Pups, Pubs & Motorised Scooters - Part Two Of The Aussie Action At SXSW

They came, they played, the conquered —  and we have all the proof. Check out all last week's SXSW action from Alice Ivy, Big White and Pretty City below.

For more SXSW behind-the-scenes goodness be sure and check out our day one coverage from Jess Ribeiro, Thandi Phoenix and more.

alice ivy

day 2 — 

Austin has the most insane food. I ashamedly haven’t had a single vegetable since arriving in the States. This was brunch on day two.

We are staying at a friends house on Rainey Street, which is literally in the heart of the SXSW festival. We are super lucky to have an awesome rooftop pool, so we decided that it would be a great idea to crack open a bottle of Veuve on the rooftop at sunset.

My friend Hoodlem played a Diet Coke pop-up venue. I don’t think I’ve ever had so much Diet Coke in my life…

day 3 — 

I hit up this place called Joe’s Cafe in the outer burbs of Austin for breakfast with some mates. This place is super famous for its breakfast tacos. These were off the chain!  

Always gotta find time for sessions on tour. Today’s makeshift studio was at an Air BnB. Managed to lay down some demo vox with an artist.

Australia House is home to most of the Sounds Australia showcases. I played here at 11pm and I could not wait!

day 4 — 

I hung out with my besties Mallrat & Denim. We went and got vegan donuts and hit up Wholefoods and made the best salads.

I hit up this Austin Puppy Meetup Bumble was presenting just across the road from where we were staying on Rainey Street. I think I patted about 50 dogs, but my favourite was this giant St Bernard. Its paws were double the size of my hands.

My mate Flint Eastwood was in town, we decided that we 100% had to write something together while we were in the same city. We hit up this studio a fair drive out of Austin and wrote a song.

day 5 — 

Day 5 of SXSW was intense. My first showcase today was at the W hotel in downtown Austin, pretty much in front of the Willie Nelson statue. The rider was pretttttttyyy good.

I kicked it with Little Destroyer, this super cool Canadian band. Their showcase was amazing and they are all wonderful humans.

My last SXSW showcase was at the Secret Sounds x Sounds Australia showcase at Australia House. The place was wild, I had so much fun!

pretty city

Elke runs Glamglare with her partner, Oliver. Based out of New York, they run a great blog and help manage a bunch of bands. They got their finger on the pulse of the New York scene, as far as bands we're into go. The bands they chose for their showcase is a testament to that. Every band was awesome!

Just before a show, everyone does something different to get revved up. Hugh goes to find coffee and gets a little introverted, Ken panics and runs through the set on his bass and Drew gets into some beers and watching the support bands. Johnny, on the other hand, starts talking to people at a rate most people would not be able to understand regular speech. Probably has something to do with all the Diet Coke he has pre show.

We used to say in bios that we were directly influenced by Trent's band in Daria and though we haven't written that in a few years interviewers seem to keep finding that info and bringing it up. And now everywhere we go there's some Daria references following us!

Austin has a million venues. And even within those venues, they create more stages so you can have even more bands playing. Plus all the unofficial stuff that happens all over the place who make stages in warehouses and hotel lobbies and out the front of restaurants and car parks, marquees etc. Not sure if the Iron Bear normally has bands in there, but I love that any bar can just stick a stage in the corner for a week and make it happen for SXSW.

SXSW can be a little bit like an exercise in "how many people does it take to do …" There will be someone at the door checking badges, someone ticking off names, someone checking bags, and two other people that you're not quite sure what their job is but they have a T-shirt, so they seem important. This woman's job all night was to watch our stuff. Not all heroes wear capes, but some wear reflective vests and we respected her and her important job she did. Mind you this was in a backstage area that only artists could get into, so not sure if her job was particularly necessary.

Big white

Leaving Dallas we missed the bus, only to wait at a bus terminal for 4hrs. Disheartened, we sought the help of our good friend Sara Sue who offered to drive us down to Austin.

This is 4 of us in the backseat of Sara’s car. Buckle up Y'all.

After arriving at our accommodation, it was time to shop for some supplies. USA style.

Our first show in Austin was the POND magazine house show. This is where we met our Aussie friends who came to party with us at SXSW.

Ended a successful night with a bit of pool and a few famous ar-modelos at La Perla.