Satellite Sky’s – 2nd ROAD BLOG from 2015 Southwest U.S. Tour

The Aussie brother/sister duo, Satellite Sky, is currently on their U.S tour of the Southwestern states, including stops at SXSW. While they’re on this tour, they will be doing an exclusive blog for our site. You can check out the second blog, with photos, after the break.

Number 217 SXSW and that Southern Hospitality!

What is it with the number 217? Two nights in a row, two different towns, two different hotels and they both give us room number 217. Is this a secret code hotels have where they put unruly bands? What is the mathematical probability of this happening? Well, 2 + 1 + 7 = 10 and that is the amount of Jameson shots consumed in Fort Worth that night, mostly provided by the awesome owner of the venue we were playing at. That’s the best I can come up with after 11 days on the road!

We had originally hooked up accommodation in Fort Worth through AirBnB, only to arrive at the person’s house to find a couple of German tourists occupying the bedrooms we had reserved. Apparently there had been a mistake with check out dates and they would be staying an extra night. While the person whose living room we were now in, offered to have us stay in their bedroom while they take the couch for the night, we thought it best to find a hotel instead.

The show itself was killer! A great night of both touring and local bands who provided some awesome tunes before we hit the stage. When on the road, most indie bands live by their merch sales. The crowd in Fort Worth were super supportive of all the bands and showed this by buying CDs and t-shirts from all the bands. That always makes a good night better!

Next stop was the madness that is Austin and SxSW. We were headlining a showcase during the Interactive and Film part of the festival. This is actually our favorite time to play SxSW as it’s still crazy but hasn’t yet reached the insanity levels of later in the week. We were greeted by a raucous crowd on Rainey St. who were definitely enjoying the festivities. After whipping the crowd up into a frenzy, they wouldn’t let us leave without indulging in an encore. As all musicians know, you can never tire of hearing the chant “one more song, one more song!”.

An early start the next morning in order to make a radio interview on Houston’s 91.1 KPFT to promote the show that evening meant there were a few sore heads and bleary eyes in tow. We were last in Houston two years ago and it was nice to be greeted by some familiar faces. Last time we were there, our friends we were staying with gave birth to their first child after going into an early labor. We’re pretty sure we were responsible for inducing the labor from the excitement of our show!

After Houston, it was back to Austin for our show during the music part of SxSW. As we weren’t playing until later in the evening, we managed to stop in at the Fader Fort party. A big shout out must go out to the crew over there for taking such good care of us. After hooking us up with new Converse shoes and countless drinks, we were escorted side of the stage to watch the bands.

We then headed over to 6th St for an interview with Austin’s PBS station, who were also covering our show. There really is nothing like 6th St. Bands playing everywhere, thousands of people all around, it’s awesome! The reception from the crowd was amazing. The venue had two levels and it felt like there were people literally on top of us!

While it would have been nice to stick around Austin for a few more days, we were also excited to head to Louisiana. We arrived in Shreveport just in time for sound check and were greeted by the bartender who mentioned he had ‘outfatted’ our t-shirt from our last tour and needed a new one. That famed southern hospitality was in full swing and all sorts of drinks were consumed til the wee hours of the morning. Tonight we play a two day festival consisting of some great Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas bands, and one Aussie band thrown in for good measure. Should be a kickass show!

A recurring comment from fans on this tour has been that it’s good to hear a great live rock n roll band, as it’s not something they get to see very often. Our response to this is that there is an enormous amount of kickass rock bands out there, you just need to look for them. We can attest to the fact that rock n roll is definitely alive and well in The U.S and people want to hear this style of music. It may not be getting the attention it deserves on commercial radio, or by the mainstream music industry, but if this latest tour is anything to go by, there are some amazing indie bands out there trekking across this vast country on any given day, so go down to your local venue or bar, grab a beer, whisky, or water and jump around!

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