Kid Canaveral at SxSW: 'Like a cheerful Sauchiehall Street at kicking out time'

It is hot. The novelty has not yet warn off. What do you mean I don't need to sleep with two duvets and my thermal underwear like back in Fife? We awake to some rather good coffee that Michael has made before heading off to his day job at the cycle shop. He is hardcore - watching bands all night, selling bikes all day.

So it begins. Firstly the challenge of registering. We decide to drive in and half way there, regret it. Traffic is horrific and we're not quite sure where we're going but we make it to a car park near the convention centre and brave the crowds. We feel special when we get our fancy artist wristbands and then realise that every other person as far as the eye can see is also an official artist at SXSW. Oh well. At least we got a free backpack each and a good load of drinks vouchers! A quick trip to the trade fair to see some fellow Scots (a tartan-clad Tam Coyle gives us a rather overwhelming list of all the parties we should be going to today), a pint with King Creosote and some free food and music at the Welsh showcase (food - rarebit, music - Bright Light, Bright Light) and it's back down the road to grab our gear. We decide to bus it back into town -  and not just because we all REALLY want to drink, obviously. If we've learnt one thing today it's that our guitar hard cases are not designed for public transport. We do make some friends however, does this count as *networking* I wonder? We're playing the Scottish Showcase at Maggie Mae's tonight and it's right in the middle of Sixth Street where the majority of SXSW stuff happens. It's insane. Bands are setting up PAs on every street corner and playing a set. Every two feet you can hear the strains of a different band playing in one of the bars or clubs. I'm already sick of music. Not really. It's ace. Although we did bump into Dan Willson (Withered Hand) on Sixth who hugged us like a drowning man in a sea of people. It was just getting going but already incomparably boisterous. Like a cheerful Sauchiehall Street at kicking out time.

Withered Hand is up first and is great as usual, we're all singing along at the back to No Cigarettes. What a tune. Then it's us. Our first show in Austin and it went great. We had a good, big crowd and everyone was very appreciative. And I think we played rather well too. Hurrah. We even sold a few CDs. Rose did her back in just before we played and had to be handed her bass  - not very rock 'n' roll you may think but she did do it stooping to sign some posters, and it was none other than Scottish celeb DJ Vic Galloway who handed her the bass on stage. Wow. We are wild.

The night is kind of a bit hazy from this point on. We did a wee interview with the Detour bunch who are covering all things Scottish out here in Texas then lots and lots and lots of margaritas. We stayed put to catch the other Scottish bands (Errors, Admiral Fallow, Twin Atlantic and The Twilight Sad), drank some more margaritas and met lots of friendly people and asked a few if they "had our card". Professional, eh?

Then the horrifying bus journey home. A fifteen minute walk to the bus stop with all our gear, a fifteen minute wait at the bus stop. We're at the wrong bus stop. A 10 minute walk to the right bus stop. A hundred strong crowd also appear to be waiting for our bus. Oh shit... the last bus is completely full and we can't get on it. ARRRRGH. There's not a taxi to be seen and it's a four mile walk back to Michael's. An official bus man comes along and says there's another bus. Phew. But David's gone to buy crisps ("chips") and water. He can see the bus on the horizon and legged it a couple of hundred metres to make it just in time. Phew, again. It's a bit of a scramble but luckily we could use our guitars as battering rams. We make it on to the final bus at 3.30am and the nice bus driver lady doesn't even make me pay. I think she felt sorry for us. I imagine we looked a right state. Things are looking up, especially as there's a 24 hour burger place at the end of our journey. Yus. Massive burgers and sleep. A good first day in Austin I think.