United Fruit: One Week in Austin

Day 1: In sheer excitement, none of us got any sleep before our flight from Glasgow to Houston. The anticipation was too much and we found ourselves buzzing, drinking and generally speculating about what was to come. 16 and a half hours of travel later and we found ourselves in Houston. After a relatively smooth journey (apart from extensive questioning at the U.S. Border and Iskandar being racially profiled in every airport we showed face in), we were there. We had our instruments, our personal effects and we were raring to go. We hired a car and drove from Houston to Austin. It was a pretty short drive (2.5 hours) but the arduous flight and stop offs resulted in me (Marco) falling asleep at the wheel. Very briefly, but still scary as shit!

We arrived in Austin slightly jaded but still very excited. We showed up at the apartment we were meant to be staying in to be greeted by the lovely woman who was so kind to put us up, Robin. Our manager was also there waiting to meet us. After several beers, we hit the hay as we had to get to the convention centre pretty early to register.

Day 2: Registration day is upon us. We rise early and get our shit together to go on a mini jaunt round Austin. Registration is quick and painless. We now have our magical artist wrist bands that get us in anywhere the fuck we want. Needless to say we took full advantage of this privilege and started wreaking havoc at the various free bars across the city. 6th street was just starting to come alive and the atmosphere was incredible. We found ourselves in a house party, surrounded by gallons (literally gallons) of booze and stayed there for a good while as many of the shows hadn't started yet. We dragged our drunk arses home at around 3am as our first show was the following night.

Day 3: Today was the day of our first show and we didn't have any back line arranged. We had a few options on how to get some ample gear for the evening but time was running out. We also needed transformers to stop our pedal boards from blowing up and UK extension cords. The list was growing. Everything was sorted by around 5pm and we were ready to go. We headed down to the venue (the Karma Lounge) at 8pm to scope it out and get comfortable in our surroundings. After being in the venue for around an hour we were presented with the back line that we are told would be more than enough to cover a loud band. The guy had brought us 3 practice amps... At this point it was all hands on deck and we managed to convince one of the other bands on the same bill as us to lend us their gear. Thanks to Neon Cobra for that, by the way. Another crisis averted and we found ourselves on stage, setting up after having to endure a Korean glam metal band.

We started getting our tones set and gearing ourselves up to play when a massive bar brawl kicked off right next to the stage and outside the venue. Police presence stopped the show from kicking off at its normal time as we had to wait for the bar staff to stop getting involved. The show finally kicked off and we really enjoyed it. The crowd slowly started to seep back into the venue and the atmosphere was rekindled after the punch up. After the show we headed out to some more booze emporiums and didn't get home till about 9am the next morning. Can't really remember or comment on anything that happened. What a night though.

Day 4: We were feeling pretty destroyed from the previous night but we had shit to do. We went to Torchey's for tacos after having absolutely no sleep and then had to head downtown to meet Drew to get some photos done for creative Scotland. If anyone has seen these photos, notice how myself (Marco) and Iskandar don't take our sunglasses off the entire time. You would not have wanted to see that sight.

After several curers and a great trip round downtown, we went back for some food and then out again to catch some shows as it was our day off! Viet Cong and METZ was first on the list. My god, what a fucking great set by both bands. They absolutely tore through their 30 min slot and did not hold back one tiny little bit. My ears were bleeding in the best way possible. Viet Cong's drummer had broken his arm so his performance wasn't up to scratch but you couldn't fault his effort! Deerhoof was next up at probably one of my favourite venues in town, Cheer Up Charlies. They played on a pretty small stage, out in the open with the most fitting lighting I could have imagined for the band. Their performance was inspiring. It was a chaotic cacophony of genius riffs and rocking drum grooves. They almost seemed as if they had lost the plot on stage only to rip it back in seamlessly. I was in awe the entire time. I was starting to hallucinate very slightly, which didn't help anything though. A few more beers later and we headed back as we had a gig early on in the day.

Day 5: Gig number 2. This gig was a lot earlier on in the day and at a pretty awesome little venue close to the university called Hole In The Wall. The gig was being hosted and curated by the American blog, Stereogum and the incredible American label, Exploding In Sound (Speedy Ortiz etc). We loved this show! It was rammed with kids from the uni who were really digging our sound and who pretty much worshipped the curators, so whoever they invited, the kids would get behind. We pretty much put everything we had into the performance even though we were hungover as fuck. Hangovers had become the expected norm at this point mind.

Buzzing after a really good, busy show you can only guess what we ended up doing? Getting fucking leathered. After getting some more tacos and going on a wee stroll down Rainey Street (a street completely comprised of residential houses that have been converted into bars) we headed to RED7 to watch our pals The Twilight Sad alone with some favourites Swervedriver and Ceremony. It was great chatting to the sad before the set. It's always good having some familiarity so far away and it helps to ground you in such bizarre surroundings. They nailed their set. So so good. Swervedriver and Ceremony absolutely killed it too. I've never quite seen anything as interesting as Ceremony's set before.

Day 6: Final show. This was the big one for us. We were playing in Latitude 30 the backline was gargantuan and everything was perfect for us to destroy some eardrums. We were at the venue pretty early to get out the house and prepare our gear etc. the rain was intense at this point and the anticipation was even more so. So much pressure had been put on us for these shows and we couldn't fuck it up. It was all or nothing now and it really felt like it. The doors opened to the venue and before we knew it there were 250+ people there eager to hear the British acts that were about to play. Before we knew it, we were up and the room was even busier. We thrive in environments like this so we got stuck right in and didn't leave anything off the stage. I cut my wrist open on my bass but the blood just added to the performance. The more I stared at the crowd the more it seemed to grow. Maybe it was our insane volume or the rain but everyone looked pretty happy! The set was over and that was us done with SXSW. The release of pressure was profound but also quite sad. We could have easily played another 5 shows. The atmosphere there gives you super human energy levels.

After the last show we went to catch The Dillinger Escape Plan at the Thrasher tent then off to hype hotel for seriously strong vodkas and Earl Sweatshirt. Earl totally rocked it but alas we were being ushered out of the hall by the security moments after the end of his set. We trudged up 6th street on our way to a nightclub, seeking more fun until full scale massive brawls started erupting around us. One minute there would be six guys tearing into each other whilst the police were clambering to stop it all, meanwhile the exact same thing would be happening 50 yards away. This went on for around an hour and we couldn't really get out of it as there were so many people and police around. A pretty dark ending to such an incredible festival.

Day 7: This was our day of rest. We drank beers(of course), went to see the bats of congress bridge, went to get BBQ at the world famous Salt Lick barbecue and just had a pretty awesome wee tourist day whilst half the population of Austin were heading home. We bought flowers for our incredible host Robin and packed up to head home the next morning.

All in all, this was one of the best trips we have ever been on as a band and as friends. We can't thank our amazing managers and everyone who helped us do this more. We really hope that we'll get a chance to do it all again next year but obviously it's not the easiest. We'd recommend anyone to get over there though. Even if it's just for the fun of it!