SXSW X LA or BUST

Last time I posted I'm pretty sure it was on the way to Austin while I was stuck in Throwing Seven's RV with Nash and Leilani. That was the last and pretty much only time I was able to get internet. Since their drummer had a wireless card. Well let me just say Austin was unreal! It is seriously one of the coolest cities ever and I know the entire band agrees. We pulled into Austin Thursday night and helped Bo-Peep out at their show. Then all of Midnite Theory and Bo-Peep went to the PF Changs in Austin (Thanks Lisa!) and we stuffed our faces and celebrated making it to SXSW. After dinner we rolled out to a backyard party on 6th street that our buddy Moose was playing and finally got to relax and have some beers. We starting meeting people right away and were handing out business cards left and right. It was St. Patty's night so everyone was drinking alot. Nash ended up sitting down with Kris and some locals and started playing a drinking game with them. About half an hour later the guy Nash was sitting next to got up and we all noticed he had been wearing a little green mini-skirt the whole time. Hahahah. It was hilarious. The next day we got up and rolled out from our hotel in the RV into downtown Austin. Traffic was crazy and we were worried we might not make the gig. When we finally got into the heart of it all it was crazy. All of 6th street (which is the main hub of SXSW) was closed down and people were everywhere! We had to carry all our equipment about half a mile to the gig rolled down 6th street with wide open eyes and huge smiles on our faces. The gig was at Treasure Island at 4pm. We proceeded to rock the house (Thanks Ace!) as people coming down the street would stop at the open window and rock our while others came inside to listen and take pictures. It was pretty surreal to realize we were actually in the heart of SXSW playing a gig. After the show we realized we were gonna have to carry our gear 2 miles to the RV so Danny ended up finding a Beer truck driver and giving him 25 bucks to load our equipment in the back. It was awsome. While bringing our equipment over we were followed and interviewed by a camera crew that was doing a SXSW special for CBS. We rolled around for a while on 6th street then headed back to the RV which was parked across the street from the Texas State Cemetery. Later that night we met some kids from Dallas that took us to an underground party on a huge bridge overlooking Downtown Austin. It was amazing and they had two stages side by side with two bands trading off. I found out one band was Thee Oh Sees from San Francisco. The energy was crazy and the bridge was literally rocking back and forth. I ended up seeing on Spin.com that they called it the Best Underground SXSW show of Day 2. Pretty cool. The next day we had a show at a spot a little off the SXSW trail at a spot called the Krush Lounge. We ended up playing sitting in stools and put on kinda of chill laid back set that everyone really seemed to enjoy. After the show we rolled back out to 6th street with everyone and partied our asses off. It was so much fun and people were everywhere. SXSW is seriously like Mardi Grais but with a bunch of Indie kids in bands. There are bands everywhere! Later that night we ended up getting invited to a 1000 person party at a Co-Op student living center on the campus of The University of Texas. It was unreal. All the stairwells and hallways were crammed with kids and u could barely walk. It was like one of those motels with everything outside and people were peeing off the railings and throwing beer cans. Kristafari described it as Animal House times 10. We met a lot of cool kids and J and Nash ended up freestyling with some local MC's. We had two shows the next day so we bounced and crashed for the night in the hotel and RV. The next day we had a show at 1pm at The Whole foods in Austin. It was located in a shopping mall alot like one you'd find in Thousand Oaks or Westlake with Starbucks, an Apple store etc. We played inside and did another acoustic set which went over really well. Bo-Peep played after us and brought down the house. They played fully plugged in through our gear and I swear grandmas were dancing in the aisles and everyone was coming over to check it out. I love those girls, they shred! After the show it was time to leave Austin and we made our way out to Taylor, Texas for our final show of the tour. When we pulled into town we were a little shocked because it really looked like a ghost town out of a movie. You can see it in the picture above. We pulled up to the venue and realized we were playing in a barn that we later found out was actually a tractor wherehouse. I went in first and checked it out. We were for sure in small town Texas! They were serving huge turkey legs and beer in cans and everyone was smoking inside. In the main room they had a bunch of folding chairs set up and the spot actually had a huge stage with a band rocking out. At first we weren't sure how they'd react to our style of music but then the promoter Marlon came up and greeted us with a very warm welcome. The show ended up being our best of the tour and we really played our asses off. We finished the set off with a crazy rendition of PTS with me and Danny ending up on the floor jamming out and the end. Throwing Seven tore it up after us then Bo-Peep came on. Everyone was drunk by this point and having an awsome time and celebrating the end of tour. During B0-Peeps last song all the members of the bands on tour got up on stage and sang their last song with them. It was so cool. You can see video of it on YouTube under Armadillo Halls page. We ended up signing a bunch of autographs and meeting a lot of amazing people. The venue even had a thrift store attached to it and they let us go in a grab anything we wanted which was really cool. Then it was time to leave and we had a journey in front of us. It is supposed to take 24 hours to drive home from Taylor to Los Angeles and we set out on our way. By 7 am trouble set in and Dolores starting giving us problems. The problems continued for a while before we ended up breaking down and having to go see a mechanic in Sonora, Texas. We ended up spending 5 hours in this tiny tiny town. But their was a silver lining! I finally got to go to a Sonic Burger! Hahaha. I've always seen the commercials but have never been to one and on this day we ended up eating there twice. The food was ok but I would have to recommend the Cherry Limeade for sure! Anyways we finally got Dolores somewhat running again but by this time were way behind schedule to make it home. We still had over 300 miles to go before we go out of Texas! Dolores made it through most of New Mexico before finally calling it quits for good in Arizona. We ended up having to call AAA and get her towed to a truck stop in Tuscon. We decided we had to let her go and ended up leaving her at the truck stop to be towed home later. We went and rented another RV (Mark and Dickie from the label had been following in another) and hoped to finally be on our way home. By the way at this point we were on around our 35th hour with no stops to sleep, shower or really rest. We unloaded Dolores packed everything in the SUV's and took off. About an hour into the ride our trailer which was hitched to one of the RV's popped a tire and we had to pull of the road. The only problem was the one place we could pull off was in between the 4 lanes of traffic and the freeway on ramp lane! We were basically stuck there. One SUV went to find a new tire and when that took to long the other SUV took off to get a flatbed trailer to put the other trailer on top. This left me, J and Danny alone in the middle of the freeway in Phoenix with then sun baking on us for almost 2 hours. We ended up laying lined up on the freeway with the trailer as our only shade as cars whized by our heads and feet! Finally the suv's came back and we got the trailer up on the new trailer, but not before we had to first unload all our gear while in the middle of the freaking freeway. It was insane. By this point we were past our 40th hour and needing a real meal. So we stopped at the Changs in Phoenix for one last time to fuel up. We said our prayers and hit the road for what we hoped would be our last time. We finally made it home around 3 in the morning on Monday night after leaving from Texas on Saturday at 4am. The ride home took almost 50 hours! In that time we could have left Texas come to LA and left again and made it back to Texas. Or we could have drivin to New York!!!!! We were all so happy to be home and we unpacked and said our goodbyes. Our first tour was finally over and we were super proud to have pulled through in spite of all our setbacks. I'm pretty sure we earned our Tour stripes and I know we are all itching to get back out on the road. Thank you to everyone we met along the way and all the people who helped us out. You are all amazing and we will remember you forever. Can't wait to see you again!!!!

-Lieb-