Our first two shows in Austin were somewhat disappointing turnout-wise (very much, actually). But we got to leave on a good note, when we played on 3/16 at Ruta Maya with Takka Takka (they sounded absolutely amazing, and all three of us love the new songs), A Place To Bury Strangers (always incredible), and Foreign Islands (who we’re touring with from 3/21 to 4/1). We had a good crowd, and I (and everyone else we spoke with) really thought our performance was strong.

After the show, I spent time with my family (specifically, my brother, sis-in-law, niece, and nephew). It was doubly nice because A) I feel like I never see them (it’s basically 3 times a year); and B) it was nice to relax in their big, comfortable house. I then spent the night there, and the rest of the guys came over the next afternoon. My brother grilled an assortment of meats while my sister-in-law laid out an endless variety of snacks. My niece (though initially shy) ran around showing off her hat, and my infant nephew napped peacefully through the bulk of it.

And though they insisted we stay, we decided to head out that night and take a bite out of our nearly 700 mile drive to Las Cruces, NM, where we have a show tomorrow (3/19 @ The Bean).

We planned on only driving to Fort Stockton, but Fort Stockton had other plans; all their motels were full-up. So, we pushed on into the night (a very dark night out in the middle of unlit and unihabited west Texas). We ended up driving well over 400 miles from Austin till we hit a place to stay: Van Horn, Texas. Van Horn is a one-street town with a lot of motels (some open, many closed), and little else aside from abandon and demolished buildings.

Last night, we had no idea what the landscape looked like (none of us have ever been to west Texas). But this morning, after a decent sleep, we opened the door to crystal clear skies, desert and to our shock a gorgeous mountain range.

We packed up the car, and took our time heading westward with only 170 miles left. There was a scenic overlook we stopped at (pictures are from there), where Matt EarFarm got some nice footage.

Now, as I type this, I am sitting in a spacious motel room next to a pool in Las Cruces. It’s hot and beautiful out. We have the day and night off. We will swim, we will bowl, and the restuarant next to this place has karaoke tonight. We got a great deal on the room to boot. Our spirits are high as we feel like we’re on a vacation today (as if we weren’t already vacationing by leaving our jobs to go play rock music for a month).

All of us hope this is a good omen: a strong sign for the post-SXSW portion of tour (the portion we’ve been most excited about). But, also, for today, we’ll just have a great time and not sweat it.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 18th, 2007 at 4:35 pm and is filed under Daily, Goes Cube Winter/Spring Tour 2007. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.