim to an abrasive, crappy mix. Still, friends were in abundence and the weather was fine. The Captain drove his sleepy charges back to tranquil Pflugerville.

Some Photos:

Tired Festival Wrist

Scott at rest in back of the van