Day three was probably my favourite day at SXSW, they were all awesome, but this one just tipped it.
We had three great gigs at three venues that couldn't have been any more different from each other.
Flyer from Flat Top Burger.
First up was at Flat Top Burgers. It was an old converted garage/gas station that was now a classic all American burger joint. The food was amazing as well, I opted for the double cheeseburger, I took one bite before announcing to Kellie "Wow, this is the best burger I have ever had in my life"
I may or may not have been exaggerating, but at that moment, it certainly tasted like it and I've clearly sample a hell of a lot of burger.
Kellie opted for the veggie burger and onion rings. The onion rings looked like an onion bhaji without the spices, they tasted grand as well. Kellie demanded that I tried her veggie burger and it had to be said that it was most definitely by far the best veggie burger I have ever had. The venue also had free pale ale on tap from a local brewery and event sponsors Ranger Creek of San Antonio, so top marks all round to Flat Top Burger.
The barmy army eat while TWP stand in line.
Ian and Steph from I&S arrive in style and fashionably late for the Flat Top Burger gig, with two minutes to spare.
The crowd in attendance was a mixed bunch, there were people actually older than the barmy army and DLG, there were mums with their kids and one couple had a really young baby with them sporting bright pink headphones that appeared to block out all of the deafening music. The place just had a really lovely vibe to it.
TWP's youngest fan at SXSW.
The bands played their sets in what would have been the old garage work stations by the bathrooms.
The gig saw the first airing of "It's a gas" which I have always loved and sounded superb live, Pepe certainly adds a lot to this fun song with her backing vocals and her and the rest of the band seem to have a laugh while performing it.
The show was being broadcast live on a local college radio station, towards the end of the gig DLG turned around to give them a plug but could read the poster as it had fallen off the wall. You know it's a great show when you blow posters off the wall.
TWP play Flat Top Burger next to the restroom. "The Trouble with Mens" indeed.
Me and the band after the Flat Top show.
Setlist from Flat Top Burger.
Next up was the Paste (magazine) Party at the Stage on 6th. This venue was by far the biggest TWP played while at SXSW and was really quite swanky. It was a country and western bar, but really well done with a lovely mural of country legends on the back wall, unfortunately we didn't spot anyone wearing a stetson, this was strictly an indie and hipster crowd today.
DLG at the Paste Party.
Pepe at the Paste Party.
Kellie and I travelled to the gig with the band and Jessica gave us wristbands and we also were given free drinks tickets by the promoter, nice one!!!
Ian, Steph, Mark and Kia arrived later and unbeknown to us were stuck in the massive line outside. Anyway Kia sent me a text and asked if I could get them in, I wasn't sure, but I walked up to the doorman, showed him my wristband and said "Those four are with me" while pointing at them. He waved them inside, the power of the wristband eh? I don't know who was more chuffed, me or our four fellow barmy army members.
Charlie at the Paste Party
Patrick at the Paste Party.
The gig was a good 'un once again. They must have enjoyed playing "It's a gas" as they did it again, which I personally loved and also played "Suck" and "Blonde" back to back.
Setlist from the Paste Party
Mark and Pinky Piglets at the Paste Party.
After that we went for yet another great meal, this time it was Thai and it was amazing. This was the one and only time that we all sat down and had a meal together as a group while in Austin and it was a very enjoyable one. The food was gorgeous and we all had a good old chat reliving the events of the week so far.
Ian from I&S lookly rather saintly at the Thai place.
Next up was the Iron Bear for the Seamonsters set. All week Jessica and DLG had been telling us that it was going to be near impossible to get into this one, so we had been expecting not to see it. But we chatted Jessica up into at least asking for us. She agreed and we marched up to the venue early with her and to be honest I wasn't really expecting the response I wanted off the doorman. We helped carry some gear into the venue and Jessica said to the head doorman "These are friends of ours who have travelled from England, can you put them on the list for tonight?"
"No problem" he replied "just ask for Alan, that's me and you're in"
Fucking result, we all made a collective sigh of relief.
Flyer from the Iron Bear Seamonsters showcase.
We returned later and our new best buddy Alan smiled and let us in.
All week I had been saying that I would have to buy a venue tee shirt and up to now they had either been too expensive or I just couldn't be arsed.
Anyway this place had shirts available in black for $12, they were quite nice and very cheap.
So I bought one. One thing I noticed about this place was that all the staff were male and really, really friendly. Anyway I walked back to Mark and showed him my shirt. He was looking around at some of the decor on the walls, I noticed a Texas flag with a rainbow on it. Just as the penny was starting to drop Mark said,
"You do realise that this is a gay bar don't you?"
"Err yeah, oh well, it doesn't matter"
Then Mark announced that he didn't care as he had been to loads of gay bars in his time.
Too much information buddy, and there's me thinking that my longtime friend was a family man. Don't worry folks, I will edit that last cheeky comment out before Mark gets a chance to read it.
Today was also Ian's birthday and Jessica bought him the world's biggest chocolate cup cake, which was nice of her.
The setlist was just the whole of Seamonsters, which was amazing even though some of the band members forgot the order of which the songs were to be played (Twice)
Jessica said this was because there was no paper available at the venue. I'm sure it had all been taken by the bar clientele to use while they all swapped phone numbers with fellow patrons who also batted for the same team.
I made sure that I stuck close to Mark tonight, so people would think we were a couple and wouldn't bother us.
Valentina producer Andrew Scheps was in attendance, I popped over to say "Hello", he's a lovely chap to be honest and always happy to chat.
There were three bands on before TWP, two of them were great, while the other one to be perfectly blunt, were shit.
My favourites were Raziki, a Norwegian ska influenced band that kind of reminded me musically of Orange Juice and vocally sounded a bit like Camera Obscura. What's not to like?
After TWP played the crowd thinned out instantly and you could really see the make up (pun intended) of the locals. There were handlebar mustaches a plenty on show and a few tight spandex tee shirts being worn.
Now I am as open minded as the next chap, but the sight of really fat gay blokes standing around after the gig shirtless, snogging and licking each other's breasts "may" haunt me for the rest of my life. I am not objecting to this because they were gay, I am just not into public displays of affection and would feel equally objective if I saw a straight couple doing this in a bar, "Urgh, get a room people".
Flyer from the Iron Bear bathrooms.
Oh well, just a bit of harmless fun I suppose.
The line for the men's bathrooms were huge, while for a change, there were none outside the ladies room. Patrick later informed me that he was slightly propositioned while changing his shirt in the bathroom and Sarah (Charlie's girlfriend) said that when she went to the ladies room that two blokes were snogging in there.
As a side note, I gave the venue tee shirt to my 15 year old son Liam, he liked it and what he doesn't know can't hurt him.
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