Fraser A. Gorman SXSW Diary: Part Two

Woke up, got outta bed, dragged a comb across my head... (didn't have a comb, never have had one).

We're still kinda waiting around South Austin for it all to go down. More bands pile in, gigs start happening, excitement is building.

We cruise into a studio owned and run by the drummer of Spoon, Jim Eno, 'cause Courtney [Barnett] is doing a live Spotify recording thingo. I just sit upstairs and drink a couple of Tecate cans and eat BBQ and admire the mountains of vintage gear that this fella has collected over the years. Jim has a beautiful studio that he converted from a garage in his really nice house somewhere in Austin. He was a very nice guy too. The CB3 were sounding great so we ventured in to the joint they were playing in that night.

It was basically like an outdoor version of Cherry Bar if it was located in Darwin. Real dusty, real filthy, real grungy rock'n'roll place called Red 7 that looked like you could piss in the corner and throw up in your beer and no one would bat an eyelid. But it's 3pm and there is only massive buff roadies in there so it's kinda weird and scary. I'm sure the vibe will be better later.

We all chilled out mega time at our South Austin Mansion and watched Court play on The Ellen Degeneres Show which was amazing, strange and funny at the same time. We had a few beers in celebration then all of a sudden we were a few Lonestar cans in at Red 7 and a Toronto band called Metz were onstage. Metz were pretty great. They aren't my kinda sound (bit too loud) but they would play a knockout set at the Tote any day (and I think they did one time with Batpiss).

Can I please just mention that whilst all this was happening in the back bar, Elijah Wood is DJing in the front bar (wtf?).

Court played and was unreal - crew were loving it. The Lonestars kept flowing (don't forget to tip) and before we knew it we were at food van heaven at about 1.30am (a bunch of them parked together on a free block of land in Austin).

I made my first friend from Austin, her name is Mary and she was wearing a giant Whoopee Cushion costume at the gig. Makes complete sense to me.

Bedtime, see you tomorrow, Austin.