LAustin, Texas
“There ain’t no coming back…there ain’t no coming back…”
14 Years Ago
Excitement is the best description. After finishing a BA of English I was headed down UT Austin way for Graduate School. Loans, student housing, a paid-for car, and a compulsive habit of playing guitar. Landed in a great little apartment off West 6th, by MoPac. Near Mean Eyed Cat and El Arroyo.
After setting up camp in the apartment and the education system, I started exploring up toward East 6th. Open Mics, getting to know bands for sit in Blues sessions, having a few drinks to just watch and enjoy.
Reality Kicked In
Plenty of meet and greets, checking out venues and making connections. The market became quite clear within a year. Play SRV Blues — or anything close to it — and fight it out with all the others, some already quite entrenched. Option 2B was find an Indie rag-tag and wedge on in, which was actually pretty easy considering how most musicians aren’t exactly reliable.
Getting a jam session is easy. Getting a venue to pay your band even after the attendance and tabs are counted is much more difficult no matter the City.
As I took stock of the time to work with a group in the scene, I felt more and more like something was wrong. Not with them, not with the music. The place wasn’t a “Live Music Capital” unless considering how many musicians were playing for nearly free.
Everything Wrong with LA Exported to Austin
First off there’s the reputation that is burned out but people keep taking a bus trip with a backpack to show up and live the dream. Then they end up on the sidewalk outside the Catholic church next to the Scientology outpost by campus. There’s no pot of gold at the end of the trip from wherever you came.
Second there’s the just enough young guys and gals with Trust Funds or some other financing that can afford to play shows for free. Between parties and getting knee deep in addictions, of course. All the LA trappings and temptations are a lot more pure in Austin but twice as unforgiving.
Third, the City itself went from already too expensive for artists to even worse thanks to all the influx of California cash. Rush hour on MoPac and 35 only got longer. Between finding parking or paying for drinks or having to go outside to smoke — the first City in all of Texas to have a smoking ban in bars — there was no such thing as a cheap night out on the town.
Ain’t saying much by putting this last but the Festival scenes were reasons to lay low and avoid the influx. Yeah I’m sure every town can say the same. Just felt like the whole thing was a toupee stapled to the crown.
Why Complain?
I hate false advertising. You want Live Music? Go to New Orleans.
Want a stab in the jugular of hipster appearance culture above and beyond any substance which might be at the root? Move to Austin. You’ll fit right in with a City that ain’t coming back…because there ain’t no coming back…
