Some Austin rooms I can count. Not every night. Coco at Emo's I could not. Packed, sweating, that voice, nobody leaving. I keep that one in my pocket when people talk about this city like it does not show up.
Then there are the other nights. I know the math before doors. I go anyway. I take the pictures. I write what it felt like. I am not asking the room to be Houston.
Houston does not make you do that math. Bayou lets out and the city is still the city. Dallas will pack South Side and Echo Lounge and make a point of it. I have heard artists say Dallas was the most lit stop. I believed them. I was there.
I live in Austin. That is the sentence. I drive to the ones that fill and I still buy the local ticket. I am not writing a paper about a music city. I am saying I know what it feels like to scan a room, and I know what it feels like when I do not have to.
Both are Texas. I keep the receipts.
