What's a Second Line?

Saturday, March 18 – Daytime show

It’s Saturday. This is the day I have been waiting for since I bought my wristband and checked out the original SXSW schedule back in January. First of all, Auditorium Shores at Town Lake is becoming a mini Jazz Fest. All throughout SXSW, free shows are given at this outdoor stage. Spoon, Roseanne Cash, and Echo and the Bunnymen have played there this year. All day Saturday though, it is a Louisiana stage: Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Buckwheat Zydeco, New Orleans Social Club, Beausoleil, and Allen Toussaint. It is free to anyone who wants to attend. I managed to talk Chad to go with me. It sounds like other people want to go as well. Unfortunately, I wake up Saturday morning to a rainstorm. WHY!!! It hasn’t rained here in over 5 months and it is going to rain today. You’ve got to be kidding me. Well, besides Auditorium Shores, there is a bevy of free music to hear all around town indoors. If we can’t go outside, there has to be someone to see. The rain does not look like it will stop anytime soon, and I see everyone backing out because of the weather. Luckily, my loving husband still encourages me to find another show. He is right, I need to find something to see. As I check the free show page, I see My Chemical Romance played a free show at Emo’s on Friday during the day. Yep, they just showed up. I can’t imagine being in Emo’s and having MCR take the stage. Emo’s holds about 20 people. It is very tiny. Only the die hard fan base knew about this show and got there very early. Everyone else heard from the street. Now, I am scanning the pages. The Sounds are playing, the Rakes are playing, the Cribs are playing, Ah!!!! Too much to take. It is now almost 1 pm. These venues have go to be filling up quickly. I quickly get dressed and head downtown to find something. Something interesting I notice while driving, it really isn’t raining anymore. It is cloudy and wet, but no rain. That is a good sign. Maybe the show at Auditorium shores will still proceed. Traffic is horrible. It has been terrible the entire week. I am ready for these people to get out of Austin and give us our streets back. I find a place on east 6th street to park and I walk. Hey, it’s free!!! YIPPEE, free parking! Anyway, I start to walk down the street and all I see are lines in front of everyplace. All four Emo’s have long lines wrapping around the building. Some places are even empty, but no music. All the venues I wanted to get into are full. Ok, what do I do know? I call Chad and tell him to meet me down here so we can go to Auditorium shores! Nope, no can do. He already started doing chores. Well, since there is no rain, I am heading down there myself. I park at the high school on First Street and take a shuttle right to the stage. It takes about 15 minutes. Awesome! There is barely anyone there. No lines for food, beer, or the bathroom. The bad weather kept most people away, at least all but the die hards. I grab a beer and head to the stage. Buckwheat Zydeco just finished. Oh well, at least I can still here Dirty Dozen. They are the main reason I came out to the stage. As I get closer, another band starts playing off to the side of the stage on the grass. I run over quickly to see who it is. Well, what do you know, it is the Hot 8 Brass Band. I saw them in the street late Thursday night. They were there to play between sets. What a great idea! They play and keep the crowd entertained while the stage hands set up for the next band. The crowd loves it. Everyone is dancing around having a good time. I look around and see a lot of Renew Orleans, and “I survived Katrina” tee shirts. These are people who are now in Austin permanently from the storm. You can see this puts a smile on their face. As the Hot 8 is playing, a women stands next to them and starts screaming, “You need to represent!” “Represent, 9th ward, 7th ward!” Well, they did represent, for the entire city. I think the band wanted to start moving around in a second line style, put the crowd closed in around them and they couldn’t move. No one here understands a second line. As I am looking around, I see my friend Jessica from work across the crowd. She works at UT and is from Lafayette. Her family was affected by Rita, so this concert means a lot to her as well. I walk over to her and meet her group of friends. Boy, are they having a good time. They are dancing all over the place. I am kind of glad I ran into someone I knew. I realize it is lonely when you are by yourself. The Dirty Dozen Band finally get the Hot 8 to stop so they can start their set. Like usual, it was fantastic. The entire crowd was dancing along to the music. It reminded me a lot of JazzFest. A few reporters were walking around talking interviews and snapping pictures. One guy took a picture of the group I was with for the Dallas Morning News. So, since I had my camera, I took a picture of him taking a picture of the group. I got to see the pictures he took for the news. All you see is my purse and legs. That is fine by me! Through the entire set, not a drop of rain fell, but it did threaten. They clouds loomed over for the remainder of the afternoon, but luckily, no rain. At 5:30, I decided to head back to the car so I can get home, eat something, then get out again. I figured I should probably spend a little time with my husband since I haven’t in a few days. Maybe I will be lucky enough to see my friends as well! It feels like I haven’t seen anyone is forever. Time to head home.