Dear all, maybe a little introduction first. My name is Frank Kimenai, and I’m a music
promotor for the Incubate festival in Tilburg, the Netherlands. Besides that, I’m a
musician and I have somewhat of a food fetish, people keep telling me. The next week,
I’ll be posting some blog posts about my whereabouts in the beatiful city of Austin, Tx.
where the SXSW festival is happening. These blog post are going to be written in English,
since I’m also writing for the Incubate blog, which is an internationally acclaimed blog.
So pardon my French. I’ll try to upload some pictures as well, once I find a cable that
can connect my Blackberry to my computer (anybody has one I can use….?).

I’m starting to know the city dynamics of Austin a little bit now. This is my 3rd visit,
and during all my stays, I hung out with a couple of local musicians I met during my
first tour with The Spades, back in March 2005. The guys played in a band called Black
Earth, and we’ve stayed in touch ever since. I’m staying with Shawn these days, former
drummer of Black Earth, and also sound engineer at the Red Eyed Fly, one of the key
venues on Red River.

Last year, we decided to go on a fishing trip on South Padre Island, Tx, prior to SXSW,
and so we did, but I’m not going to bore you with stories about catfish, weiting and
stingrays. I’ve been hanging out at the Red Eyed Fly for a few days prior to and after
the trip, before SXSW started. I’ve met most of the crew members there and the owner, all
really nice people. First thing I noticed was the difference in business model most
American venues have, compared to European venues.

First of all, for most of the regular shows, band won’t get any guarantee. The crowd gets
charged a cover at the door (5 bucks is the general income for unknown bands), and the
doorguy asks the people for which band they’re at the show. They count the number of
visitors per band. Costs get deducted from the income generated by the door. Soundguy,
bouncer and cashier get payed by the doormoney. What’s left, is devided by the bands,
based on the number of people that came in to see a certain band.

Secondly, the venue doesn’t pay it’s bartenders. It’s probably a general rule in the
States, but bartenders get payed by tip-money only. This can go from 20 to 200 bucks an
evening. Knowing this, you sort of feel obliged to tip extra on a slow night, especially
since the bartender at the Red Eyed Fly is a really nice guy.

Third difference is, that a venue like Red Eyed Fly, which has 5 evenings of live music
per week, and is one of the key venues in Austin, is really strict about their
hospitality. Most unknown bands get none or 1 drink ticket per person. There’s a jug of
water for everybody to use, but that;s it. Also, the crew has to pay for their own
drinks. They probably get charged at a crew rate, but every drink,except the water, must
be payed.

All in all, these are completely different approaches then us Dutchies are used to. I
don’t know what works better, both ways seem to function, but I know, as a muscician
myself, that a little hospitality can do miracles. And also a guarantee when your’e
touring is something you’d hope for. It also puts some things in perspective, like the
guarantees most US bands ask for when they come touring in Europe. They will never ever
get them when playing in the States, that’s for sure. Always good to keep in the back of
your head when booking a band.

The nights I’ve spend in Red Eyed Fly prior to SXSW were pretty cool. I’ve seen an album
release party by local heroes BrokenTeeth (with the  former singer of Watchtower), which
was pretty well visited. I’ve seen the 2nd round of a Battle of the Bands selection,
which had 6 bands, that weren’t all that good, and I’ve seen a show that didn’t really
have any urgency, except for a number of local bands playing. Making a quick head count,
both the Red Eyed Fly, the bouncers and the bartenders didn’t earn that much during those
shows.

Fortunately, I was able to witness a Dick Dale show as well. I think there were about 300
people there, at a 20 dollar cover. That probably made up for the losses during the prior
week. Dick Dale is still a pretty good musician. He’s a bit sloppy, probably due to old
age, but his showmanship is unaccounted. And what he does really well, is selecting a
back up band. 2 dudes, in their later thirties, I’d recon, playing their ass off. He had
the best and stylistically coolest bass player I’ve seen in years (I’d like to have that
white ’62 Fender Precision Bass please), and the tightest drummer ever. Dale himself is
still able to entertain the crowd, which went bezerk during the show, with all sorts of
witty remarks. I was a bit skeptic at first, but after 30 minutes or so, he won me over.
I suggest you all go see him Europe during his next tour, which is due in april or may,
if I’m correct.

Saturday was chill out day for me. Did absolutely nothing during the day, and had a
dilemma to face during the night. The Strange Boys were playing the Red Eyed Fly, and
next door, at the same time, the strickt sexatarian Blowfly was scheduled for a
performance. Started at the Red Eyed Fly, where a pretty hip, NYC / Williamsburgh styled
band called Harlem played. Light footed, up beat, sort of happy indierock with
singalongs. Tight band, hipster kids, might become a one-hit wonder. Also, might not…
Next up, The Strange Boys. Haven’t seen them yet, but their record is pretty good. Weird,
sort of post-punk guitar based songs, topped with nasal, somewhat dissonant vocals. And a
cranky, bored looking girl playing sax and doing vocals as well to top it of. I really
liked it, the band is also getting quite popular here, and they are playing Motel
Mozaique (Rotterdam) in april, so I suggest you go check them out.

After 30 minutes of Strange Boys, I went to see Blowfly, who had a whole new band,
compared to the one he had with him during ZXZW 2007. Except for the limp drummer /
tourmanager / wingman, Bob. He was backed up by a bunch of misfits, 2 gogo dancers, and
the bass player of  Rick James, Bitch! Pretty cool show, he did his hit single ?Should I
fuck that big fat ho?? and was haressing girls. Basically, exactly what you’d expect from
a Blowfly show.

All in all, this first week of Texas has been really good. Tomorrow, more info on food
and Austin in general. After that, most of my blogging will be about bands, music and the
general coolness of being in Austin during SXSW.