..Morningbell was asked to play SXSW this year. We knew we couldn’t turn
it down, but had no idea how we’d get there. To drive would mean
leaving monday morning and driving until tuesday night for a distance
that equals a drive to New York only to turn around and do it again on
Thursday-Friday. To fly would mean we wouldn’t be able to have any of
our own gear to use.

Enter the theme of the past 1.5 days, serendipity. Matt Latola, Lottie
Leymarie, Phillip Nguyen and the wonderful folks at BreakThruRadio (who
were putting on the showcase) scored us a backline. This means amps and
drums would be provided. Flying was now a possibility.

But, we needed guitars and keyboards still. Enter a recently offered,
work-related FedEx account that gave us 25% off all shipping.

But where would we stay while we were there and how would we get there
without a car? Enter longtime friend Adrien Ponticorvo, who picked us
up and took us back to the airport and who LIVED RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET
FROM THE CONVENTION CENTER AND 2 BLOCKS FROM THE VENUE!

But where could we ship our gear, as Adrien is an engineering PhD
student and works long hours, therefore isn’t at home to sign for the
packages? Enter Karen Jantsch, old friend from the UM days who is now
living in Austin and working at the Long Center for the Performing Arts,
right across the river. She brought the guitars to us on the morning
of the show and then took us for amazing TexMex breakfast to boot.

But how would we get to the screening of the movie that featured 3 of
our songs that was several miles away without a car? Enter Ben and
Aubrey, old Gainesville friends who are currently in College Station, TX
and who came into town for the show (more drama on this later,
including another massive save by Ben!)

But who would let us back into Adrien’s apartment when he passed out
drunk from drinking all day on St. Patricks day and wouldn’t answer his
phone? Enter Cubby, Adrien’s roommate who burned popcorn and as a
result, opened the balcony door to get fresh air, allowing us to shout
from the street below for him to let us in the building.

:: It Begins ::

Morningbell took a Texan adventure that started Tuesday at 9:30 PM and
lasted until Thursday morning at 11:00 AM. It was a whirlwind adventure
through Austin, Texas that brought us to more of the city than most
people could possibly experience in a 36 hour time frame.

As I mentioned, Adrien picked us up from the airport, brought us to his
place right downtown, and we immediately hit the streets looking for
beer and tacos. We hit up two bars, the Ginger Man (which served
amazing beer at an amazingly cheap price-3 local microbrews were 9
bucks), and Fado (an Irish pub that was experiencing a significant lull
before the St. Patty’s storm). After getting some beer in our bellies,
we stopped at “Casa del Fuego” which was nothing more than a small
trailer selling tacos on the side of the road. The radio was blaring a
song that Umoja routinely plays and we felt immediately secure in our
eating decision. The veggie tacos were to die for and featured a
plethora of sauteed fresh veggies. I piled on several of the hot sauces
that were indiscriminately placed into unmarked squeeze bottles on the
tables. Fuego ensued.

On the walk home, we started noticing flyers for all the activities
going on over the next few days. SXSW was rapidly appearing to be a
mind-fuck of music. Broken Bells were playing a free show, Spoon was
playing a free show, Okkervil River was playing a free show. It was out
of control.

((()))
Quick side note. We really wanted a pinata for this show. Not knowing
how the hell we’d do that, we called our friend Aubrey and asked her to
get us one. We didn’t really need to, though, as we LITERALLY passed 7
pinata/party stores on our way to Adrien’s place. Apparently, Austin
has a pinata district.
((()))

So, after our adventures, we turned in, as we were quite tired and full
of tacos.

The following morning, Karen met us with our gear and took us to an
amazing TexMex place. We had fried avocado tacos and “migas” which are
universally known as breakfast tacos in Austin. It was pretty flippin
solid. After Karen brought us back to Adrien’s place, we all walked the
2 blocks to the venue with our gear. The venue was a really cool room,
but the building had an unfortunate support pillar that just so
happened to coincide with stage center. Unless he moved to the side a
bit, Travis would have performed the set behind a pole. We did our
thing to Austin and headed out. Keep in mind that Austin has
approximately 123540985702675q346 bars and they all had stuff going on
today.

Since Travis is writing for Paste magazine, he got us into their
showcase where we immediately ran into Lauris Vidal. We hung out there
for a bit and then walked across the street to buy cupcakes from a
truck. They were pretty solid cupcakes.

The energy level in Austin was exhausting as SXSW was just kicking off
and it was also St. Patrick’s day. We headed back towards Adrien’s
place where it was a little more laid back. There were a few benches on
the sidewalk next to the convention center and we decided to take a
break there. We knew we had to soon drive 30 miles to the theater where
our movie was playing. I say “our movie,” but we really had nothing to
do with it except for lending a few songs to the soundtrack.

While we were sitting, some random girl came by and offered her official
SXSW swag bag, as she already had one and didn’t want another. It was a
reusable grocery style bag with a bunch of promotional garbage inside
it. For some reason though, we didn’t throw all the promo crap away.
In fact, Ben started perusing one of the newspapers and found out that
the movie we were being featured in was playing right in the convention
center across the street from Adrien’s place and not 30 miles north, as
we originally thought. This discovery took place mere hours before we
were going to head out for the disappointment of the week.

Re-energized, we set our for food. Aubrey knew of a good sandwich shop
by the capitol, so we headed out on foot. After walking for about 25
blocks, we realized the place was closed. Not to worry though, as the
Texas Chili Parlour was right on the very same block. With little
hesitation, we headed into one of the most authentic Austin eateries we
could have found. It was delicious and even featured veggie chili!

Exhausted and full of beans, we decided to take a cab the 25 blocks
back. Problem is, we didn’t find a cab that could fit 6 people and
ended up footing the whole distance back. We walked through the grounds
of the capitol, which is actually a stunningly beautiful building and
ended up back at the convention center for the movie. We were
immediately ushered in as VIPs and enjoyed the film on a HUGE screen.
FYI, our 3 songs were featured as follows: Sincerely Severely was
background music in a grocery store; the solo of “Heads” was playing in
one of the main characters’ car as he drove; and “Mango” was coming from
a TV set as a theme song for a TV show.

After the film, and on the 2 block walk back to Adrien’s place, a van
full of black guys hollered at Travis (who I should mention at this
point has been walking around Austin for the past 24 hours in an all
white suit) saying “you a real playa in that shit!”

Adrien wasn’t answering his phone, which meant either that he forgot it
at home, couldn’t hear it ringing in some loud club that he was in, or
he passed out drunk. Luckily for us, though, his roomate just got home
and burnt some popcorn. To get the stink out, he opened the balcony
door, which fronted the street we were walking on, and we were able to
holler up at him to let us in. Once inside, we found a half dozen
promotional copies of the magazine “WaxPoetics” strewn about the floor,
obviously given to Adrien and his drunken friends while walking around
town, and featuring a cover story on Smoky Robinson written by none
other than Travis.

The final morning! Before hitting the airport, we headed to South
Austin, which is a hippy brewpub/organic restaurant haven. I ate a
gingerbread pancake, which was easily the 2nd best pancake I’ve ever
had. I also had one of the best cups of tea I’ve ever had.

All in all, Austin was an amazing adventure cram packed into a day and a
half. There was way too much air travel and smelly planes and popped
ears and turbulence, but overall, I wouldn’t trade it for anything in
the world.