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Episode 14
Awards, Amigos and the case of the missing queso Austin, TX - Austin Music Hall - 03/17/04 There we were, with no idea what we had won or why we were called to the "winner's tent" that evening. Call it naivete or low expectations, but quite frankly I felt that our friends Del Castillo would definitely grab the Best World Music award this time. But as fate would have it, both Del Castillo and Pieces of East were arranged to be on the same area of the winners tent. We were honored to share that with this band of such warm and friendly guys.
Whenever we win something or are announced at a show, people end up splicing the band's name and call us something else. You'd think that it has happened enough times for me to not be surprised. Life can always turn around and surprise you when you least expect it to - even in the smallest of ways. Well, just when I thought we had heard every possible convolution of "Pieces of East", we experienced one new one - "Pieces of Eden". Why didn't I think of that? That sounds so cool. :) Overall, it was a thrilling experience to be up there again. I wish we could have met Margaret Moser from the Chronicle after getting off the stage but she must have been busy up to her neck with event management work that evening. Thankfully, Ashish Joseph was there armed with our digital camera, capturing those moments for us to save on this website.
If it was up to me, we would have thanked every single fan who voted for us, but I was afraid of getting the Julia-Roberts-Oscar-night treatment. You know, where they cut her speech with the exit music before she completed it. After receiving the award we were taken to the WB Channel set where Laura was asked a couple of questions with the band. She was asked "What does World music mean to you?" and she quickly responded, "Anything that isn't on the radio".
PoE is such a musical hodgepodge of things that many people don't know where to place it - is it rock? pop? world? jazz? fusion? singer/songwriter? folk? What ends up happening is that we are placed in what I call the "dumping ground" genre. That place where everything hard to classify is thrown into. In the World music section you can find things ranging from Gregorian Chants from Rome to Bolivian Rock to Pieces of East!! So I guess that's something we've got to deal with, at least for the time being. :)
After the awards ceremony we decided to go to the heart of SXSW - Sixth Street. During the festival it is transformed into the Disney Land for rockers, punkers and other music fans. Getting into a club without a wristband or badge is practically impossible, even if you are willing to pay the $20 cover charge on a Wednesday night. Our group wasn't really that willing in-spite of hearing a rumor that guitar genius "Buckethead" will be doing a guest performance at Rockstars. Sixth Street madness forced us to retreat to the Iron Cactus restaurant for some peace and quiet. The problem was - we got a little too much piece and quiet. I had never waited an hour for queso before. The place was understaffed and disorganized. And to make things worse the four of us (Laura, Abhi, Ashish and I) were famished beyond belief. Boredom set in after the first hour and Ashish and Abhi started doing their renditions of the East and West side Hip-Hop artists. Of course, you've got to understand - we were really tired. :) The Iron Cactus episode was enough for us to give up on SXSW showcases that evening. On the way to the car, we picked up the latest chronicle that included a listing of nominees in all the music award categories. We were elated to know that we were nominated for 12 categories, just below Los Lonely Boys' 14. This was quite exciting.
All in all, the Austin Music Awards is always a memorable experience and we hope to share it with you every year. Thank You so much to all of you who voted. It really made a big difference that our fans came out to vote in full force.
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