By Carson Braymer,
So I've been living in Austin for about six months now - six months that have very quickly flown by. While it's been incredible getting to explore and get to know my new town for these past few months, I haven't done much in the way of checking out other rad places in Texas. This past weekend, I had a rad opportunity to play in San Antonio with a group of dudes who play in a band called Teevee. The venue we played is called Limelight, a mega-vibey bar that boasted a large stage, righteous sound, and even a little backyard area attached to the green room so we had a safe spot to park the van.
I met the guys in Teevee at their rehearsal space on the day of the show and helped load all of our gear into their van. I'd be playing bass for this show, so I was pretty stoked on the notion of getting to break out my old jazz bass and brush up on my low-end chops. Teevee has a fuzzy, reverb soaked sound driven by layers of texture, so playing bass in that setting was something I was really looking forward to. Getting to San Antonio from Austin took less than two hours after all the gear was loaded, and we arrived at Limelight a little after the first band finished.
Upon arriving at the venue, we had one of the door guys unlock a back gate for us to pull our van into a small yard behind the bar. The small yard had a couple picnic tables where the members of the other bands were sitting and smoking, drinking Lone Star and talking about gear. Around the corner of the fenced area was the door to the greenroom, walls covered with band stickers and floor lined with old rugs and speaker cables. We got our drink tickets and watched the second band play, then unloaded our equipment for sound check.
I hauled my '59 Bassman reissue and pedalboard through the greenroom and onto the stage, immediately greeted by a relaxed-yet-professional sound guy. I had my bass levels checked in about two minutes, and only a few minutes passed before everyone in the band had been leveled out and mixed. My biggest surprise was in how awesome the San Antonio crowd was - we played on a Sunday night to an almost full house. That's a really neat thing, regardless as to where you are or what kind of music you play. The twelve song set went great - no sound problems, no big mistakes. Limelight made playing their venue a ton of fun and extremely enjoyable. Everyone, down to the door guy, was pleasant. In an industry laden with an inclination for things to go wrong, it was extremely refreshing to play a show with a new band, in a new venue and feel NO stress.
I'm looking forward to playing around Texas more. My experience in San Antonio left me really pumped to explore and create more opportunities to travel around the state. Limelight also set a stellar standard for small venues with massive professionalism, and Teevee was very kind to let me join them for a really fun show. Here's to looking forward and keeping the ball rolling, always. Keep an eye out for Teevee's second EP "Bask" later this July, and keep up with what's happening at Limelight via their website.
Check out Teevee here:
