Sobbing, Spasms & Piss: An Alternate SXSW Experience

STEPHANIE CRASE of Summer Flake (and every Adelaide band ever) winds up in hospital during her debut trip to SXSW. She also finds time to clear a room of Thee Oh Sees fans and catch exactly zero bands she’d planned to see. Woo!

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.] For one week in March, the Austin streets are closed to traffic and every bar, record store, cafe and backyard becomes a venue for 1,800 bands to showcase to fans and industry as part of the SXSW Music Conference. The Convention Centre houses the Music Gear Expo, Flatstock poster exhibition and industry panel talks with titles like Herding Cats: New Digital Management for Artists and Brands are Music Fans Too, Not Just Pots of Cash. I applied to SXSW as Summer Flake through cheesy music-networking site Sonic Bids. As an invitee I was offered one official performance slot, but there’re plenty of opportunities for unofficial stuff so over Christmas I sent a few hundred emails and booked eight shows.

On March 11 I arrived in Austin with a sore back. There were lots of Australians on my flight; 360 had those saggy pants on and I shared a cab downtown with a singer who told me that Nashville is where it’s at for Australians basing themselves in America. At 2:40pm I performed at the Sounds Australia SHE’LL BE RIGHT showcase in front of a small crowd made up of the featured acts, event organisers and a couple old guys watching sports TV in an Irish pub called BD Riley’s. Line-ups linked by the novelty of gender aren’t my favourite gigs, but everyone was super nice and I was totally up for anything (nobodies can’t be choosers). It was a predictably underwhelming warm-up, but I got a free Maggie Beer cocktail as part of the Austin-Adelaide Sister City Society Meet ‘n’ Greet – the height of my networking.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.]

The schedule of official and unofficial shows at SXSW was crazy and hard to navigate. Initially I’d made a note to see Meat Puppets, Besnard Lakes, Prince, Bleached, Pissed Jeans, The Mallard, Marnie Stern, Warm Soda, The Warlocks, Stevie Nicks, Micah P Hinson and Sun Araw but in the end I missed them all, owing to laziness and misfortune. For the first couple of days I hung out with pals, waded through crowds, ate pizza and Tex Mex, stood in lines and caught a few mediocre acts in half-empty pubs and venues.

“By day five I thought I might die from back pain, and worried about which Facebook profile picture would get published in The Advertiser.”

By the third day my lower back pain was starting to bother me a lot so I bailed on the tenuous meetings I’d made with some small-time publishers and bookers. I did, however, catch a few Rites Wild shows and can say with authority that Stacey Wilson nailed SXSW, playing heaps of great shows even after getting screwed by one of her bookers. [Ed. – Wilson’s Heavy Lows label released Summer Flake’s latest EP]. Her best one was the Not Not Fun house party, which was just a small BYO gathering of bands and fans of the label.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.]

By day five I thought I might die in Austin from back pain, and worried about which Facebook profile picture would get published in The Advertiser. My roommate Amanda did a great job catching the best of SXSW – Panache, Burger Records, Pitchfork, Fader and Trailer Space parties – despite not even having an official badge or wristband (free to artists, $700+ to general public), but I could hardly get out of bed and hadn’t been hungover in days. In the evening I sucked it up, hobbling to my official showcase at Brass House (jazz club) but discovered that the headline act got a better offer and pulled out so the turnout was small. The stage was quite high, with no stairs, and with my diminished mobility I had to be ungraciously dragged up on my stomach and knees by Kurt, the kindly stage manager. And there was no reverb. I am told I gave a “brave” performance.

“I was hilarious but it didn’t translate through all the freaking out, sobbing, wheelchair, spasms and piss.”

I urinated on myself during the night because my back spasms had fucked with the nerves in my legs, but on Saturday I dosed up on over-the-counter drugs and took a taxi 600 metres to Maggie Mae’s for my Aussie BBQ appearance. This thing was huge and packed by 2pm with a weird mix of expats, Australian press and kids looking for free food roaming between the multiple stages. It could have been really fun but after a pretty shit nervous-banter-heavy set, I signed my first-ever autograph (you poor bastard) and crawled back to the hotel. I saw Andrew WK in the lobby and he looked so healthy and fresh compared to me that I decided to face the music (LOL) and go to hospital.

I waited an hour in the ER to see the doctor who said she thought “Australians were meant to be funny.” I was actually hilarious but it didn’t translate through all the freaking out, sobbing, wheelchair, spasms and piss. Two minutes later I was diagnosed with BACK PAIN (surely that’s a symptom, not a cause?), prescribed a light painkiller and handed a bill for US $1,000. They took my wheelchair and I lay on the pavement waiting for a taxi.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.]

I cancelled the remaining two weeks of my holiday in America and two days later I was back in Adelaide. From Austin to Los Angeles, there was a live cat in a box under the seat next to me. Now I’m recuperating from a bulging disc in my lower spine and pinched sciatic nerve, which was probably caused by lifting my luggage incorrectly and then sitting on a plane for 30 hours.

I only performed half of my Summer Flake SXSW shows, and the most memorable was when I cleared the room following Thee Oh Sees at Botticelli’s Restaurant. I didn’t attend any of the panels, or even catch keynote speaker Dave Grohl. But on the bright side, it was exciting being amongst it in Austin and at every show there was at least someone who said they loved it and plenty of nice folk to hang out with. It was kind of like playing local shows in Australia, except cigarettes cost $5 a pack and Nick Cave was performing at the same time as me next door at the ribs joint. SXSW could be really fun – especially if you’ve got mates, a bit of energy and travel insurance. I would even do it again.

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Summer Flake’s ‘Where Do I Go?’ EP is out now. Tour dates below.

Sat, April 6 – The Metro, Adelaide, SA [w/Divine Rip, Bruff Superior + John Sutherland]
Fri, April 12 – Gasometer, Melbourne, VIC [w/Divine Rip, Circular Keys + Evelyn Ida Morris]
Wed, April 24 – Petersham Bowling Club, Sydney, NSW [w/Disgusting People]
Fri, April 26 – The Hideaway, Brisbane, QLD