SXSW Diary - Sunday, March 19

The final day of the festival - and despite all the fun, I was good and ready for it to end. But first, I had a New York Night Train event scheduled for the parking lot of a funky ladies thrift store named Slinky Whistle Bait. The bill included Viva l’American Death Ray Music, River City Tan Lines, MC Trachiotomy, The Black, The Old-timerz, and The Dazzling King Solomon Quartet. Because of the morning's monsoon, the festivities were cancelled.

I was quite ready to say “c’est la vie” before Death Ray reminded me that they didn’t come all that way only to play one short set in the middle of the night. So back to the scramble... I called the Longbranch and The Peacock to see if we could move some of the show into one of their bars. Both actually agreed, but the Peacock got back to me first and we wound up finalizing the show around 4:30. We scheduled it from 6 to 8 – and did it totally last-minute word-of-mouth. By 5:30 we were setting up the PA again and, by 6:30 I was playing with Cause for Applause - this time down to a three-piece suit as our bad luck pattern remained stable with the illnes of my guitar foil Jack Martin. After we got off, Viva l'American Death Ray Music got on and did their best set of the weekend to a full-bar – leaving the Austinites in complete awe. Next, a band totally new to me, The Dazzling King Solomon Quartet came up and played some glammy hard-rockin’ get down garage whatever music. By this point I was pretty tired of being so impressed, but again, my friends were right, this is a new band to be reckoned with. I hope they stick with it beause they're one of the best upstarts I've seen in some time. Between bands and through the evening Nick Ray and Krissey from Memphis spun no shortage of classics from my favorite part of the rock canon - Can, early Pink Floyd, Eno, etc.

Though the show was technically over according to my arrangement with the club, The Black, moody pop locals consisting of members of Trail of Dead’s road band and more, came on and played a quiet set. They were followed by one of my old all-time Austin faves, Knife in the Water.

Unaware of Knife's surprise performance, by this point I was consuming late night chow with the gang at one the most obvious but best Tex-Mex restaurants in town, Guerro’s - stuffing my face with what was, in my eyes – a well-deserved meal. Though my big plans were to check out all of my local friends’ bands - Castle Siege, Fuck Emo’s, The Paranoids, The Old-timerz, The Ugly Beats, etc., there just wasn’t time. But again, there were no regrets. As I tried to finish my enchiladas I realized I’d had more than my fill.

Before I sign off i want to give special thanks to all of the folks who went beyond the call of duty to make this possible (I'm sure I'm forgetting a few of you who deserve it) - including Jennifer Krako, Chuck and Mary Toubin, Brandon Crowe, Aaron and Kiki from Knife in the Water, Jason from Hopewell, Nick Ray, David Lloyd, Deb Pastor, Jason from the Peacock, Lori, the many bands who performed at my events, the bands who didn't perform at my events but rocked me just the same, and, particularly, the virtuosic drummers of Austin - Lyman Hardy and Jeff Bouck - who both saved the day, shook the walls, and did such fine last-minute work filling in that no one noticed that they weren't regular bandmembers. Here's to you.

Step back to New York Night Train's SXSW Home

© New York Night Train , 2006