We narrowly avoided the Great Blizzard of Kansas City, and began making our grand descent towards Texas. Of course, storms coming in from the West Coast were going to bring freezing rain and a fucking cold front through the entire state completely shattering the beautiful seventy degree weather we had been looking forward to throughout the entire tundra-fied tour. It took us a brutal twelve hours to get down to Austin, sapping up too much of the bucks we had acquired on tour. After the three tanks it took to get down (at just around sixty-five dollars a tank), plus the fifty dollars we spent at Wal-Mart early in the day for provisions, we were still up, but not by much. I'd like to mention Aubrey got very excited to eat some Whataburger when we arrived in the state. We mixed some drinks about two hours outside of Austin and rallied our friends for some drinks when we got in. Luckily, the front wasn't going to sweep in until the next day, so we were greeted with one night of the beautiful, jackets-off-shirtsleeves-up-don't-mind-smoking-outside climate. We met up with our buddies Matt Agrella (who still doesn't drink), and Nick Serino and hit a couple bars. Finally, back in the south.
Matt was kind of to put us up in the one bedroom apartment he shared with his girlfriend, Ellen, for the three nights we were going to spend in the city. The next morning we went to an amazing happy hour at a place called Serranos. Two dollar top shelf drinks, dollar-fifty happy hour appetizers, and a fucking nacho bar. For five dollars I got fed and drunk! Afterwards, Ellen took us on a tour of the city and we all fell a little bit in love with Austin. That night we went out again. First to some sixth street bars with Nick and then to downtown to Matt's bar at some swank hotel. Apparently, Chris Titus was there. Yeah, you don't remember him. I got really drunk on Irish whiskey and forgot how to maintain. A brutal airing of grievances followed. Sometimes the anxieties and stressors of life on the road lead one to misdirect their anger. Sometimes there is collateral damage.
Two days off, and we were finally having a show, and with our good friends Look Mexico no less. Wednesday, we went to the Austin capitol building, and took a tour. We invited our tour guide to the show (she was a friend of Ellen's). We had a few beers before showtime and headed to Beauty Bar. Aims were low seeing as, apparently, Austin-ites are by no means prepared for any sort of cold weather. To be fair it is windy as all motherfucking hell there creating an incredibly inhospitable atmosphere. So, no, tons of people did not show up, and it was a bummer because we were hoping to recoup some of the losses we took on the way down. In the end though we considered it a win because we got to play for our good friends and got to hear them play back to us. More drinking and Aubrey made a new friend.
The next day Matt made us Migas for breakfast, and we met up with Nick for a last lunch and some drinks before we went to Houston. Of course, in the middle of my second mimosa I get a text from Jeff our booking guy letting us know that Houston had been cancelled. Apparently, they are more afraid of the cold than Austin. So we said 'fuck it' and headed to New Orleans to party.
Drove eight hours, hemorrhaged more money, all in the spirit of spending more money, but New Orleans is a great city and, what, were we going to stop in Baton Rouge? Fuck that. We stayed with Aubrey's friend Bethany who was nice enough to offer up her home to four strangers and then DD them around the city. We went to my personal favorite New Orleans bar, Molly's at the Market (great juke, Tom Waits, and Whiskeytown) and I spent entirely too much money getting us drunk. But, hey, I ate fucking sandwiches and ramen for a month, not spending shit, and we get to New Orleans and I want some car bombs. I think we deserved it. Got super drunk again and listened to the beautiful bartender regale us with harrowing stories from the Katrina days, and how slowly change is coming to New Orleans. It was actually kind of fucking depressing.
The next day we played Mario Kart for a while and headed to Mobile. The Alabama Music Box is a really nice venue in downtown Mobile. The show was going to be a mixed bag, beginning with us, then a "hip-hop, funk, rock, reggae" band, ending with a large ensemble live band/hip hop type thing (that actually wasn't bad at all). Our last set of the tour was unfortunately not the best (but who says it should be?) as I, personally, was exhausted, and didn't have much to give that night. Every muscle felt heavy. After we played Thomas and I followed some local girls to a gay bar where we were told karaoke was happening. We got there, got bought some drinks, and waited around awkwardly for thirty minutes before realizing that karaoke was not going to happen. We made a hasty departure back to the venue. Since there's no last call in Mobile, the last band could play literally until people got bored. We waited around until about three and collected our portion of the door. With merch sales it wasn't a bad night. We got back in the van and began the three-and-a-half hour drive back to Tallahassee.
We arrived back in Tallahassee just after sunrise and said our goodbyes. I can't stand being home. April can't come soon enough.
Tomorrow I'll do the picture blog and tour wrap-up.
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