Austin, TX, or "donde esta Waldo?"

I got into Austin Monday afternoon and immediately began filling my face with a sampling of the fine Tex-Mex cuisine. Aaron took me to Angie's, a nice place with pretty good barbacoa, and then we went for coffee. We headed back to Aaron's where we caught up for a while, napped (no spoons, I was on the couch), and by that time our hippie bandmates had arrived and it was time for Tex-Mex all over again. We hung out and laughed with Susan, Russ, and Georgeanne (their publicist) and I tried to have a Sprite but it wasn't happening.


Yesterday we picked up our wristbands and headed to the famous Magnolia Cafe for another delicious Austin meal. Aaron knows everyone there and we got the royal treatment. We headed to our friend Cameron's house for an afternoon rehearsal (our typical half-assed version), and about the time we were wrapping up, Cam showed up with our friend Otis Gibbs- also in town for SXSW.


Everyone headed to the Saxon Pub where we played our first of many shows this week. We were a little rusty (no pun intended), but got into the groove pretty quickly and played about a 90 minute set. Our friend Chris Knotts joined us for Nanny's Song, the crowd seemed to dig it, everyone was happy.


Afterwards it was back to Cam's for a little hang time. Susan ran to Taco Cabana and brought back five thousand tacos. Maybe I was just super-hungry, but it was the best meal I've had here yet. At some point in the evening I realized I was surrounded by Indianapolis expatriates. Aaron and Cameron both moved from Indy to Austin, and Otis is living in Nashville. At one point (NOT instigated by me) the conversation turned to what a wonderful city Indy is, praising its architecture, naming good restaurants, recalling good times, and even our New Orleans friends were singing its praises.


Then Rusty dressed up like Where's Waldo (see photo) and it was time to go to bed...






For more Susan Cowsill-related Austin fun, check out Georgeanne's blog (she even has nice photos):
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=66905077