Things in retrospect and tending to be much fuzzier than they should be only two weeks out from them, but our Wednesday in Austin was a standout for numerous reasons. This was mainly because we were able to have a sit-down dinner with our dear friends Rutger and Marg from The Netherlands and the most excellent moveable dance party — About. It was the first time we experienced REAL Texas BBQ and we hit the local haunt that is apparently an institution. We discovered why when we visited Sam’s – probably three miles from our carved out existence, with the place’s photo-lined walls (you’ll see Bill and Hilary Clinton and George Clinton’s John Hancocks up there) and their behemoth-sized, friendly as hell operator/disher. It was difficult not to soak in the history of the eatery that refused to be spotless and had a lone bag of water nailed to the wall. The water, we learned as we were leaving is an old trick to ward off flies. If you put them up on your wall, your fly troubles disappear – the proprietor told us it was because the flies see the reflection of a bigger fly coming toward them and they freak out. He was initially a skeptic, but said it’s always worked. We’re still skeptics, but the meat and rib plates that we were commended for ordering were the best meals we had during the week (although we frequented a terrific Mexican restaurant on three separate occasions, which might suggest to the otherwise). We soaked up the excess sauce with slices of wheat bread and left with sticky fingers. The meal made up for the shoddy one we shared with Rutger and Marg when they were with us here in the Quad-Cities. All of the real restaurants were closed and the bar we stopped in had just disabled the kitchen for the night. We got some chicken fingers (somehow still available), a salad and a two-ton veggie plate. This was better and it was good to share it with them.

Oh, the music. That was one of the other highlights. Without hesitation, one of our most anticipated recording sessions of the week kicked the day off as John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats super fame was there doing a couple brand new songs (one totally hijacked by our new friends Andre and Craig) and a pair of covers – one by Peter Tosh – that sounded sterling. They were accentuated by the friendly rooster next door, perfectly chiming in at random points and sneaking onto the tape. Now a recording artist with an audience, the rooster has become an overnight blogosphere sensation and a label bidding war has gotten out-of-hand. He will open Darnielle’s next West Coast tour and then play in his backing band. During the afternoon, Sea Wolf and The Comas were here and stupendous. Later that evening, Brooklyn band O’Death was fiery and proved that they are not to be messed with under any circumstances – as nice as they are as people. It was the one recording session that we recorded during the week that was just as convincing as a live performance. I think we all wanted to buy merch when they were finished slaughtering the hanging air with their insightful, folky, bluegrassy hell-raising. To cap off the evening, we had our one and only nightmare of the week. It wasn’t the band. It was the room that took the night to a dark place. The Foundry Field Recordings were plush and terrific and great sports when – two songs into their session – we lost all power in the control room. We still blame our bad luck on Jesse Elliott of These United States, who was visiting at the time. We were tired and spent at that point and it was the last thing we needed. The bitching through the entire crew reached its height and there were thoughts of just packing it in and getting some sleep. The problem was difficult to solve. We were flipping switches in breaker boxes to no avail, but before calling it off, we decided to risk all of our power for the night and use extension cords to finish the session. The session turned out so well and we were happy to have finished it, but it was trying and then we tucked ourselves into bed. We were dragging and we woke up to the same problem we went to sleep dealing with. Therein lies the cliffhanger portion of the day-two recapping.