Austin Trip August 18th-20th, 2000

TOFOG!

Yes he does!
(from cover of US Weekly Magazine)

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    My trip started with a two hour drive from San Diego to LA to stay at my friends house the night before we left for Texas.  Of course I was listening to "Gaslight" and signing my little heart out the whole way up the freeway.
    Hardly slept that Thursday night on my friend's couch knowing I had to woke up at like 5:30 am to catch a plane (I HATE to fly).
    Dragged my butt of the couch in the morning and got ourselves to LAX for a flight that was supposed to leave at 8 am.  Of course it did not leave till more like 10 am which is kinda par for the course at LAX.  We flew to El Paso,Tx where we picked up a few more people and then headed to Austin.
    Supposed to be in Austin around 1pm, well that turned into like 4pm by the time we got our rental car and got on the road.   The woman t the Hertz counter told us we should opt for extra insurance if we were going to be driving around Austin much, I declined it but I knew why she suggested it by about a half mile out of the airport!  We were in a little p.o.s. cruising right along minding our own business and some HUGE truck decided to hop into my lane and I almost creamed him.  This is when I realized people don't often signal in Texas and don't pay much attention to small cars signaling for a lane change either.
    After plopping our stuff at the motel and changing clothes we went off to Stubb's for some dinner and to get in line.   That was just about the best BBQ I have ever had in my life.  Great atmosphere and great food at a cheap price, now that was what we were looking for.....that and air-conditioning.
    Eventually we had to go outside and stand in line with all the other fans in the heat.  Man it was nasty.  I know people who live in that climate would think I was a total wimp but I am used to 5 degrees and like 35% humidity in the summer with a beach breeze.  This air in Austin you could eat with a spoon and it was just oppressive.   Nothing like sweating as soon as you step out of the shower!
    Anyway we had these little fans attached to squirt bottles that kept us alive and tons of water.  Met a few people in line from fan groups I have chatted with and the time passed pretty quick.  At 8pm they let us in the venue.
    A Quartet was playing on stage and we got in line and bought water and a few concert shirts.  We found a rock to sit on and just sat there and melted till 10pm when TOFOG finally came on stage.  Until they got there I seriously thought I was going to pass out, barf or both.  Nothing like flying 3 hours and feeling like crap when you only had a few hours sleep, it does a body good!
    The show was awesome, something I will remember forever.  As soon as they were rockin on stage my sticky uncomfortableness was forgotten for the night.  Show lasted 2-3 hours with two encores.  I was happily surprised when there was a guest there to sing "Nowhere" (a favorite song of mine).  It was Kevin Durant from Mystery Alaska (Tree), he is a excellent performer and rapper!  Really got the crowd moving even though we were all tired at that point.   I like the fact that Russell was very into communication with the audience.  I have to admit it drove me crazy when the people around me would not shut up when I was trying to hear him do his introductory stories o each song.  Chatty drunk women were all around me and flashing dirty looks was not enough to get them to shut up, heck Russell himself yelling at people to shut up was not enough!
    Oh well, all in all it was a life expierence I am glad I did.  We all need adventure in our lives and this concert was worh every minute of it!    Waiting for news of the next tour and I will BE THERE!

I have heard rumors of a tour in Texas this August 2001!

      On Saturday we spent our day going from air-conditioned car, to air-conditioned mall, the a/c car, to the motel pool.    Didn't take many pictures but here are a few from that day roaming around the city.

Texas University Tower and Austin Capitol Building

Me and Pepe in the local mall
Bat Flight over the Congress Bridge (about 7:15pm).  1.5 million of those little boogers fly out from under that bridge, pretty impressive.

A few links for you TOFOG and Russell Crowe Fans:
Maximum Crowe
GruntLand

My Links:
My homepage
e-mail
 

Page Created August 25th, 2000
Updated 5/04