We awoke Friday with no plan of what to do or where to go. We weren’t in panic mode, mind you. Austin’s a fun city and you can find plenty to do there. Live music is always happening at some place in town. I snagged a copy of the local alternative newspaper and scoured it for anything fun. The folks at Levitation had also Tweeted they were going to post the schedule and locations of makeup shows as soon as possible.
We decided to see a movie at one of the Alamo Drafthouse theaters in town. I discovered on the way there that many gigs had been scheduled for the weekend, and tickets were only five bucks apiece. I ordered tickets for a Friday night show at Empire featuring Imarhan, Indrajit Banerjee and Gourisankar, Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, Klaus Johan Grobe, and others. The other shows scheduled for the rest of the weekend sold out in minutes. The website crashed from so many people attempting to access it, meaning many were left high and dry for tickets. To make matters worse, scalpers went to the venues and bought fistfuls of the five-dollar tickets so they could attempt to reap a heavy profit from the desperate festival attendees.
We saw Keanu, and it’s good fun. I figured the city would be soaked in the predicted rain by the time we left the theater. Nope. Not a drop. The day continued with warm weather and cloudy skies, but no rain. Twitter was buzzing with angry Tweets to Travis County Emergency Services. Even I Tweeted, “Is your meteorologist of choice going to issue an apology for their erroneous forecast? This is egg on your face.”
They replied that “forecasts change” and they had to go with the information they had at the time. I replied that I understood their position, but they needed to issue a press release instead of the Levitation coordinators being responsible for dispensing all the information. Not doing so made them look even more like the grumpy men who cancelled the festival to spite all the hippies and freaks.
They did send out links to official statements not long after this. Their fire marshal explained that the ground was so saturated from previous flooding that they told the Levitation coordinators that they’d have to find alternate parking before the festival since people would get stuck there if the predicted rain came through, not to mention that it would flood the entire camping area. No alternate parking or camping areas could be found, so the festival was cancelled.
It turned out to be the right call because the predicted heavy storms came through around 4:30am on Saturday. 60mph wind gusts, hail, heavy rain, lightning strikes, and tornado warnings were involved.
But you’d probably like to know about the show we actually saw. We had a tasty ramen meal at a downtown restaurant and got to Empire in time to see Klaus Johan Grobe. They played a fun set of electro funk that we really enjoyed. We probably wouldn’t have seen them at the main festival because their set was during someone else’s I wanted to attend, so it was a lucky break for us.
I wandered to the outside stage to see the beginning of Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats‘ set. I didn’t stay for all of it because the humidity and heat was brutal out there. The venue had put up a long tent over the outside portion of the stage to protect the sound boards and attendees from more potential rain. The rain never came, but the humidity did. It combined with the heat of hundreds of bodies and was stifling. I went back inside to see Nots play their Bikini Kill-inspired rock set .
We were disappointed when sitar master Indrajit Banerjee and tabla master Gourisankar didn’t play. I figured their set must’ve been cancelled. I didn’t find them playing anywhere in the venue and was on my way to get a drink when I saw them in the bar chatting with people. I asked Gourisankar if I missed their set. He laughed and said their manager had mixed up the venues and they thought they were supposed to play the Mohawk (about two blocks away) at 10:00pm instead of at Empire at 9:00pm. He introduced me to Indrajit, and both were very pleasant and asked where I lived. I told them northern Indiana “near South Bend,” and they said they’ve played at the University of Notre Dame many times. I told them I DJ’ed there and they said they were looking for more clubs in Indiana to play gigs. They invited me to a free show they were playing on Sunday at Symphony Square so we could talk more about it.
Up next were Imarhan, a Tuareg band who were high on my list this year. They didn’t disappoint. They played a great set of African / Arabic / desert rock that had the crowd moving, clapping, and cheering.
We stuck around for part of a Prince tribute by local band Foot Traffic, but left once a large part of the outside crowd stuffed into the indoor space and shot up the heat in the room by about 200%.
I couldn’t get tickets for any of the Saturday shows. I was eager to get tickets to see Bayonne and Caribou, but they were already going for at least $40 each on Craigslist. In case you forgot, that’s eight times face value each.
I had to find something for us to do, and I did in a town about 25 miles away. It involved music, and it was all free.
Up next: Mr. Fest, indie rock, Night Beats, and free CD’s.
Keep your mind open.
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