On this fine Thursday, we tore ourselves away from the pizza fuelled downtown area and the 6th Street catwalk venturing instead to south Austin for our much anticipated House Of Songs showcase at Rocky Erickson's Ice Cream Social, so named because the legend Rocky Erickson (above) was headlining, and because there was free ice cream on tap. (Please take note any promoters out there who are looking to attract an excitable, female-biased audience to their gigs - this works)
Embroiled in a taxi crisis (and therefore a punctuality crisis), where the cab we booked hadn't show up and the one we hailed insisting it was quicker if we walked, we made our way on foot along Congress and over the picturesque Colorado River to Threadgill's, the scene of our first outdoor show in Austin. For the uninitiated, south of Congress is where the real music happens, where there's not a backing track in earshot or a deluded blogger in sight.
Greeting us on arrival was Leroy, Nathan and Troy from House Of Songs, an impressive initiative which pairs Danish and American artists together in Austin all year round. Troy had kindly booked TGTB for three shows this week, starting here.
Today's line up was nothing short of tantalising. It was nothing short at all in fact, with 13 acts on the bill over the whole day. The mouth-watering prospect of seeing J. Mascis (of Dinosaur Jr) with his new band Sweet Apple, fellow Danes (and friends of TGTB) The Asteroids Galaxy Tour, the stage-scaling exploits of The Riverboat Gamblers and Austin's legendary Rocky Erickson, all playing after our set, ensured we were going to stick around and get busy with the fritas (local slang for frozen margaritas) and of course, the freebie ice cream on tap.
We were received by a wonderful predominantly-Austinite crowd of all ages, who were there to be won over not just merely entertained. After our warm welcome and blisteringly sweltering performance we sat back and made new friends in Hilary form LA, Bryan from Australia, Michael from Austin and Julie from New York. Next up were our compatriots The Asteroids Galaxy Tour, then on came The Riverboat Gamblers whose front man ambitiously scaled the corrugated exterior of the stage and propelled himself roofwards for the finale of their set.
Next up was Sweet Apple with J. Mascis on guitar, and their front man John Petkovic revealing that this was their first official gig. Last but far from least, Rocky Erickson (accompanied by Okkervil River) came on to headline the stage to put a seal on an authentic, bona fide big day out in Austin, which ended with an evening at Vice enjoying yet more Danish friends, WhoMadeWho.
