I was picked up from the bus station in Austin by Deborah, who lives in a venerable, beaten green weatherboard house on a quiet leafy street just out of downtown. I stayed with her and Mike and Ruby, who I soon fell in love with. Ruby was wary at first (it must be my reserved nature), but a few biscuits later and we were best of friends. She steals my smelly socks at the end of the day and leaves them outside, but I'm too tired to care. She's a Border Collie puppy. I call her onto the couch and she bellyflops, half-successful, hind legs flailing in space.
I wandered around Austin, the blanket of heat near unbearable. I have come to respect air conditioning. Bought a couple of cds, found Deborah for dinner, I tried the fish n chips, and they were pretty good too. A bit gourmet (not wrapped in newspaper) but still good. I bought a bottle of Oyster Bay Merlot and we went home, had a drink and talked for a while. I think I found the nicest couple in Texas. They're both so quiet and relaxed, quite unlike most Americans I have so far encountered. Mike had recently finished reading a book on cockroaches, because he like the author, so we mused about exo-skeletons and suchlike. His father is British so they drink tea a lot. I felt very much at home.
Next day, Austin City Limits part 1. Took the bus downtown, followed the crowd, found my way to Jesse Malin. He's just awesome. Alone with an acoustic guitar, but powerful nonetheless. He is indeed the 'indie Springsteen', but I'm sure he hates constantly hearing that comparison. Go to his page and listen to Broken Radio, the Boss sings with him. Beautiful song.
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| Austin City Limits |
Pete Yorn followed Malin, a similar kind of artist. He had a pedal steel player! Next, on Rikki's recommendation: Blonde Redhead. They were definitely worth seeing. A New York trio (one Japanese and twin Italians), remaking New Wave electro-rock. I don't know much about New Wave but I liked them. Crowded House I enjoyed far more than when I saw them in Seattle. Liam was still playing, keeping them cool. Otherwise I think they're a bit dorky. Especially the bass player. He reminds me of Paul Shaffer from Letterman's Late Show. Anyway, I enjoyed their set, despite the flashbacks of intermediate school singing assemblies, induced by such songs as "Weather With You". They didn't play "Hole in the River", pity.
5.30pm: LCD Soundsystem. Very fun punkfunk, very upbeat, full band, lots of cowbell. But no "Daft Punk is playing at my house"! I love that song. But "North American Scum" is excellent. Listen to it. Oh well, moving on to Spoon, on Rikki's recommendation. Even though I like Britt Daniel, they didn't really grab my attention. So I sat and waited for Bjork. Managed to get relatively close (enough so I didn't have to squint). She was incredible. Here are some photos of the performance. There were huge costumes, painted faces, french horns, trumpets, violins, amazing electronics - they filmed and displayed the samplers - looked like NASA radars. She encored with Oceania. Then it was over, I followed the crowd out, back to downtown. This took a long time. There must've been hundreds of thousands there.
Standing at the bus stop I listened to a guy next to me telling a girl about his growing up in Whangarei. He had an American accent. I sneaked into the conversation, and they were delighted by the encounter. Turns out he came to USA in his teens. Bus didn't come so we taxied together. Back at the house for supper I had a cup of the nz merlot and a marmite sandwich. Just like home. Ah.
