Days 28-29 (May 30-31): Austin, Texas

Given how late I am running, just a bunch of random comments on a city I thoroughly enjoyed, well, at least for the 48 hours I was there:

- Austin was not hot; it was fucken hot. Mercury hit 95 (35, for you Europeans) on both days; it was also humid. Now, I am somewhat familiar with hot and humid (and some of you kept telling me that Ottawa was also hit by a H 'n H wave at the same time), but this was far, far more oppressive and stultifying than anything I have ever experienced in Ottawa. It was freaken' hot I tells ya.

- Man, Austin has a lot of music bars and clubs; it seems that every place books live music. Granted, there was a bar/club-based music festival going on (Chaos in Tejas), which was spotlighting mostly local Austin artists, with some headliners such as The Damned (I thought about going, but they were playing late [11:45] on the Thursday and that day's heat had knocked me right out. Plus, I am old.) thrown in, but not all venues were participating, which tells me there still is a critical mass of artists, whether local or not, that keeps the live scene going. (Note to my faithful reader[s?]: I am currently reading a collection of articles and reviews from noted 1970's rock critic Lester Bangs so expect even more run-on sentences and completely random cut-aways than normal, as his writing style [at least his early writing style] rubs off on me...) To wit, from a cursory look at a few club and band web sites, there were at least three bands, all playing at 10:30 or so Friday night, that sounded worth checking out.

And, of course, I ended up somewhat inadvertently off the beaten path in East Austin at the Scoot Inn and Bier Garten. Located in a run-down, semi-residential, semi-auto repair shop neighbourhood, the Scoot (I am just assuming regulars call it 'the Scoot', because, well, they should. ) is basically a large shack, complete with sheet metal roof, that has a large, fenced-in yard. There are both indoor and outdoor stages (as well as bars). The backyard has picnic tables and overhanging lights and a bar well-stocked with local brews on tap; it felt very home-y.

The headlining act, Sour Bridges, was having a CD release. On their website, they describe themselves as being 'browngrass', which kind of covers it: take a bluegrass base and add a bit of Texas country and a bit of rock, and you get their sound (ie, browngrass). A five (or six, my notes are not clear) man band, they had a pedal steel guitar (yeah! Extra credit!), a fiddler, two guitar players, one of whom picked up the banjo a few times, a mandolin and a drummer. They reminded me of Elliott Brood in their approach: taking some traditional sounds and applying a modern spin to them, but that may also have been because two of the band members were wearing suits. The large crowd gave them (and the opening act for that matter) a very enthusiastic response and seemed to generally be very familiar with the band.

And, fuck off, did the lead guitar guy not propose to his girlfriend halfway through the set. Now, I don't know, I had never seen them, it may well have been a part of their act. But from the reaction of his friends/bandmates, it was not, as they all approached him to congratulate him. Or console him, as she did seem to say 'yes'.

Of note, they ended the night by covering The Band's Ophelia. And I did buy the CD.

The opening act, Clyde and Clem's Whiskey Business, were in the same vein, musically, as Sour Bridges, albeit more twangy, but twangy in a good way. A seven-man band, with banjo, washboard and service bell (you know that little bell that one rings to get service at a counter that used to be ubiquitous? Yeah, he was playing that.), two guitars, a stand-up bass (drink!), a fiddle, an electric mandolin, a mouth harp... Yeah, pretty much all the key ingredients for a damn good time, but the music was almost secondary to their lyrics, which were generally humouristic with tongue firmly planted in cheek. When they were not comparing Miller Lite girls to Wild Turkey Girls, they were advocating 'Kill(ing) Them All' ('Kill 'em all, just like Jesus said... I want to smell that smell of burning hair') or singing about drunk driving ('the cop says he wants me to watch the light, he sounds like he wants to start a fight...') Again, to reinforce, while potentially a bit off-colour to some (although the crowd got it), this was humour... There was a third act that was supposed to go on around midnight at the inside stage, but I left after they spent 20 minutes screwing around with a sound check. They were the only band that was playing inside; it was very bad form that they were not ready to do on when they were supposed to.

Also, 6 PM gigs on Thursdays and Fridays seem like a regular Austin thing. On Thursday, in what may redefine the concept of randomness, I caught Ian McLagan (sp?) and his current band (the Bump) at Lucky's Lounge, a downtown club. Now for you kids who think popular music began with, say, Drake, McLagan was a member of The Faces (originally the Small Faces) in the late 60's/early 70's, along with Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood. More recently, he has backed Billy Bragg on several of his tours. He can still play that piano and the three-man band (guitar, bass and drums) backing him was pretty tight. Why he was playing some random Austin club at 6 PM on a Thursday (and again on June 6th, if you want to catch him), well, I have no clue.

- I tasted a number of locally brewed beers. Surprisingly, none of them stuck out; most of them were generally mediocre. I expected more. Maybe it has to do with the heat: people may generally be drinking beer to cool down and may not expect or want strong or overly tasty/hoppy beer.

- This is the first stop since, I think Savannah, that there were no particular restaurants I was seeking out. I ended up eating on the cheap, simply and very well: BBQ at a neighbourhood joint (the Green Mesquite); a damn good burger at the Austin Ale House (yes, I found a craft beer joint); steak tacos at a food truck at 1 AM; a really good Korean plate at what appeared to be a local Asian chain. Overall, I may have spent less than for most of my dinners so far... A nice change of culinary pace...

- On the bus ride into Austin from Houston, I saw longhorns!

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