A Thousand Beers and A Thousand Cigarettes

Doug and Joseph's Austin Memoirs

Soon To Be A Major Motion Picture

Doug arrives at the Embassy Suites at 11:30 am, and promptly passes out (the only time that he would pass out due to exhaustion and not alcohol). Joseph and Sergio arrive at 2 pm and the crimes begin.

Almost immediately the phone rings and it's Kathy. Our first event will be a lunch of divine Tex-Mex food with Kathy and Dominique at a place called Guerro's. Gina sits this one out. Kathy claims that this is going to be the best Tex-Mex food we've ever had. The girls have been up since the wee hours of the morning--they spent the morning on an Austin radio station being interviewed and performing "Crazy" and "I Want You The Way I Want You Not How You Are". From what they say, it went extremely well. All of the music papers in Austin plug the show with pictures and blurbs, and there is a big ad for the album in the Austin Chronicle. Cool. Kathy and Dominique are definitely psyched. A club owner/friend of Kathy's joins us and invites us to stop by his joint later, The Continental Club. The margaritas at Guerro's are heavenly, and for the first of many times over the weekend Joseph and Doug start to feel, as Sergio would say, "jazzy".

There are some cool antique stores next door, so we all pop over to investigate them. This might be a good time to tell you about the weather in Austin. HOT. HUMID. 100 DEGREES AND OVER. Joseph complains that this is the kind of weather that makes you want to walk slow...then take a nap. Joseph buys a scorpion paper weight; Doug buys two vegetable people. The veggie people are way cool...Mr. Bell Pepper and Miss Onion. Joseph remembers his grandmother owning a Mr. Bell Pepper ages ago. Kathy and Dominique canvass every inch of the store, trying on hats and the like, then leave without buying anything. Oh that's not true...Dominique did spring for some patches.

Shopping completed, the three of us part ways for a few minutes with KV and Q (names changed from here on in to protect the innocent). We meet up again at The Continental Club. More drinks (our first beers!!!!)

and a few cigarettes later we remember that it's complimentary cocktail time at the hotel. We part with the girls and decide to take advantage....so we do. Then, feeling properly adjusted, we head back to the room to get ready for the night's gig.

Antone's is a pretty big club, with a laid-back and adult audience. We got there in plenty of time because we wanted to catch the opening band, "Red-headed Stepchild". The band members are all around 12-14 years old. Joseph decides the teenaged bass player chick must be reminiscent of KV in her Austin teen years. They weren't bad! Look for a picture of them on the 'Phine 'Zine. KV arrives and introduces us to her mother, who is obviously a gem of a woman. Next up were the Del's. The set was great, and was centered more around the bluesy side of their repertoire. It also included some tunes that haven't been part of recent sets. Cosmic Speed segues directly into Crazy.. hip. They cover Cracked Actor, an old David Bowie song that seems sort of familiar.

The biggest surprise was the resurrection of What Strange Love, which now has a new (and very strange) chorus. Gina plays great, and Q and KV are in rare form-- heads are bobbing and swinging, and guitars are being banged together.

Try as we might, we couldn't get them to play Outskirts Of Living that night. Our pleas would be answered later, you'll read about it in later posts. The audience was into the band, but a little more sedate than we expected. This would change in coming nights.

After the gig we chatted with the band, but cut out pretty quickly to party on the town. There was precious little time left in the night, and Austin was begging to be explored! Was Austin ready for the drunken antics of boys from LA and NYC?

The Forum is our first stop. We are disgusted by the drag/lip sync show taking place downstairs so we head on up to the roof where we meet V-backed bartender, Clayton. "Baby's got back!" Joseph yells as he claims this one as taken. After some Kamikaze's, and of course more beers and cigarettes, we decide to head over to Oil Can Harry's, at the recommendation of Joseph's imaginary new boyfriend, Clayton. There, Joseph is nearly slapped when he spots and pinches the one ounce of fat on a go-go boy while he was still on his podium--shaking his thang. Then, Doug repulses the kind people of the city in his quest for sleaze. Joseph offers excuses like "He's from New York City...you understand, right?" Sergio, the only wise one, stands back and watches the damage being done, ready to pick up the pieces should Doug and Joseph dare to insult the wrong drunken Texan. It must be their outfits that save their lives this night....we're talking leather pants and boots kids. Even Joseph's eyeliner isn't sneered at...at least not to his face. After several more drinks we ask our beloved man-servant, Squirgio, to drive us back to the hotel. The Lincoln Towncar turns out to be a blessing as we spill into the leather seats and head back across the river. The last thing Joseph remembers about this night is throwing an orange pylon at a possum before entering the hotel and arguing with Doug that it IS NOT a rat.

Oh yes, there's more...DAY 2!!