SPEAK for a Year: November

Something interesting happened before last month's show.

I found myself going through SPEAK withdrawals.

I know. I was surprised as you are. Or maybe you aren't surprised. Covering a band for an entire year is bound to have some sort of affect on me.

It's like the Pavlov's dog experiment. I've been trained to see a SPEAK show every month so when there is too much time in between shows, I start to feel the withdrawals. Never mind that I've covered plenty of events (Comic Con, Fun Fun Fun Fest, Austin Film Festival) to occupy my time until the next show, my life felt incomplete without seeing SPEAK on stage. But last month happened and I got my SPEAK fill and the world can go on spinning around the sun.

November's show brought me to Emo's Inside. I decided to shoot in black and white this month, but that's mainly because this venue hates photographers. The red lighting always gives me horrible photos.

This show was a welcome back show because the guys went on their first tour with headliner The Secret Handshake. The originally plan was that they would stop in Austin and then go back into the van to tour until early December. Sadly, the tour got cancelled from low-ticket sales so that show was the last night of the tour. Major bummer. I heard the bands that were on the tour bill and it wouldn't have disappointed.

As for the show, it was great. I could tell touring got to Troupe because his voice sounded worn out pretty early in the set, but I was so happy getting my SPEAK fix that it didn't bother me. Man, I do sound like an addict/fan girl. Luckily, we only have this month to go. I can only imagine the repercussions if I kept this series going after that.

But I wasn't alone. The crowd was also happy to see SPEAK back in Austin and with that, the guys fed off of their energy. God, that sounds so cliche to say but it's true. Nick was all crazy jumping around the stage. His facial expressions were great, but once the music stopped, you could tell it was wearing him out. It was great.

So all in all, it was obvious that not only did Austin miss SPEAK, SPEAK missed Austin. Why would we be surprised with this? Austin is awesome or Aust-some as New York band The Dig once said in my interview with them.

Man, sorry for the really bad jokes. I need sleep. Between writing a novel in November, putting out the last issue of Accent this semester and finals coming up, my brain is mush. All my originality has checked out for vacation. And this project has finally gotten to me. Sadly this month is the last month.

But Sarah, the guys don't have a show next month, what are you going to do? I'll just say this: I don't know. :)

I'm struggling on how to feel about the end of SPEAK for a Year. On the one hand, I'm ready to end this series, but on the other hand, I'm super bummed. I'm just hoping I don't embarrass myself and start with the waterworks.