Last night marked the triumphant return of Fastball to their home turf after their month-long tour following the release of "Little White Lies."

I'd been to The Parish Room once before, during SXSW earlier this year. The band playing then sucked so I didn't stick around much. It's a large, open space on the second floor, easy to miss from 6th street as the street front is only a door. My brother, my sister-in-law and I met up with Wisefish, an old Small Stars friend. Amazingly, she had never seen Fastball live before, but decided (after listening to "Little White Lies") to make the trip to Austin to catch them. We all got there in time to catch the opening band, which was a mistake. It was a local metal band that obviously had their amps turned up to 11. Luckily, I had ear plugs in my camera bag, enough to pass around among our group. Fortunately, they only played 45 minutes. Then it was time for the main act.

By then the crowd was pretty big. We also noticed a few other Fastball regulars had arrived. Shelly was there, along with her family (the website did say "all ages"). Blogger Cindy Royal (onthatnote.com) was there, too. Surprisingly, Nese appeared to be M.I.A.

Fastball came on around 10:15. They wasted no time getting down to business, immediately launching into "Little White Lies." The Parish sound system is really good and Fastball's sound guy Allan was on the job, so needless to say the sound was excellent. From "Little White Lies" they segued into "Fire Escape." Then Miles entertained the crowd with a story.

It was obvious the guys were glad to be home. Although the band was tight, the guys were loose. There was lots of banter between the band and the audience. Everyone was having a great time. There were some truly hilarious moments, some of which were captured on camera. Miles joked about driving in the beltway and about having the Swine Flu (he did have a cold). Tony asked the crowd to be quiet during the piano intro to "The Way" only to find out... Well, you'll have to see it for yourself. Classic Tony moment.

Highlights included "Angelie" (my new favorite Fastball song), "Little White Lies" (powerful song), and "Whatever Gets You On" (don't hear that one live too often).

There were no broken strings last night*, but at the end of the regular set, Miles apparently blew out his amp. They closed with "Always Never" and Miles did his usual crazy jumping around at the end, leaving his guitar leaning on his amp making a feedback sound. When they came back on for the encore, it was dead. He had to use Tony's amp and Tony went to the keyboard and they played "You're An Ocean" and finally Supergrass's "Alright." We saw the setlist afterwards and they had intended to play "Are You Ready For The Fallout." Damn. I really wanted to hear that one. Oh, well, maybe next time.

I had my gear and recorded the show, but sadly something happened and only the left channel got recorded, so the recording is mono (except for "Fire Escape", which for some reason turned out fine). I also shot video of most of the show (three songs were left out due to arm fatigue). I'll start posting video clips on YouTube soon, but for now everyone should check out Cindy Royal's post with a few photos and some video clips.

Fastball
May 23, 2009
The Parish Room
Austin

Miles Zuniga - Vocals, guitar
Tony Scalzo - Vocals, guitar, keyboards
Joey Shuffield - Drums
Cory Glaeser - Bass, vocals

01 Little White Lies >
02 Fire Escape
03 She's Got The Rain
04 Vampires
05 Out Of My Head
05 Sooner Or Later
06 Lou-ee Lou-ee
07 The Malcontent
08 Whatever Gets You On
09 All I Was Looking For Was You
10 'Til I Get It Right
11 Angelie
12 Soul Radio
13 The Way
14 Always Never
[encore]
15 You're An Ocean
16 Alright (Supergrass)

* I was later corrected on this point. Miles did break a string, during "Fire Escape." It's clearly visible on the video I shot. I just failed to notice it. He switched from the Les Paul to the SG after that, but I thought it was just because he preferred it.