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Mar 27, 2015 Springtime Carnivore By Greta Morgan Photography by Wendy Lynch Redfern

Greta Morgan (who records and performs as Springtime Carnivore) kept a diary of her SXSW 2015 experience. Springtime Carnivore’s self-titled debut album is out now via Autumn Tone.

I’ve been to SXSW and ACL enough times to rack up a many memorable Austin experiences. A few years ago, I met a happily intoxicated Bill Murray and walked him through downtown Austin until he found a desirable outdoor party to be dropped off at. I once gave directions to a man dressed as the Energizer Bunny who was so intoxicated that he could barely stand up. I’ve watched bandmates take their first psychedelic drugs and stumble around as if the solid ground beneath them was a speedy mall escalator. I’ve tripped in puddles of vomit. I’ve walked cumbersome musical equipment a mile through back alleys. This year, we had a relatively relaxed, enjoying some non-SXSW related adventures when we weren’t actually playing our shows or doing promo. Here is this year’s SXSW experience in a nutshell:

In the spirit of “Keeping Austin Weird,” we stopped in at the Museum of the Weird on 6th street, which houses a collection of oddities: mummies, two-headed taxidermy animals, a supposed Neanderthal creature in a solid block of ice, and many more strange collector items. The museum honors many of the great sideshow performers in the history of the American freak show.

Mummified remains from 1400.

Here I am being swept away by a statue of King Kong.

This is a modern sideshow performer gentleman who hosted our tour. He is one of the eight people in the world who is immune to electricity. He locked his lips around a sizzling electric wire (an act that would kill a normal human being) and then a volunteer held a light bulb to his skin and it was powered by the current surging through his body. The volunteer, like all of us, was totally shocked.

I bought a dozen creature feature and old school magic act postcards. Here are a few.

This was my first experience at SXSW where bad weather made an unwelcome appearance. I bought this $10 yellow garbage bag (which some consumers call a “Pancho”) and borrowed my niece’s backpack because mine had broken. I felt more ready for the first day of school than playing a rock concert.

My brother lives in Austin with his wife and daughter, Gwenny, who is in this photo above. Who needs to guzzle free liquor at sponsored SXSW parties when you can just jump on a trampoline with a 3-year-old? Both experiences will be super fun until they make you nauseous, but the trampoline won’t give you a hangover.

I saw my friend Genevieve perform a Balcony TV session at, of all places, Joe’s Crab Shack. Every square foot of desirable performing space in Austin is used during SXSW, so you often wind up at places you’d never imagine.

Here’s our drummer Nick Price enjoying a Joe’s Crab Shack Bloody Mary with a crab leg in it. Our bass player Adam, who was also there, is deathly allergic to shellfish, so I was keeping an eye to make sure he didn’t touch ANYTHING.

We played a fun show on Friday at The Hideout theater at 1:00am, a spot which is usually an improv theater.

Our keyboard player Jackie, who is one of my oldest friends, is the Assistant Art Coordinator on HBO’s Silicon Valley when she’s not on tour, so we were stoked to see these Pied Piper advertisements rolling all around Austin.

Our last show at SXSW was the most fun. It was Under the Radar‘s party at Central Presbyterian Church, a gorgeous space to see a show. After I admitted to the crowd that I love the Whoopi Goldberg movie Sister Act and often fantasized as a kid in Catholic school about people dancing up the aisles of a church, a dozen people hopped out of their seats and danced on the altar.

www.springtimecarnivore.com