abode acrobat . net

“Good luck with the cancer!” I called back to James ‘Redman’ Warren the war veteran I met on Congress Avenue in Austin. He’d just sold me a CD of his country singing. It never worked, and with his lung problems was never going to be great. But Austin is world-famous for its music scene and I was going to get stuck in!

Now I’m not renowned for my love of music, but with all the time in the world, and nothing else to do on the planet, I thought I’d better give it a try. In fact, I’ve rarely been to music performances aside from the times the odd sister or friend has insisted I go.

I suppose the alternative might have been to go to a bar on my own (on this rare occasion, the hostel was quiet and peopled only by quiet Texans). I’ve never done that - in contrast to my good friend James Hawes who only goes to bars solo, and is rumoured to have never been in a pub with anyone else. So at least with a live music performance I could sit in the corner and pretend to like it.

The internet had two main venue recommendations: Antones in Downtown; and Cactus Cafe at the University - a small venue which has launched the careers of many budding artists since 1979. Antones was revealed to be sold out, after a little investigation. Kristin Hersh was playing at the Cactus Cafe, and you couldn’t buy tickets in advance - just queue for hours with other true music fans. Works for me!

Except I needed to pretend I knew what I was talking about in terms of music. I don’t want to be exposed as an outsider. I thought the best bet was to invent some band names and when no-one had heard of them, just shrug it off as being part of a different culture. Would they believe that we just don’t have Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, and anyone else in the UK - and that’s why I don’t know anything about them?

In the queue I meet Ryan: “This is like the 15th time I’ve seen Kristen. I first saw her when she was touring with REM in 1988, and they were even unknown then! How about you?”

“To be honest, I don’t really know who she is.”

“What are you doing here then?”

“Oh, I was just told she was quite good.”

“Wow! You are like the biggest music fan ever! Just trying something new, just because of some recommendation! That’s amazing.”

I was in!