adrienne's Tour Diary

3/17 We slept in a bit, delighted by the posh Hilton Room Chris W. got for doing some work at SXSW. We left the curtains open, with an illuminated view at night, to wake naturally with the sunlight and not have to suffer the consequences of opening the curtains all at once. A little after noon we drove around the corner in the van with all our gear for our Caucus Club afternoon show. Some people came who were at our Bigby's show, which was a great surprise. We went on around 2. Right afterwards Dan and Chris W. had to go straight to the airport to fly home to work. Chris G. and I hung out at the Caucus Club and watched Experimental Aircraft, who were great. The mai tai I'd had during our set took full effect and I headed outside afterwards where I was happy to run into Helene from Beam and chat for awhile.

Around 6 pm we decided to seek out Thai food with Rachel from Experimental Aircraft, so Tom (drummer of Hard Place), Chris and I walked up S. Congress to meet Rachel at Thai Passion. Much to my delight, my favorite Thai dish: prig, otherwise known as prik, was on the menu. After dinner Tom, Chris and I headed to Caribbean Lights on 6th Street to see Nyles play in a club that had metal cages on either side of the stairs. Lisa Ingram, Lisa Light and Andrea met us there afterwards and we headed to Jaime's on Red River for margaritas. We also got sub-par Mexican food for our second dinner, and Andrea bought a cool shirt. I got locked in the restaurant by accident but got out.

3/18 We woke up late, took advantage of the Hilton fitness center and got around paying the $10 fitness fee when Chris jumped right on a treadmill and I followed his example and no one asked any questions. The day began with excellent free BBQ, though we had to walk about a mile to reach the slices of beef and sausages with mashed potatoes & gravy after a false start where I think I saw the Willy Wonka guy from 3/8 playing in another band. At the Kill Rock Stars party we got the scoop on the free meats. After eating we went to the Fader/Levi's party, which we weren't on the list to get into but Lisa L. got us in regardless and then proceeded to win a free iPod & Levi's apparrel. Got some free issues of Fader and Cordero played; talked w/Ani and drank 3 free Red Stripe beers. Must've walked about 5 miles total today, as we crossed the river to yet another place with free beer, had more than one. We got slices of pizza to keep ourselves going and took a cab over to La Zona Rosa to see Seachange, Preston School of Industry & Pretty Girls Make Graves around 9. It was a cool show and extra nice because our good friends put us on the list & hot dogs were sold on the premises. Hung out, Leah came into town, and sometime after midnight I felt myself begin to dream of the posh Hilton room. But as fate would have it, I was not meant to go to sleep just yet. Chris and I met up with Lisa, Lisa, Fred, and Tom at The Rainbow Cattle Company around midnight and ended up closing Ladies' Night there three hours later. Lisa requested some great 50 cent and then the DJ played songs for an hour after the bar closed for us, "What a Feeling" from Flashdance for the ladies to dance to and "It's Raining Men" for the guys to dance to, as well as many other lively numbers ("Pour Some Sugar on Me").

3/19/04 It's 3:50 a.m. and I can't believe we have to check out in 8 hours. Today's headline: SXSW Conga Line Leads to Jail. We were in a conga line last night. Who went to jail?

3/20/04 4:20 a.m. and I walked about 5 miles over the course of yesterday, drank 5 margaritas and 3 beers, and saw many many bands. I will sleep now so soundly with earplugs in my ears.

3/21/04 10:23 p.m. mountain time and Chris is driving us in the mini-van from Las Cruces, NM to Tucson, AZ, our destination for this evening (or so I thought!). I am going back in time to recap the adventures we had on Friday and Saturday in Austin.

Friday: Checking out of the posh hotel was rough, and we desperately brainstormed ways to stay, but nothing panned out. We boarded the free "Dillo" bus on Congress after getting coffee and a smoothie. I'm pretty sure we got off the bus prematurely, as it seems we walked about 2 miles from our place of debarkation, but that's probably best since we drank a lot of beer and ate a lot of pizza. Shopped on S. Congress in the boutiques and happened upon some free beer. Drank it while walking down the street, which a homeless man warned me would result in a "P.I." We popped into the Radisson lobby to use their restrooms on our return trip back into town. I gave Spike, a call, and made plans to meet up with them at Rockstars. We went to an Australian BBQ (all-U-can eat free hamburgers) and drank a couple of free Aussie beers each. Chris and I decided to return to the FADER party for more Red Stripe and to see The Decembrists and meet up with Bernadette. From there we walked to Rockstars and met up with everyone and Dave and, as fate would have it, were presented with another opportunity to drink and eat, this time at a place, appropriately named Moonshine. Chris started on the margaritas and Dave and I followed his example, chasing them with nice shrimp skewers. 5 drinks later, we returned to the FADER party with Dave and some others. (Chris and I are trying to recall the day's events in the van now, and it's hard to remember many things, so some of this might be lies). Picked up 2 more slices of pizza and went to see Film School's show, which was excellent. Kept drinking??went with Nathan to "Italian" and had another dinner, a bit out of it, surprised that our friendly waiter, Jerry, announced that they didn't have any coffee in the entire restaurant, but politely declined Jerry's offer of free desserts in lieu of the coffee. We think that we went to Rockstars to see British Sea Power after this meal, though there is a lapse of time which we believe was partially spent in the parking garage at the Hilton (our home for the time being), though this might be a lie. BSP kindly had our names on the list to get into their show, and this helped us continue our evening, since only Chris had a SXSW wristband. Rockstars has a 2-tiered layout, and we headed upstairs right away for the best view. Saw Fiery Furnaces which impressed us both. The sun, Austrailian BBQ earlier, and 15 alcoholic beverages each, began to add up. The BSP set was total energy, and the sound upstairs was excellent. Chris and I had to get a breath of fresh air afterwards, rushed back to the Hilton lobby to use the posh bathrooms there. Took the elevator 5 stories below the hotel to the van and got inside, ready to pass out, but decided against it, as our cell phones didn't work so far underground and I wanted to get in touch with Lisa. She was at a warehouse party in the E. side of town. Chris and I walked a bit, got in a cab, and ended up at the party, as the Walkmen played. Almost everyone in Austin we know from home was at this party. It was hard to get a cab afterwards, reminded me of early ams outside of Spiders in Hull in 1994-5 and Joyce saying, "signal light in Dutch is kernipolick." I was desperate for sleep and went to Lisa's room at the Omni, #408, while everyone else stayed up longer and ate. Discovered free wireless in the hotel room and went online, emailed my guy and dreamed of him all night.

Saturday: Woke up around 10 or so and Lisa, Lisa, Chris, Justin & Andrea were there. We went to get food at Las Manitas, just in time for the breakfast menu. Afterwards, Chris and I returned to the Radisson lobby. Growing up near Waikiki, I know that a clean bathroom can be counted on in hotel chains. Chris and I returned to the FADER party and his clever approach to the "invite only" line to get in got us blue bracelets to wear and skip the line. We began to drink again, free Red Stripes, and The Unicorns played. We wondered how much we would be able to drink. Chris came up with the formula: 1 free beer must be followed by one free water and the pattern continues from there. We broke the pattern a half hour later. Found comfort and shade inside the Club Deville where Hard Place played after we'd had a few more drinks. Their set got cut short for some reason, which was a bummer. We ate 2 more slices of pizza from the same place, which has a nice spicy pizza sauce. Returned to the Hilton lobby for some R&R in the soft armchairs. Cabbed over to Tillery to see Film School play and discovered that the show was running 3 hours late. Justin hooked us up with 2 beers from the backstage keg, and we sat outside in chairs sipping it and talking to those we found familiar. Film School went on sometime after 9 or so, and were great. From that show we headed back into town, went to Rockstars, and got to Buffalo Billiards early enough to secure 2 seats at the bar where we watched Jeff Hanson and then snacked for a bit while waiting for The Decembrists to come on. Andrea and Leah came to the show too, and we said goodbye to Bernadette. Returned to the Omni, got ready for bed, as it was already past 2 a.m. and we planned to leave early to head home the next morning. Splash was on TV.
Sunday: Woke at 10 and took a shower. We got on the road sometime after 11, after visiting the Hilton lobby one last time, got fancy pastries from the caf?? there and ate them in the van underground. Took the 290 West through an antique collector's dream town, Fredericksburg, and then found the I-10 a bit later. Texas is a wide state. Saw strange cloud formations. Saw hawks courting in mid-air. Saw what looked like pyramids but they were mountains, or really just peaks. We ate lunch at a Dairy Queen in Junction, TX. There was no order to the restaurant, but we got our "belt buster" burgers. Ate in the car. I took over driving about 4 hours later someplace else in Texas. Drove through El Paso, near the border and the Rio Grande, all the billboards lit up, listening to Nirvana's Incesticide. Pushed on to Las Cruces where we ate at Taco Bell. Now we're less than 200 miles from Tucson.

3/22/04 It took 24 hours of driving done over 1.5 days, but we are now home. Due to lack of sleep, I turned into a pill in the van at 5:30 a.m. this morning and demanded we stop at a Hampton Inn. Chris says we're still friends, though, and I hope this is true.