News SXSW: Tigers That Talked Tour Diary (Part Two)

Well hello!

So, where did we leave you? The Pulled Apart By Horses and Esben & the Witch shows were both awesome, and we spent most of Wednesday preparing for our show. Unintentionally, of course - a 20 minute jaunt to pick up the guitar from the hire depot quickly became a two hour expedition which featured several frayed tempers and a brief, blissfully unaware stint on the wrong side of the main road…

We got to the venue with plenty of time to spare, which is more than can be said for our hired gear. Due to be delivered at 6pm, it didn’t show up until 9pm, during which time NO-ONE in their offices was picking up the phone (why would you? It’s only your busiest business week of the year…) and we started to make wild plans about how to play a full set with no bass guitar or guitar amp. Thankfully, the gear showed up. Well, some gear showed up. Not what we ordered and not what we paid for, but it plugged in and made noises, so at that point we just went with it…

The show went great, we managed to pull quite a crowd and had a front row that was singing along to every word, which is lovely to see this far from home. Someone else, after the show, bought a CD, and when told it was $8 (a figure that changes literally every time someone asks – we’re really not sure of the exchange rate at all…) said, ‘Ah man, it’s better than that. Here!’ and proceeded to push $87 dollars into our hands. Now, I know the exchange rate has flown completely over our heads, but that’s good right?

Now, we’ve got more to tell you, but first, if you’ll indulge us, a little plea. One month ago, we entered a competition with Topspin Media, the company we used to put out our album, for a chance to win $5,000 and pay for our second album recording, and yesterday, whilst Owain was supposed to be giving a case study on how we used the platform, we discovered that we were TIED FIRST, with an artist called SONOIO, who played synth in Nine Inch Nails for years before this project. So, the guys at Topspin scrapped our case study and we had a full on presidential debate, which was so much fun and can be seen again here, if you missed it.

So here’s the kicker – this ‘cage match’, as the Topspin guys kept fondly calling it, is a dead heat, and they’ve thrown it open to the public until Friday at Midday Austin time / 5pm UK time, so we’re now trying to ‘Rock the Vote’ as they say over here… If you feel generous enough to cast a vote for us, you can do it very easily by sending an email like this -

To: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Subject: My Vote

Message: Tigers That Talked

The deadline is 5pm UK time TODAY – Friday 18th March, so please send that email and we’ll know whether we’ve won the $5000 at 5pm this evening…

Thanks for that. So, after the stress and buzz of the debate, which was awesome fun, we had to go celebrate, and went out for Tex Mex with some of the Topspin guys to the best Taco restaurant in Austin, just south of the river. 10 of us. In one car. Which subsequently got pulled by the police, prompting us to speed round a corner quickly out of sight, bail out and run. Yep, RUN. You know they all have guns here right? Anyway, after this, much food was consumed, much laughter had, but, most interestingly, much, much alcohol flowed. We spent all night drinking the ‘Mexican Bloody Mary’, which, as far as we could tell, consisted of a spoonful of Salsa mixed into a glass of beer, with a lime squeezed in. Not as bad as it sounds, trust us…

We heard that TV on the Radio were doing a show in a venue downtown, so we headed along and caught most of their set, after dropping by Owen Pallet’s set to see what he was up to. Earlier in the day we’d called in on Other Lives, Seasick Steve and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, so not a bad day’s work at all. Yes Sir, this place is awesome…

More soon! Get the votes going!

Much Love, Tigers x

Top Tip for the Day: Don’t try to get a taxi at 2am in Austin. There are more taxis in the Outer Hebrides than there are in Austin during SXSW. Fact.

Milling Around Outside a Venue. ‘TV On The Radio or Owen Pallet’?

The View North from Congress

‘You Talkin’ To Me?’