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Tour blog #4 or whatever it'll be: SxSW 2007!
I love South by Southwest!
We did it in 2004 and that was good but this year was better. Here's what we (mostly I) did:
Tue 13th
After a last and heavy celebration in Mexico City I was the last one on the bus to the airport, but we made it in the end. Andy missed the connecting flight in Houston but that's another story. I won't get stuck in the blame game just yet. Anyway, quite a boring day ... 2 flights ... short drive to our hotel, the Omni - 5 miles out of town that is - there is another one right in the center of Austin but we didn't manage to get rooms there ... hmm, again no blame game ... just stayed in tonight, a couple of mine and Björns friends arrived after driving from LA in 20 hours. Knocked down a few brewskis and went to bed.
Wed 14th
Went to town reasonably early in our friends rental. Breakfast on 6th, then time for a beer. Met two of our friends from Mando Diao on the way to the bar. Had a few at Stubbs and watched the Young Knives play. I think they're from Loughborough. Free Miller Lite! Can an afternoon start in a better way? We did a few interviews that were quite good, half improv but still. Then Björn wanted to eat with his NY friends. It all took a bit too long so me and Axel (one of the two driving Swedish nuts, they're on a 35 day US road trip as we speak ...) went off to get a beer. We ended up at some Canadian showcase and saw a pretty good Quebec emo band. Don't know the name I'm afraid. But the bassplayer (I think) had a Montreal Canadians shirt on and I saw them got beaten 4-0 to Rangers in the Garden a few weeks ago ... Swedish keeper Henrik Lundqvist was player of the game! Anyway, after a beer there we went back and they were still eating so we got a pizza slice each on the street and went to another bar. Back to hotel for a bit then down to Stubbs again where we were playing at midnight. After having to blag our way in (at least we managed!) we saw a bit of Lily Allen. It was alright, she called NME 'fucking cunts' from stage which was funny. Met up with my friends from Johnossi (another great Swedish band) and then it was time for stage. Full capacity crowd ... 1200 or something ... it was great! They were a bit pissed off in the end cause we went over time or something but no worries. Hung around a bit afterward, watched a few songs of the Bravery's set then went to an Irish bar across the road. Had a few drinks and put some money in the juke-box (never got to hear the songs tho damn it!) then it closed. Desperate as we were we went back to the crew hotel and drank the last of the beer there, then made some beer runs with varied success and I ended up spending the night in drum tech Chris' spare bed. What went on in his bed I'm not gonna comment on ...
Thu 15th
Got a ride back to our hotel with our legendary soundman Ian. He's a bad-ass! Did some promo, mostly Mexican or local-but-Spanish-speaking. Dunno why. Either the Latinos really like us or the Yanks don't. :) Then it was time for some TV. SXSW Direct or something. It was live so there was a lot of shouting and panic before the set from the producers side. And apologies and praises after from the same people. Whatever. It's always a bit awkward when the crowd is just standing there in a quite well-lit room in the middle of the day, just observing you. Makes me a bit shy but it was alright. Johnny did a great job but Björn felt like smashing his guitar, there you go! When done, me and Johnny talked to another nice Mexican called Mauricio. Enough! Give us some beer! That's what me, Andy, Chris and bass tech Justin thought and went up to 6th and the first bar we could find. We got stuck there for a few hours, $1 domestic beer so I was back on Miller Lite. Then I called the crazy Swedes again and they were next door and enlightened me about the fact that Marit Bergman was on in their bar in 10 mins. She is, yeah you guessed right, also from Sweden, I don't mean to mention my country that much but SXSW was great 'cause I met/saw many of my fellow countrymen which is quite rare on tour. Anyway she was great, a very pretty band she had, walked away from the gig with a big smile on my face. Another quick Miller Lite and a pizza slice, then we had a few drinks in a quite cool rock n roll bar (also on 6th). Then we continued the Scando-vibe by seeing psychedelic Norwegians Lionheart Brothers at Emo's Jr. They were great! Very druggy mix of Ride and Pink Floyd and more ... Then back to 6th and Friends to see Finnish band The Crash that Axel is a big fan of. At that point it was way too calm for me, but in hindsight it was quite good. After that gig the night turns into somewhat of a haze. Bloc Party played at Stubbs so we went there but I abandoned my friends and the gig for a reefer and a ride in a big yellow Hummer. You know, when in Rome ... Went to another bar just to end up in the wrong (or probably the right) Omni hotel. The central one for another bifter in Mohair's room. They're the English boys from Watford who supported us on the US tour. Taxi home. Zzzzzz.
Fri 16th
The last day for me at SXSW this year and easily the best one. After quite a slow start we managed to get our asses in a car and into town again. I got to Stubbs just in time for the Kings of Leon gig. Me and Andy enjoyed free Margeritas and beer, the sunshine and an awesome show by the Kings. Life was great at that moment. God bless America, at least South by Southwest. Haha! After the gig we tried to get to meet the band to tell them they did a damn good job but no one could help us. Blame game? No, not in this blog kids! I can't wait to play with them at Reading Festival in England in August. Then it was time for English punk legends the Buzzcocks to take to the stage and as always it was a pleasure watching them. 'What do I get? Oh ooooh! What do I get?!' Genius ... Stubbs closed at 6pm or whatever it was and my friends went to the other side of I-35 to a pub. I wanted to see more gigs so ended up hanging out with Victoria for a few hours (she's a nice little Greek, ok American/Greek/Jewish, girl who tried to make me write this blog). We went to see Amy Winehouse but were too late so I got the second-to-last pizza slice in Austin ... got the last one at the airport the next day, does that count? We went back to the same place to see DATAROCK from Norway and got some free Southern Comfort, even tho I spent most of the time in there in a horribly long toilet queue. I met James Walsh from Starsailor and then started talking to some random Norwegian people. Well, random I thought, but we realized we had several mutual friends. As Björn said in his last blog, it's a small world. Then we met up with Chris and Justin (a lot of names to remember, I know) to go to another bar and ended up watching this great dirty country band called the Coydogs. Justin even bought their CD. I just realized at least one of them used to play in the Star Spangles ... We had another late gig this night ... at La Zona Rosa. Missed another chance of seeing Amy Winehouse, she was on before us, but naturally I had to be quite late, bummer. The gig was good tho, another packed and rocking show. Afterwards I couldn't resist another ride in the yellow Hummer. Damn! This time to get to Albert Hammond Jr's gig. Got there in time and ran into Mando Diao and Johnossi. We toured Germany together last year and it was like a reunion party. The gig was fantastic to say the least and we all had a great time. The fact that they did a cover of Guided by Voices classic "Postal Blowfish" just made it even better! GBV! GBV! GBV!
Then I went to bed for a couple of hours before it was time to fly home to old blighty! SXSW rocks!
-Carl
Click here to read Dispatch #3
Click here to go to Razorlight's page
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