Jacobs Ladder is almost at the end of their national tour. Click here and here to read past installments of the band's tour diary -- and to hear their music, check out their MySpace page. These installments were penned by the band's bassist, Sammy Gonzalez.
Wednesday, September 2: General Thoughts on the Austin Music Scene
Walking down Sixth Street I was amazed to see so many venues, tattoo parlors, and pizza shops. Easily over 100 bands were performing within a 12-block radius that night alone. I now see why SXSW is held here. It was a breath of fresh air coming from Miami, where DJs are held in great acclaim and bands are seen as runts. Sadly the only legit venue in Miami is Churchill's. Other establishments will try to throw a single band in between DJ sets, which ends up being extremely awkward due to the fact that most of these sceney kids dress the part but don't know a thing about music and couldn't care less.
But in Austin, people go to the bar to listen to music. It seems like its the only thing to do here. Though overwhelming and awesome, the over-saturation of talent is great for the consumer, but I'm not too sure what it does for all those bands. We were lucky to play for 40 people on a Wednesday night at an amazing venue, but I noticed some bands were way more fortunate and some way less. I think there might have been more people in bands on the strip then actual audience members hanging out. But I have to say it made me pretty happy. I feel like the people in Austin are even smarter here since they actually appreciate the arts; it's very, very cool. Austin: Two thumbs up.
Wednesday, September 3: Scouts Bar, Houston, TX -- Our 13th Show in a Row!
It was day 13 of the tour, and were about to play our 13th show in a row at Scouts Bar in Houston, Texas. I had never played so many shows back to back like this. I was a little exhausted, but the constant traveling was making time fly by. The walls of Scouts Bar are covered with posters of huge bands from the '90s who have played the venue multiple times: Incubus, Rage Against The Machine, Deftones, Radiohead, and so on. I feel motivated to know that such huge iconic bands that I've looked up to since I was a boy used to have to play small venues and struggled at one time themselves. Unless you're Panic At The Disco, all bands have to start from the bottom up.
I constantly wonder how all the small bands of the past used to set up tours, in an age before everyone had a cell phone, and social networks like Myspace and Facebook didn't exist. Booking a tour must have been a nightmare. Up to now I've personally booked all nine of our tours and I have to say, I'M FUCKING TIRED OF IT! I'm even booking our 10th tour as I type this. So please, if you're a booking agent or know a booking agent, it's time to help me out and give me my free time back.
