Just returned from Austin, where the annual South By Southwest conferences and music festival are held. Hard to believe that a year has passed since I was last in Austin. Last year was my first SXSW experience and I was lucky to catch some great shows, including the 2006 Paste SXSW Party where Josh Ritter, Alejandro Escovedo, Manchester Orchestra, Over the Rhine, Jamie Cullum, Modern Skirts and Midlake graced us with wonderful performances.
Reminiscing about this on the plane ride back to Atlanta made me recall the first indie-inspired dream I ever had. It’s too good not to document, so let me share it with you:
Josh Ritter was getting ready to play a big show at Town Lake for SXSW 2006. The Paste team was on-hand to see and sponsor the show. In this dream, I was backstage with Paste’s associate editor, Steve LaBate, and editor-in-chief, Josh Jackson.
Ritter took the stage wearing his velvet vest, white button-down shirt, and fantastic belt buckle. He smiled and started to play “Me & Jiggs” when the high string on his guitar snapped. He kept on playing anyway, but when the song was over he quickly tossed the guitar to a security guard who looked straight out of the WWE. The guard ran over to me and said, “Get him another guitar.”
“I don’t see another guitar....”
“Then fix it!”
“I’m just the sponsor,” I said. “I don’t know how to restring a guitar.”
“Then figure it out!”
Luckily I remembered that Steve was backstage, too. As a musican himself, Steve surely knew how to restring a guitar. I handed him the guitar and he got working on it.
But the crowd was starting to turn on Ritter. “Come on, man! Play another!” they yelled. Our own Josh Jackson was quick to react, and rolled a catering cart out onto the stage. On the cart was a cake with sparklers stuck in it, as well as a chilled bottle of champagne. Jackson took to the microphone…
“I’m Josh Jackson from Paste Magazine, and we’d like to congratulate Josh Ritter on a great new album. Cheers to Animal Years!” Ritter and Jackson clinked glasses and guzzled down the bubbly. Then some stagehands started distributing cake to the audience.
“Hurry, Steve!” I whispered backstage. “They can’t last much longer.” Steve worked furiously and finally had the guitar restrung. He handed it to the security guard, who handed it to Ritter.
Ritter slung the guitar strap over his shoulder and smiled (like always). He broke into the second song and the crowd cheered. But something didn’t sound right. The chords sounded too low. Which is when I realized…
“Steve! I forgot to tell you! Josh Ritter is left-handed! That means...”
“You gave me a low E string instead of a high E string!” snapped Ritter.
“But… I’ve seen him write before,” said a befuddled Steve. “He’s right-handed.”
“Only when he writes,” grunted the security guard.
Ritter walked off stage. The crowd began to boo. Then Norah Jones appeared, fresh off a show with The Little Willies. She handed Ritter a new acoustic guitar. He played a few notes to make sure it was strung properly, then took the stage again. But the crowd kept booing.
After the show, I felt that I needed to apologize. It was the only way to salvage our relationship with Ritter.
“Josh! I’m so sorry! He didn’t know you were left-handed!” Ritter walked away with Norah. “We were just the sponsors! Why didn’t you have a production team?” Ritter kept walking. In a last ditch effort to save face, I yelled “Okay, well… we still love Animal Years!!”
END SCENE.
Ever since then, I’ve had a plethora of indie-inspired dreams (see previous posts) and/or dreams where Steve messes things up (sorry, Steve… it’s nothing personal). As for Josh Ritter being left-handed—I’m pretty sure that’s a lie. But I’ll still raise a glass to Animal Years, another great SXSW, and working with a staff that I like enough to dream about.
Rhea Douglas, Josh Ritter, Nate Douglas, and Caren at SXSW 2006
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Norah to the rescue!
Back when we were young, naive, and virginal SXSW-goers…
Aw, you guys all look so YOUNG!