MOLLYWOOD U.S.A.: MOLLY B TRIP TO AUSTIN SXSW 2011

DAY 1

MARCH 17 (St. Patty's Day)

thursday

Flight to Austin was great. Sat next to a fellow named Joel Roman. Turns out he reps some pretty huge musicians helping them get their music in TV/FILM. He's heading to "south-bye" that's what people call it. "SOUTH-BYE" Super nice guy. Ask if he knows my music buddy George D. and he says of course. What a small world. Then it gets even smaller at one point he shows me a picture on his phone of his cute kid Oliver posing with rockstar KYLE GASS! I'm like Kyle is one of my best friends! How bizarre and totally cool. I'm thinking already this trip is gonna be magic. Arrived at Austin airport GUITARS everywhere! At the baggage claim these huge guitars line the carousels. I'm loving it! Got our luggage and my guitar and heading to info desk where lady couldn't have been nicer. She had earrings that were made of guitar pics! Getting my first taste of southern hospitality (It's real folks!) Then got our rental car only 200 miles on it and headed into downtown Austin to meet up with our buddy Rich Brenner. It was pretty zippy getting there but once we hit downtown proper it turned into a clog jammer fest. People everywhere walking up and down the streets. I can hear music on the air. It's St. Patty's day and looks like a few peeps have been hitting it hard all day long. Since Bob White is driving we head up some street with blockades and he plops us onto 2nd Street I think and we find a parking spot ON THE STREET!!! Okay if you've been to SXSW before you know this is next to impossible. I'm thinking wow we are "cloaked in magic" on this trip. We rush over to the convention center to get our coveted MUSIC BADGES basically your golden ticket into all events in town. Our awesome buddy Mr. Jack got them for us. We get inside convention center and just like Dorothy at the gates of OZ they're just closing down. They close at 10pm and it's 10:15! We have to wait til tomorrow. Oh well it's cool. We decide to just hit the streets and meet up with Brenner our veteran SXSW'r.

We meet him on 6th St. It's a madhouse. Just follow Brenner's bald head!!

Wow there goes Misha Barton walking past really fast and bitching about something. I'm having flashbacks to ChicagoFest as a kid. Haven't seen this many people on the streets all swirling together in decades really. So we have a beer with Brenner and see a girl from South America? sing her songs and then a band from SPAIN! and go...we're on the move. Drop some dropcards with the girl bartenders!

Brenner takes us down to the venue for the VILLAGE VOICE where we are to meet up with my cousin Tim Bryant's friend Stuart who has put us on VIP list.

It's a bunch of salmon swimming upstream with guards at the gate dividing the "wristband" people and the "badge" people into lines. "We're on Stuarts's VIP list...the guy who's throwing this party" I say... Big guy in day-glow slicker "Oh there is no more list entry" It's late....we've gotten our first taste of it all. We're kinda hungry head to this sandwich shop called WHICH WICH. You can create your own sandwich. Pretty tasty. We're done. Back to rental car and head out of town north to our Hilton Garden Suites Hotel to check in. It's like a 15 min car ride north of the city.

We get there and an old african american guy named Bill is at the gate wearing thick bottle rimmed glasses. Couldn't have been nicer. Get to room. Bathroom sink stopper stuck. "Hey Jim, can you come up and fix this or move us to another room" "Oh there is no other room" he informs us because of "southby"

He'll send maintenance man in the morning. Okay nighty night our 1st day in Austin is done. ZZZZzzzzzz.

DAY 2

MARCH 18

friday

Wake up and find the nearest Starbuck's. Meet the funniest guys working there. Josh and his friends. I'm wearing one of my T-shirts. "Hey, who's Molly Bryant and why should I BE BRAVE?" he says. So funny. We make chitty chat talk about awesome BBQ spots. They are so cool and friendly. This Dorothy is definitely not in "L.A." anymore. Go back to hotel room bring coffees and we head back to Starbucks to give them all a free CD!!! Then off we go for our first TEXAS BBQ. Our friend Ricky T. said we HAD to go to Louie Mueller. The best in Texas he said. Bob says he saw it on the food channel as well. So we head even farther north and east to this little town called TAYLOR! BBQ for breakfast anyone? I can't even describe what we saw and what we ate. I'll let the pictures speak for that. As the girl behind me in line whispered "It's orgasmic really".

FULL of awesome BBQ we head back down into Austin to retrieve our golden BADGES at the Convention Center. Outside these girls were playing their ukesZep cover. They're called SUPERCUTE! There's no one in line when we go to get our badges as most people have already retrieved them. We get some swag bags and head to the drink tent for our complimentary scotch/beer. Then back to 6th street. It's a MAD HOUSE. A literal madhouse every restaurant packed. Sun is going down. We've got to eat... somehow with Bob's prowess we snake a few seats at a WAY OVERPACKED IRON CACTUS Restaurant and order yummy mexican food to fuel us for the night ahead. We hook back up with our Chicago/LA buddy Brenner and snake in and out of a few clubs. Hear some crazy modern classical quartet. Then a chick rock band. Then through some club that's like "thunder dome" as Rich says. Oh the humanity! People everywhere. Ciggies lots of ciggies being smoked. Lots of sausages on the streets and slices of pizza. Street artists walking on glass. Is that a didgeridoo?!!!! All I care about is getting to the Driskill Hotel early to see my new favorite duo The Civil Wars who are playing in the Victorian Room. So we get there around 8pm The Civil Wars go on 9:45 and there's already a line forming. Badges still have to get in line. My hearts pounding. I've got to get in that door!!!! It's an ASCAP sponsored event. Some drunk badge-people behind me are chitty chattin me up and all I can think about is getting through this gate. The Driskill Lobby is glorious loving this old hotel so much. Okay so we get in. Pretty packed. Head up to the upstairs balcony area

and see our friend Rich's wife Leslie tucked away in a seat. Some guy named Dan Wilson who I've never heard starts a set. Loving his sound. He invites one of the former Dixie Chicks onstage and she plays mandolin with him and sings! WOW! Gorgeous. CIVIL WARS! They are next. I head back down and just stand in the cordoned off area next to stage. Just pretended I was supposed to be there and nobody bothered me. Had a sweet little moment with Joy Williams the lead singer. She looked at me and we shared a smile and I made a little sign of clapping my hands right next to my heart like a secret to her...."You're gonna be great! How great is this?!!!" that's what I said with my eyes. It was special moment. GOO GOO. LOVE HER! LOVE THEM!

THEY KILLED IT just get their new album! You'll see

while they're singing I see through the windows horse drawn carriages going by

and a marching band and people walking by like a running river. It's like an awesome dream.

the set we saw was recorded and up at iTunes as well right now

that's me hollering "YEAH" on Oh Henry and then the rest of the crowd joins in!

So now I don't care where we go. Brenner is in charge. He is our leader.

He takes us to see some band. They're taking forever to get ready. Biggest venue I've been to yet. Lots of people crowding. A drunk guy is there and trying to get it on with Brenner's daughter. So I'm blockading drunk guy from going near her. YIKES! C'mon band start already. They start jamming. Horn section...hmmm me likey....oh they're jamming...then here comes walking down the stairs onto the stage CHARLES BRADLEY! African American Dude coming to sing with this all white boy jammin band and he just starts to RIP THE LID OFF THE NIGHT. "I love you!" he screeches like James Brown "I love ALL OF YOU!!!!" I'm a disciple immediately. "Whatever you say Charles! Whatever you say! Amen, Charles!" I'm screaming and hollering I love him. I'm like "shit molly watch your voice you have to sing tomorrow!" Gonna post a link of him here. Does not do him justice in terms of his power live I think. But check it

amazing singer/human being. WOW!!! Then we head in cab to SOCO (south congress) and go to the Continental Club and see MOTHER TRUCKERS! Awesome rocking band. Then we got tired. Peeled off from the Brenners and headed back to our hotel room.

DAY 3

MARCH 19 (GIG DAY)

saturday

Coffees. IHOP. Run set in hotel room. Do hair. Do make-up.

Shit brought the wrong bra. OH well. Head to Austin Java

see our buddy Mark Kelly's brother David and their old friend from Oregon.

My friend Courtney's cousin and friend have come. Oh there is the whole Brenner family. My cousin Tim Bryant's friend Stuart there with wife.

TUNE UP and hit the stage. Really weird sound thing happened. You can watch the whole set if you like. So damn fun. Meet and greet after. Stuart says hey we have a few extra hotel rooms downtown if you want to stay tonight. I text him later and take him up on it. It's at THE DRISKILL!!! The hotel where I saw the CIVIL WARS and loved it so much. Built in 1800's. We share a beer with David Kelly and his buddy and then head back to our old hotel and change clothes for the night and pack it all up and head to Driskill!!! We meet Stuart and wife in lobby. They take us to room. Room #44 how cool. "Meet us back at our room for drink after you get settled" Stuart says. We go inside!!!!

Oh my goodness. It was gorgeous. Now some of you know and some of you don't but I'm into ANGEL numbers. 222,333,444 and so on. Apparently these triple numbers have special meanings apparently. Like when you see 11:11 all the time. Well, so I'm "into" these triple digit numbers. The door closes and I look at our room number WE ARE IN ROOM 444!!!! are you kidding me?

I think I screamed. too much too much. I mean c'mon! really? and 444 means ANGELS ARE SURROUNDING YOU! Well, it sure as hell felt like it. Got situated

then met Stuart and Leah for drink. Such great people. Talked of our mutual love club for my cousin Tim then we cheered and parted ways.

Bob and I took a cab to the GREEN MESQUITE for dinner. Another great BBQ spot was on DDD! Then to the Hilton Perez private party where my old high school chum Liz Phair was singing. God what an ordeal it was getting into that one. But we did it. She looked smoking and rocked the house. It was SUPERMOON night and quite a few crazies on the streets. We stopped to dance on our way back to Driskill. All the rickshaw type bicycle cabbies were dancing .

It was DJ JAZZY J rocking it out into the night and people were just dancing in the streets. This slightly drunky woman is shouting to me "You know what that is?

Pointing excitedly at the fullmoon. "It's a SUPERMOON!" I'm like yikes.... politely scream over the noise "I know!" and smile and then she and her girlfriend kinda were following in our wake at one point I'm crossing street with bob and she has grabbed my hand as if we're a chain or party-line heading somewhere...again politely remove my hand. Thinking oh my god it's the witchy coven woman and they've come to kidnap me away into the night. Keep moving BOB!!!!! It was so fun. I was so excited we got to go back to the sturdy fortress walls of the Driskill that night. Got back to our awesome room around midnight! ROOM 444

my safe awesome haven on SUPERMOON night at SXSW. zzzzzzzz

DAY 4

MARCH 20

sunday

breakfast in the oh so civilized cafe downstairs at the hotel.

then off to airport. Car return. Fly to Vegas for one layover and

then here is where the story takes a bit of a turn. Our flight into LOS ANGELES from VEGAS that night turned into the worst plane flight of my entire life.

So bumpy from Vegas all the way no one including stewardesses were allowed up from their seats. Heading down into some crazy ass storm in LA we were being jostled to and fro up and down and all around. I thought this is it. We're all gonna die. I had TOO MUCH MAGIC for one person. It was all too good to be true. Me and Bob and my guitar down below are all going up in a ball of flames. Landing gear coming out it's darker and windier and rain and lightening.

The whole USC girls Diving/Swimming team are starting to cackle hysterically

"this is how I'm going to die?" I can't believe it. And we must have been a few hundred feet from the ground although I couldn't see it out the window and the plane makes a dramatic nose climb away from the ground. Aborted landing we climb thru more turbulence...no word from captain or crew....for like 20 minutes

"This is your captain speaking....we've been directed to head back to Vegas...we will keep you posted as to what we'll be doing once we've landed back in Vegas"

ALL THE WAY back to VEGAS in more torrential weather and turbulence from hell

and then to cap it off the WORST LANDING ever in VEGAS. Every fiber in my being said get off that plane. I saw a few people going for it....and I wanted to but could see Bob was on the fence. Then I just grabbed my LP/merch bag and carry on and headed off and Bob had to follow. Basically were told no flights til Tuesday if we got off. If we got rental car they'd reimburse. So off we went to rental car area 1 mile away from airport and guess what?!!! NO rental cars ANYWHERE for one way travel. So luckily some nice lady at Budget drove us over to hotel near airport and we stayed there. Bob was basically a fuming giant at this point. He was not happy at all. It was a rough night for us but luckily with almost 20 years marriage our bond survived the stress of it all.

He booked us 2 tickets for the next day and we arrived safely on MONDAY

to a very wind-swept LA DAY. Saw whole trees down and lots of palm fronds.

I'm just so happy I'm here and able to tell this whole tale to y'alls.

MORE MAGIC TO COME! Love to you all!

Molly B

if you want to see all the pix head to

http://gallery.me.com/mollybryant/101386

I'll post a few of my faves here!