| I think it was 1993 when we first played in Austin. It was in March, and I remember sitting on the edge of the stage at Emo's (I'm sure I've written about this here before), looking at the trees and feeling the wind and this perfect temperature, what is it maybe 75 degrees? Right at dusk. And I thought, oh I could live in Austin, I could live here right now. The temperature tonight is the same as it was then - just so comfortable. I like it. But that might be all I really like about Austin right now, because the streets and clubs are filled with ... with ... I'm not sure really what they're filled with. It's interesting to walk around and look at all of them, but I would like it better if it were a little bit quieter, if I didn't feel like I was in the waiting room for some huge tattoo parlor. Joel said he was about to go into a rock club last night, but got to the door & saw all the studded belts and other things walking in, and he felt he physically could go no further, some force stronger than his little buddies was preventing him from going in. And he's not alone, there is this physical repulsion that you feel at times, watching herds of these self-assured young rockers strutting around with their midriffs & button-down shirts. It's incredible really, I've never seen crowds like this. And then at night it turns into this girls-gone-wild scene, all these failing college students obliterating themselves, peeing in the alleys & barfing in the gutters! It's nuts, I'm telling you. Still we're having fun. You never know at these festivals whether people will give a shit about you or not, and last night they actually seemed to care. The place didn't clear out before we played - it even filled up some; and our show was good, we played like self-assured old rockers and the kids seemed to appreciate it. We played new stuff and old stuff, the borrowed equipment was not bad... I may have destroyed some electronics that were lying around by the drum kit, but the owner forgave me. We were all dead tired, so there was no late-night frenzy - just heavenly late-into-the-day sleeping today. Today was spent driving to Lockhart for highly recommended barbeque. I was just along for the ride, really - I'm not such a big barbeque fan, maybe half as enthusiastic about the shit as Andy or Tim, or the non-vegetarian members of The New Year. Still I'm happy to eat, and of course happy to find some entertainment away from the frenzy of downtown Austin. So we went mainly to two places: Kreuz's, in a massive building just outside of town; and Smitty's, in downtown Lockhart; and maybe Black's, though we'd heard reports that it was not so hot anymore. I'm not going to go into it too much - I should leave the whole report to the real fanatics - but I did eat some meat, including a beef brisket at Kreuz's that was one of the most remarkable pieces of meat I've ever tried in my life. It was falling to pieces just sitting on the plate, just melting apart; and eating this meat, putting these melting pieces of meat w/burnt crisp fatty ends in your mouth and... and... oh, it was something. No sauce, just this remarkable meat. Writing about it makes me want to be a vegetarian, but eating it made me glad I am not. There were more spectacular things - Lockhart is cute, Smitty's was an incredible facility and the brisket and ribs were excellent, but that shit at Kreuz's was from another world. I won't go into it though - got to hit the streets! The night air is a-calling. More later. |
Back to the list |