Heartbeat: Hotfox at SXSW, Day One

This will be my first trip to Austin for this widely celebrated festival. I have no idea what to expect and I am not even going to act like I know what I'm doing. You'll stumble along with me as I learn everything from experience. Hopefully I won't have to use the $500 bail AAA is willing to pay as a part of my premium membership.

I look forward to playing some shows in the state of my birth. But, not only am I playing shows, I'm also going to catch as many rock shows and festivities as physically possible. There are a few bands and parties I want to catch throughout the week and hopefully I can get in. I've heard that can be a problem.

I guess the point of this first blog is to introduce the shenanigans I anticipate on getting into this week. I'm writing to you from the bedroom of Michael Preuschl, drummer of Hotfox. We played a show tonight at the Bishop in Bloomington with a trio from Buffalo, NY called the Tins and our most attractive friends, the Bonesetters. The Bonesetters decided not to sleep over because they have "things to do." Whatever. I still like their record. The Tins are sleeping over and they just got the grand tour of our house. I can hear Oliver in the living room showing them DM Stith and David James (the Calumet Reel) songs for the first time. Colin is in the kitchen doing his sassy voice.

We leave for Texas tomorrow morning around 8AM (read: noon) and we're going to drive until we fall asleep, at which point we will park the van. Upon waking up, we will drive more until we're in Austin or San Antonio, I'm not sure which is our goal for Tuesday. Our bass player Marcus is from San Antonio so we might use his place as a home base for Tuesday night.

Wednesday is the first day of our Austin adventure and we've got a pretty full schedule right off the bat. We are fortunate enough to be a part of a project called the State of Music, headed up by our new UK friend, Dom. The project profiles a band from every state in the US and releases compilation records to benefit homeless artists and musicians in the UK. The State of Music turned enough heads to be asked to host an unofficial showcase in Austin during SXSW season and we're fortunate enough to have been invited. We're also meeting up with local music documentarians The In Store for an acoustic performance to be videotaped somewhere in Austin at some time on Wednesday. After all of that, we're going to hang out with our new friend Karla from Humanize Magazine.

Thursday we're doing a Jam in the Van video session with some heady dudes from Cali in their Winnebago. Our official SXSW performance is on Friday for the Sonicbids/Jansport Showcase at Maggie Mae's. Load-in is at 10:30AM. That'll be a fun one. We've lined up a house show in San Antonio for Saturday night with some area bands, and then we leave for home on Sunday morning.

As a fan, my trip is fairly open for exploring. The few bands I want to catch in Austin include, but are not limited to: Built to Spill, Youth Lagoon, the War On Drugs, Fanfarlo, and Hellogoodbye. Make fun of my list, but it's my list and I can do what I want to. It's 3 a.m., and we're supposed to leave at 8, so I should probably find a place to curl up for the night. Michael just came into his room (read: my office) and started throwing clothes off of his bed. He's ready for some z's, and so am I.

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