Tequila, Cowboys & Packed Venues: Here's What Wanderers' SXSW Looked Like

Enroute to Austin, we spent a night in Fort Worth, Texas to get a handle on the jet lag before the mammoth ’12 shows in 4 days undertaking’ that was to be our SXSW experience. 

Cowboys, 10 gallon hats, Mezcal tequila, holstered guns and good old fashioned country music filled the streets in a part of town that felt like it was straight out of an old Western movie. So our intended mellow lay over night quickly became more of an exploration into a different world, which naturally resulted in a tiny bender….

The next day, with a bit of a tequila hangover and some new local slang under our belts, we hopped on a bus to Austin and arrived with SXSW already in full swing. 

We were staying at a hotel next to ‘Rainey Street,’ where we’d perform some shows later in the week, and pretty much all of the venues were already pumping. Many of them are converted from old houses, complete with picket fences, old wooden boards and ceiling fans. 

Melodicas and Texas mosquitoes

The whole aesthetic met the energy of SXSW in a way that created something completely out of this world and though the music part of the SXSW Conference hadn’t actually officially kicked off yet, the energy was electric. Hell, even Nic Cage was in town. I like to think I may have been within a 100 metre radius of him at some point. Basically, we’re besties now, I lent him my lawnmower. 

Enough of the Cage. For us, the next day or so consisted of some media call outs and a big ol rehearsal. It was good to shake out the last of the jet lag and fang through the many different variations of the sets we’d prepared. 

Wednesday (16/3) is when it all really kicked off for us, with a very unusual 10am load in for our first show. It was at a bar called ‘Lucille’ that had been aptly renamed ‘Australia House’ for the next few days. It is always a little odd going to the other side of the world and running into bands and friends from home, but in hindsight it was a nice way to ease into things as there were plenty of instances over the next week that would remind us we’re a long way from home. 

MANE, Tom West, Little Quirks, Jack Gray, Alex the Astronaut, Phebe Starr… some friends of old, friends of new and Austrian treasures, and everyone killed it. A great first day of music, thanks to Glenn, Larry and Sounds Australia. 

Photo taken outside Australia house just after our first SXSW Showcase 

We continued on to a gig out of town where we were on a stage that had been made out of some kind’ve plywood that folks off of the back of a trailer. Hard to explain, but it definitely wouldn’t pass OHS standards in Australia. We thought that at any moment we might die a splintery death as it all caved in. What made the gig weirder was the porn playing on the multiple TV’s on the way in. But the people there were super nice and even came along to more of our shows so as always, totally bloody worth it. 

On Thursday we had 4 different gigs all over the city. It was a marathon and a half. The most anticipated gig for the whole trip for us was the 8pm gig, our official showcase at Lustre Pearl. We loaded in and were pleased to discover it was bloody huge, and the place was pumping, it was also St Patrick’s Day, apparently a big thing in Texas! It was nice knowing that we’d be able to go out on a big stage and do what we do best.

Dig in hard, play loud and get the audience shaking their tushies and singing along. So that's what we did. It was our best show of the trip and I couldn’t be happier. 

Our official showcase at Lustre Pearl on Rainey St, big energy! Lots of fun. 

Within minutes of finishing we were off for the next gig which was at a proper venue called ‘Empire’, dark dingy and freakin loud. I sounded like Tom Waits by this point after belting the crap out of our songs 3 times already that day. 

We had 10 minutes to get ready while the MC was on stage stepping over all our shit, freestyle-narrating exactly what was happening while he did so. It was classic. We made our way through the gig and had a freakin blast. 3rd best gig of the trip right there, sweaty boiler room vibes!

Friday didn’t get any slower with 4 back to back performances even more scattered around the city. By this point Austin was grid-locked. Try catching an uber to a venue that is surrounded by closed off streets. Additionally, the Uber drivers were getting increasingly shitty with us for having so much equipment, even with our generous tips… so we felt like the most hated band in Austin all day as we tried to navigate from venue to venue.

The last of the day was at Austin’s ‘Aviator Nation’ store, which is a clothing store that would fit right at home in Byron Bay. Epic 70’s inspired California ‘Endless Summer’ vibes, really cool stuff. They have a permanent stage set up and do gigs every weekend, how badass is that? Great backline too, the gig was a corker. 

Aviator Nation, Austin

The place was packed and the crowd went nuts so this one gets the gong for 2nd best show of the trip, possibly even tied first. As an added bonus we all walked away with some awesome new threads.

Saturday started out early down the bottom of our acom, a mellower gig which worked well for my voice. We then headed about an hour out of town, a nice change from the streets of Austin, to play a live broadcast set for Sun Radio at a place called Beerburg Brewing. 

It felt like an outdoor gig back home in McLaren Vale. They welcomed us with open arms as we played through a slightly more southern soul version of our set, opting to throw in some songs from our earlier records like ‘Keep it To Yourself’ and ‘Mary Jane’, which was a nice change from our showcase setlist. Was a wholesome end to our SXSW experience. 

Many E-scooters, vocal warmups and missing pieces of luggage later, these Aussie boys felt very happy. We gave it a red hot crack and that's all we could hope for!

Can nearly smell the Grammy. But mostly the Margaritas

We were lucky to also perform in Houston, NYC and LA before heading home and now we’re going to sleep for a week! Thank you AMERICA!