Bar manners (or lack thereof.)

OK, so I haven’t been hating much recently, because I do love this town. And I was actually going to come on here and love, but I’m afraid the hate overrides my love at the moment.

Ethan Kennedy playing at the Carousel Lounge.

I went to the Carousel Lounge tonight to watch one of Austin’s brilliant local musicians, Ethan Kennedy. He was absolutely amazing. . .but the people up at the bar watching the Tech game were less so.

Bar manners, folks. I understand you want to get out and enjoy yourself during a football game, but Ethan was actually drowned out a couple of times by the hooting and hollering (and he had a microphone!) Also, he was recording the performance, so now, scattered throughout, there will be random “Come on!!”s and whatnot. SO rude. It isn’t as if the people didn’t know Ethan was playing. . .there is no partition in the club between the stage and the bar. People need to be more mindful of their surroundings, and more respectful of performers. I have had other experiences where audience members have been really rude during performances, so let’s keep this in mind as we head out to enjoy a Saturday evening, Austin.

Stay cool,

Caitlin

Conor Oberst + Ben Kweller = EPIC LOVE.

This is going to be a brief music news update from me, but this is a HUGE reason why I love Austin:  amazingly cool people live here. In 2006 at an Austin City Limits Festival pre-show at Stubb’s (Gnarls Barkley, to be exact,) I saw both Jake Gyllenhaal and Lance Armstrong hangin’ out on the upper deck. But tonight’s show at Stubb’s takes the cake.

The AMAZING Conor Oberst graced us with his genius this evening (check him out, people!! Both the new stuff and the older stuff.) He is a ridiculously talented guitarist, a moving lyricist, and his band clearly has fun when they play together. They did a ton of stuff off of the new album, including “Moab” (their opener,) “Cape Canaveral,” “Sausalito,” “Get-Well-Cards,” “Lenders In The Temple,” the short-burst-of-energy-inducing “NYC – Gone, Gone,” the single “Souled Out!!!,” and they ended with “I Don’t Want To Die (In The Hospital)”.  My favorite was a sweet love song that Conor said was a “love song from the future,” but I asked a super-fan what the song was, and she doesn’t think it’s ever been released.

Now. All of this would be great just by itself. BUT, towards the end of the show, people started pointing to the left side of the stage. Turns out, Ben Kweller was hanging out (and it was so much fun to watch him dance around and really enjoy Oberst.) Then, the greatest thing ever happened:  Conor coaxed Ben out on stage, and Ben played with the band on their last two songs (including “I Don’t Want To Die,” when many members of the 2 opening bands came onstage and it was just this giant party for everyone.) I tried to take pictorial evidence of all of this, but unfortunately, Stubb’s doesn’t allow flash photography, so everything came out really blurry. Still, I think the blurryness captures the energy, so I’ll share a couple favorites.

The blur in the middle is Ben Kweller!

A fuzzy photo of sir Oberst.

Thank you, Austin, for nights like this!

-Caitlin