It was beautifully warm when we arrived at midnight in Austin. Rachel, our host was waiting for us at the bottom of the escalators in a Garden State kind of affair holding a sign. We went back to her pink, tiger-print (on the outside) block of flats in the “ghetto” of town. Her flat was really sparse because she’s leaving to live on a boat with her boyfriend in a week or so, but we sat on what furniture was left and chatted all night anyway.
Of course, our whole reason for being in Austin was the music festival, South by Southwest. So, on Wednesday we headed downtown early to collect our passes and get to work. I spent the entire festival on my own because I didn’t have a phone, so couldn’t contact anyone. I’ll admit, I wasn’t overly excited about this factor, but I saw so many bands that I didn’t notice too much. I won’t bore you with who I saw, but I will just say that Laura Marling, Graham Coxon, Titus Andronicus and Cold War Kids were some of my favourites.
As sod’s law would have it, I managed to lose my photo pass on the first day. This meant I had to run back to the convention centre in order to get a new one and run back to the venue I was supposed to be at. Later that night Fin never came back, so me and Rachel just talked for hours and went to bed. On Thursday Fin came back in the wee hours, so Rachel only saw him in time to drop us off at Ashton’s on Friday morning, who is a friend of Adam, who – if you think back – we stayed with in DC. We hung out there for a couple of hours before catching some more music.
That night me and Ashton watched a load of Nip Tuck and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, in which Shirley Manson from Garbage plays a laughable machine. Fin came back once we’d gone to bed and left early the next morning, so Ashton didn’t see him until the last night of the festival when we were drinking and eating chicken wings with his neighbours until eight in the morning.
My funds have been diminishing rapidly throughout this trip, so by Austin I was broke. I was living on a bowl of cereal and a sandwich a day, but on Saturday Ashton made me an awesome breakfast and then I dropped by the restaurant he works at and he sorted me out with some dinner. I also made sure to collect all the festival freebies, such as ice cream, Margaritas and beer.
We slept Sunday away, waking around 4:30pm and heading straight to the supermarket to get food for a barbecue. I thought I’d be adventurous and bought a Napoles (cactus paddle) to try – it tasted like okra. Everyone came round again, including a guy called Ronen who was the character spit of Amory Blaine from This Side of Paradise, and a couple of bands from Norway – one called Casio Kids and the other I can’t remember, but they were all super cool and we were moaning together about tipping in the US.
Me and Ashton’s neighbour Leslie had our own little dance parties to Rock Lobster while everyone else played Rock Band at Ashton’s. It was an excellent way to end our trip, sending us off on our 24+ hour journey home in high spirits.
