south by all over again

We pulled into a gas station in far west Texas late on Sunday night and immediately spotted three other vans full of bands. Everyone had left Austin at the same time, headed to shows at points west. We all circled each other warily, and made our introductions: "So... what band are you in?" Everyone was friendly and earnest, and soon enough we were exchanging CD's and phone numbers. One of the bands, Arizona, came out to see us in Phoenix and we all shut down a bar together after the show. We're planning on seeing the other band, Casper and the Cookies, on our off-night in San Diego (where we'll be staying with the Album Leaf, another band we met on the road). We'll probably end up putting up some of these bands when they play New York. Four days in Austin is enough to make anyone extremely cynical about this weird, dirty business we're in. It was nice to be reminded that we have the support of all these other bands who are out there struggling to get by, just like us.