There is really no “there”, there, when it comes to Dallas, so we stayed last night, our day off, in a very beautiful hotel, but locked in by expressways and speeding cars. Thankfully the rooms were exceptionally comfortable, so going into hermit-mode for a night was not such a bad thing.

Last night we watched the Penguins go down to defeat at the hands of Detroit. The Red Wings were the better team, by far, in this series. They really showed their experience and poise: a very deserving Stanley Cup champion. The Penguins have a nucleus of extremely young talented players (including the 21 year old phenom, Sydney Crosby) so they should be one of the odds on favourites to return to the final next year….but these days, you never know.

The gig tonight was in another non-descript part of this conurbation, I think the area was called Lakewood (at least that is what the theater was called). A slightly run-down old theater, not a bad venue, we’ve seen a lot worse. The audience was full on Texas crazy….a very, very fun evening.

****

We have four shows over the next two nights and just to kick it all off on the right foot we started today with a live, noon hour, full band performance on KGSR. It’s a great station, who has supported us for two decades, so, despite the intense schedule, the visit was our pleasure.

In the past two decades (or less) Austin has exploded from a small, funky music town (which also happened to be the capital of the State and home to a huge university) into an enormous city with ever growing suburbs, rocketing real estate prices, and constant construction. And yet it still has maintained, as part of its character, that small-town-music-center feel. The downtown is littered with many great old buildings and warehouse spaces that have been converted into bars and restaurants and art galleries, which give the city a very unique feel. You get the feeling that the residents know what they have so hopefully in the frenzy of construction they will keep enough of these buildings and not offer them all up to the great condo-Gods.

Four shows over two nights at the One World Theater. This is a tiny space located way out in one of the more wealthy suburbs. Its not a bad space (not great, but not bad) but its location and size tend to make the audiences a little more sedate than you would normally find at a downtown venue. We had four very good shows….in spite of the pig who walked up to the front of the stage half way through the last show, his wife a respectful four feet behind him, and growled, “your pathetic”, before storming out.

We head home tomorrow for about ten days before heading to the Canadian west for a handful of shows….check back in, in about two weeks.