Dallas,
Being a cameraman for the Paceshifters doesn’t just mean travelling across my own country, but it also means a trip to the States…twice. I was blessed to fly overseas with them to Colorado in 2011 and right now I’m living my dream: touring around Texas and visiting SXSW.
I’ve been dreaming about going to SXSW for a long time and I never thought I would ever go there, let alone, be filming my close friends Paceshifters who get to play shows there almost every day.
With the help of Kevin and Frank the band doesn’t only get to play on the SXSW-festival in Austin, but they also get to play in cities like San Antonio and Dallas. And it was Dallas that appeared in our tour book today.
Once we arrived in Dallas we parked our RV right next to the venue and we immediately saw that it was a big venue. Which was a relieve after they played a show in a taco bar and in a small club in the ghetto of Austin.
It was a few hours before showtime so we decided to take a walk downtown. A 2 mile walk, a distance on which every American would have taken the car, but it was 25 degrees Celsius and with enough to see along the way, we went by foot.
Dallas is the place where president John F Kennedy got shot. So once we got downtown we decided to take a look at the JFK memorial. It was really weird to see the street which you’ve seen so many times in the footage from his assasination.
Once we took our pictures we had to hurry back to the venue, because the band had to do their soundcheck. Allex the sound technician got everything sounding awesome as usual and so the show started. The band gave everything (as always) and the appproximately 100 attending people showed their enthousiasm by loud cheering and buying cd’s and shirts afterwards.
Right now we’ve arrived on the moment where I am in the RV writing this blog, because immediately after the show we started driving towards Austin. On our way to Dallas this morning we came across a gas station which offers truck drivers and hopefully also a band + crew a shower possibility for one dollar. So in a few moments I’ll be fresh and clean and ready to visit SXSW again. This will also be my last shower before I arrive in Holland, so in advance my apology to he of she that will sit next to me on the plane.
Niels Bourgonje (Cameraman)