West Indian Girl

Fran’s Flashback we played the jambase showcase at opal divine’s for our one and only show at sxsw this year. we opened the show at 8pm and played right before les claypool’s band. did i mention it was st patrick’s day AND it was amy’s 26th birthday. Oddly enough i have no pictures from the show. all i have is some video footage below (from an interview) that shows a bit of our performance.

dressing room and rider wrap up: i think festivals are tough to grade out but music conferences are even tougher because their very nature is more of the plug and play variety.

the facilities 10 points. problem here was that opal divine’s isnt really a music venue and at sxsw they tent off their parking lot and set up shop there. so, as far as the typical facilities we are used to its kinda difficult to compare because its not a place meant for bands. load in and load out was easy. there was a back stage area behind the tent for all the bands. the bar wouldnt let artists use the bathrooms in the club so we were relegated to port o potties. there was a merch area though.

rider/amenities 0 points. maybe i missed this but there was nothing as far as i know. i think the beer tickets arrived after we were done playing and i dont think there was even water back stage. i was expecting at least a little bit of the green brew but got none. im not sure who to blame on this one. maybe if ian was there this travesty wouldnt have occurred. he should have been there….ian mcevily…c’mon, how could a guy with a name like that miss our st patrick’s day show? stage, sound, lights 10 points. sound men at sxsw seem like they’re riding on their very last nerve…and then they have to deal with a band like ours. stage sound was pretty bad but i dont think it mattered too much. we back-lined a bunch of gear so that probably added to the weirdness. the lights were decent. hey it was a tent show in a parking lot, what can you expect? promoter 20 points. jambase is awesome. their promotion for the party was excellent as the place was jammed for our set. jambase is a great site and one that i actually use. im really happy to have been able to play their party cos they’re gonna blow up soon. staff 10 points. to be honest with you i didnt really deal with anyone that worked there except some sxsw loaders.intangibles 20 points. andrew warren from jambase has become part of our family. he saw our third ever show if you can believe that and we have been friends ever since. this guy is excellent and deserves more points but i only give 20 max.

TOTAL OVERALL SCORE = 70. a C is not an A but it’s not an F for that matter …. c is for satisfactory. (click here for a detailed explanation of my scoring system’s categories). hopefully the next jambase party at sxsw will be at a proper rock venue. im sure it will cos jambase keeps getting bigger and bigger.

Tony’s Take

personally i would have rather had a tour set up than just a one off show in texas. hopefully this gig landed them a better agent because im not down for these killer van rides. those crazy fuckers drove straight from la to austin. they slept at truck stops once on the way there and once on the way back. q slept on the bench and fran spooned me on the floor behind the front seats. it was tighter than penquin’s poononnie. in the daytime it was hot as hell and at night cold as shit. look at my tongue…can you tell how hot i was?
im flyin next time – fuck this ride. the hotel i got to stay in was a level above motel 6. the austin inn and suites i think it was called. not too suite if ya know what i mean. it was chill though so i cant bitch that much. fran left the tv on for me when he wasnt there. it was a decent place and had plenty of grass areas for me to take care of business.