Exclusive Tour Blog Special: South By South West - O'Brother (Part Two)

As part of our on going series of exclusive Tour Blogs, Alter The Press is working with a handful of bands to produce various South By South West tour blogs.

Atlanta, Georgia's O'Brother have given us their second update from the Austin, TX-based festival. The latest update sees the band arriving in Texas and playing the Favorite Gentlemen Recordings showcase at SXSW.

Words by Michael Martens.

"This week has been completely overwhelming in all the right ways. It's been two or so days since I last wrote, so I will catch you all up from where I believe I left off.

Denton, TX was awesome. We love playing at Hailey's and it was actually the site of O'Brother's first ever Texas show back in 2006. The sound was awesome and the people were nice. I myself am from Garland, TX, which is maybe 40 minutes outside of Denton, so it was nice to feel like I was back at home. I was completely taken back by the amount of people that were there to come see us and the responses that they gave us about our new songs. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your words and support. It means so much.

After Denton, we drove overnight to Austin. I took the wheel and Anton was my shotgun. We forgot our iPod converter for the stereo so we were blasting hip-hop and pop songs all night over the radio and it was awesome!!! Katy Perry is the best! We got in around 5am to our friends the Rocketboys' house and caught a little sleep before we had to be downtown to register for SX' around 11am. This was the start to a week that has been filled with music, walking, free alcohol, free food, and NO SLEEP WHATSOEVER. I am pooped mentally and physically but at the same time I feel completely alive and good about what we are doing and experiencing here.

On Wednesday we saw some awesome bands like Colour Revolt and This Will Destroy You and hung out with so many of our friends (fans, people in bands, people that we have worked with over the past years in the industry) and this has been such an amazing experience so far. This city has so many people in it right now and they are all concentrated on a small portion of the city, so there is really never a dull moment and there is always something to do.

Last night, we played our one showcase that we had and were privileged to be a part of with Favorite Gentlemen. It was wonderful. Jeremiah did such an amazing job putting this showcase together. It was a packed house in a great sounding room at Lambert's BBQ. I feel like we played the set/show that we needed to and the response from all of the people that we look up to and all of the people that love our music was absolutely incredible. I was stressing so hard yesterday about the show because I wanted everything to go smoothly and I wanted us to pummel the shit out of anyone within a 50 yard radius. I'll deem the night a success.

Now that the show is over, I am really excited to keep hanging out for the next two days, do some press, drink and eat some more, and hear some great music. This city is bumpin' and we are stoked to be here. I can't wait to see The Appleseed Cast tonight.

Much love,
Michael"

Further information on O'Brother and 'Garden Window' can be found on beneathyourgardenwindow.com

O'Brother on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.