i almost missed jose gonzalez
it must have been about this time yesterday that i set my alarm for 8:30 a.m. today, so as not to, in any possible way, drunken or otherwise, forget to set it later. plan was to get up before the rest of the room, shower, make coffee, and head upstairs to the 18th floor conference room to see jose gonzalez. plan even involved pajamas. picture it: sleepy-eyed, freshly showered, coffee in hand, letting this beautiful swedish singer-songwriter slowly tug you into starting your day...
then, picture the morning-of, waking up to seth fein's dry, cracked morning voice talking loudly on the phone to whoever-comma-it-doesn't-matter, and when you find your phone, you see it is definitely NOT 8:30 a.m. but, in fact, 10:50 a.m. and the show started 20 minutes ago and when you went up there yesterday to see blackalicious he didn't even PLAY for 20 minutes before packing up, and jesus where's my shirt, why didn't my alarm wake me, ah fuck it, who has a room key i can borrow so i can go see the rest of jose's set pleasepleaseplease.....!!!
i made it up there to catch the last of "heartbeats." the room was pretty full, and i stood just outside the doorway and watched. melted. it could have been the relief of making it just in time, or maybe i was still half-asleep, or maybe his music is really that moving, but i could have cried. he finished and i exhaled, and the radio hostess thanked him and dismissed the room. i was frozen as everyone was clearing out, but i didn't know what i would have said to him if i tried. fumble over expressing how in love i am with his music while trying to hold in my god-awful morning breath? no way.
besides, my day was already off. wednesday and thursday, it seems, are a kind of warm-up for friday and saturday. i mean, these past couple days, i've had enough to do to keep me busy, but enough downtime to breathe. now, today and tomorrow, i can't even imagine how i'll make it to everything i want to see. that's the thing, too, about these past couple days, is that i've seen all those bands before. jose gonzalez, drive by truckers, silversun pickups, these are the bands i came to see. jose usually sticks to europe, and the closest he's come to champaign is pennsylvania. this is also the first time silversun pickups have played a show outside of california. and the truckers, well on my way down here, i'm driving past the towns and places they've sung about for years. i have to see them here. and they're all playing today.
(by the way, head over to KEXP's sxsw page. i don't know why i didn't post this before, but you can listen live to everything going on at the austin city limits studios. today at 2p: drive by truckers. today at 5p: jose gonzalez.)
so i'm up and moving at a hungry pace. got my latte in hand and pages of a schedule to sort through. i had hoped to go get my bukowski poster now, but pitchfork's day show opened its doors ten minutes ago, and jose gonzalez is giving me another chance to see him there at 1p. i'll be damned if i miss him again.
i don't really have much to say about last night. it was great, but left me exhausted. i'm sure that's really why i slept through my alarm. my body's tired from standing and walking all day and night, and austin's strict diet of beer and bbq aren't helping at all. however. rogue wave live is a whole new experience, ted leo puts on an energetically mean show, chin up chin up was my surprise favorite, headphones were just as i thought they'd be, minus the bear was incredible, and all the other bands inbetween were okay but not outstanding. as the bars emptied out, mark and i sat on the corner curb of red river and sixth streets and watched the mass filter out and back to their hotels or after-parties. i'm never unamused by these people. so many, so different, and everywhere. it was a good, quiet way to end a long, loud day.
if i'd figured out how to post songs on here like all the cool indie blogs do, i'd put some up right now. but since i didn't, and can't, i'm recommending you get yourself something from any or all of those bands, asap.
see, right here is where i would post that chin up chin up song i loved last night. how about their myspace page? :)
then, picture the morning-of, waking up to seth fein's dry, cracked morning voice talking loudly on the phone to whoever-comma-it-doesn't-matter, and when you find your phone, you see it is definitely NOT 8:30 a.m. but, in fact, 10:50 a.m. and the show started 20 minutes ago and when you went up there yesterday to see blackalicious he didn't even PLAY for 20 minutes before packing up, and jesus where's my shirt, why didn't my alarm wake me, ah fuck it, who has a room key i can borrow so i can go see the rest of jose's set pleasepleaseplease.....!!!
i made it up there to catch the last of "heartbeats." the room was pretty full, and i stood just outside the doorway and watched. melted. it could have been the relief of making it just in time, or maybe i was still half-asleep, or maybe his music is really that moving, but i could have cried. he finished and i exhaled, and the radio hostess thanked him and dismissed the room. i was frozen as everyone was clearing out, but i didn't know what i would have said to him if i tried. fumble over expressing how in love i am with his music while trying to hold in my god-awful morning breath? no way.
besides, my day was already off. wednesday and thursday, it seems, are a kind of warm-up for friday and saturday. i mean, these past couple days, i've had enough to do to keep me busy, but enough downtime to breathe. now, today and tomorrow, i can't even imagine how i'll make it to everything i want to see. that's the thing, too, about these past couple days, is that i've seen all those bands before. jose gonzalez, drive by truckers, silversun pickups, these are the bands i came to see. jose usually sticks to europe, and the closest he's come to champaign is pennsylvania. this is also the first time silversun pickups have played a show outside of california. and the truckers, well on my way down here, i'm driving past the towns and places they've sung about for years. i have to see them here. and they're all playing today.
(by the way, head over to KEXP's sxsw page. i don't know why i didn't post this before, but you can listen live to everything going on at the austin city limits studios. today at 2p: drive by truckers. today at 5p: jose gonzalez.)
so i'm up and moving at a hungry pace. got my latte in hand and pages of a schedule to sort through. i had hoped to go get my bukowski poster now, but pitchfork's day show opened its doors ten minutes ago, and jose gonzalez is giving me another chance to see him there at 1p. i'll be damned if i miss him again.
i don't really have much to say about last night. it was great, but left me exhausted. i'm sure that's really why i slept through my alarm. my body's tired from standing and walking all day and night, and austin's strict diet of beer and bbq aren't helping at all. however. rogue wave live is a whole new experience, ted leo puts on an energetically mean show, chin up chin up was my surprise favorite, headphones were just as i thought they'd be, minus the bear was incredible, and all the other bands inbetween were okay but not outstanding. as the bars emptied out, mark and i sat on the corner curb of red river and sixth streets and watched the mass filter out and back to their hotels or after-parties. i'm never unamused by these people. so many, so different, and everywhere. it was a good, quiet way to end a long, loud day.
if i'd figured out how to post songs on here like all the cool indie blogs do, i'd put some up right now. but since i didn't, and can't, i'm recommending you get yourself something from any or all of those bands, asap.
see, right here is where i would post that chin up chin up song i loved last night. how about their myspace page? :)
<3 ryan at 1:46 PM
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