Beyond Austin City Limits
October 7th, 2009
I’ve managed to make some sort of appearance at every ACL fest since I’ve lived in Central Texas. I’m a sucker for these things. This year, though, this year I’m in a rental car heading to Phoenix, Az for the long talked about Austin Invasion. A group of performers from The New Movement are off to the Torch Theatre for a weekend of fun, shows, fun. I’m also a sucker for text message alerts and applications that upload photos to multiple platforms, so all weekend long we’ve been uploading and I’ve been getting alerts from the friendly Austin City Limits Music Festival Robot.
Get autographs at the Waterloo Records tent. Signings today include: Daniel Johnston, Coheed & Cambria, Dr. Dog and more! Txt STOP ACL09 to opt out.
Can’t, we’re getting snacks prepared and I’m downloading an insane amount of podcasts for the trip. I’m experimenting with ESPNU (update: fail) and the Wire Magazine fella’s Free: The Future of a Radical Price (update: success). In the mix is also a couple of old Floppy Bob episodes and new BS Reports I’ve been saving.
Here’s a good sign we’re doing something feel good. As we count the spaces to our rental car (B5, B6…) we’re a little nervous at the whole (B7…) 5 people in one car thing (B8, B9…) and oh, wait a minute (B10…) WE SPY FREE UPGRADE! Somehow we end up with giant Ford Explorer that talks, has tons of places to put beverages, satellite radio and a secret seat in the back. We realize we can cruise this desert with no legs touching and everyone happies up.
Here’s a better sign: I drive the car to Hollywood Ave. (my home) and the first song on the radio is (no lie) some sort of megamix of songs I secretly wanted to do rule-the-school dances too long ago. Montell Jordan, Let Me Clear My Throat, I Saw the Sign. Like that. TNM is the meeting point.
Get autographs at the Waterloo Records tent. Signings today include Michael Franti, Passion Pit, Girl Talk and more! Txt STOP ACL 09 to opt out.
Can’t, we’re busy autographing ourselves. Magic Jen has packed magic markers, notecards and a ukulele, Pyro Dan has a crescent wrench, Milo hasn’t packed anything interesting but he’s proud of the way he’s packed. Tami and I pack with our eyes closed cause we got this. I think we are like super heroes or maybe a basketball team. As our main driver, Pyro Dan plays point guard and can manipulate flames. Magic Jen is our small forward and can turn a coyote into a fox. Tami scores a significant number of jokes early as the Shooting Guard and is undigestable. Milo is the biggest boy of all of us and plays center while able to manipulate his limbs independent of one another. I am power forward and have my cell phone plugged into the car because oh yeah, the car has a built in cell phone charger and it can play my songs through the speakers!
Tons of people just like us in rental cars just like us driving in Austin just like us. But us, we heading out of this town. We grab some boigies and people probably think we are some sort of big huge band playing the festival because we got that look but we are Gone Pecan. Pyro Dan kicks it all the way to El Paso where we wake up surrounded by palm trees and mountain time. It’s mountain time, y’all.
About halfway to Phoenix we pick up our trip memento, a tiny drum. Man at shop says “I’ve seen actors and bands, but never comedians.” We’ll figure out some day what the drum means but it already means more than just some drum.
We arrive in Phoenix and immediately bust out some shows. They all go over pretty well and the Phoenix improvisers are, as usual, polite, fun, cool, sweet, rad, treasure-like and collectible. Morning after shows we teach workshops to the Phoenix students who are all of the above.
Dont’ miss Ben Sollee at H-E-B’s Austin Kiddie Limits at 3:15pm. Txt STOP to ACL09 to opt out.
Can’t, I gotta seek out a locally owned sports bar in downtown Phoenix to catch the LSU game. I land at Hooters and get a tummy ache right around the same time the camera zooms in on that lineman puking. I think about wishing I was jamming with Ben at Austin Kiddie Limits but we have more shows tonight and a Hooters tummy ache can’t stop the Austin Invasion.
Later that night we bust out two more shows at the Trunk Space and one more at Space 55. Lots of videos up at TNM’s YouTube site, including this scene from the Chris and Tami show.
The next morning we, yep, drive straight-from-Phoenix-to-Austin. We stop at a Taco Cabana where Milo gets a frozen margarita. We stop at BuckTop (?) BBQ and Milo gets Texas Straws (?). We stop in Austin and everyone stretches and has an easy time realizing that we just totally nailed this Phoenix trip, that we just represented our people’s nicely, that Phoenix is really good at taking care of out of towners.
