Dave Ford Does Earth

Posted by Dave Ford

The amount of tattoo shops and tattooed people in Austin is absolutely mind boggling. Austin is a place where it is normal for a mother to be pushing her baby down the street in a stroller while openly displaying her two arm sleeves (wrist to shoulder tattoo). The tattoos are bigger, bolder, and more daring than any other place I have been.

Our crew stayed at a shimmy shack of a hotel north of town, next to highway 35, and the University of Texas. It was a filthy, disgusting hole of a place. Yet, we were extremely pleased that they offered a continental breakfast complete with waffles made in the “shape of Texas”.

Sidenote: There was widespread speculation that our room was in fact infested with bed bugs. After further consultation and deliberation we decided as a crew that the bedbugs were in our respective heads and that we were imagining the stinging bites as we slept. The red bumps we thought we discovered in the mornings were actually just figments of our imagination.

Austin, just as we found Nashville, Memphis, and New Orleans before it, lives and breathes through a spectacular live music scene. The music is as good in Austin as it is any of the cities I have ever visited in my travels. 90 percent of the clubs on 6th street (Austins main drag) feature live bands. Rock, Indie, Blues, Jazz, Bluegrass, folk… If people play it, you will find it in Austin easily just walking down the street.

This is my third trip to Austin. My previous two encounters with the city were at the South by Southwest Music Conference (the worlds biggest professional music conference). About 5 years ago I used to manage a band called Kustom Blend and went to the conference twice in back to back years in efforts to learn more about the music business.

I think the funniest story that came out of our Austin expedition involved a night out at the Continental Club on South Congress street. The club was packed and the blues band that was playing was killing it. We could not move. Somehow, multiple waitress’ squeezed through the crowds to deliver us our delicious Miller Lites. Out of nowhere, a few of the guys in front of us began to push and shove a bit. They were acting like idiots but we assumed they were all friends. Out of nowhere, cowboy punches started flying. We all stepped back to get out of the way. When I say we all, I mean Benny, Dave, Daddio, and I. Jess, in her 5ft 31/2 glory jumped right in the middle of it. She actually jumped on one of the guys backs involved in the throw down.

You can put this incident directly into the “Australians are crazy files”.

We quickly snatched her up, decided it was time for a change of pace, and left the music joint for a 1am “6th street”. The closed off street was lined with University of Texas students puking their respective guts onto the pavement.

No lie, we saw about 4 people vomit on our walk from the car to the bar four blocks away.

In the end, we all agreed unanimously that Austin, Texas is a place where we could all live full time (not because of the massive amounts of puking). It is full on interesting, beautiful, progressive people. Plus, the weathers nice.

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After Austin, no more Daddio.

Sadly, after Austin Texas we had to say goodbye to our love able friend Matt Daddio. He had extremely urgent business to attend to in New York City and had to catch a flight out.

We were all saddened immensely.

And then… there were 4….

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