Upper Darby-based indie pop trio The Fleeting Ends got their first taste of what it feels like to live the rock & roll lifestyle late last month. They received a last-minute invite to gig at South by Southwest in Austin, TX and jumped on the opportunity. The band, which consists of guitarist/vocalist Matt Vantine, percussion/vocalist Matt Amadio and bassist Rusty Langley, had been playing together on the regional circuit and keeping things pretty low-key for about a year and a half when word came of the break.
The band was initially bewildered by the turn of events - they'd applied to play the festival months earlier, but were turned down. So it didn't take long to realize what the opportunity meant. They piled their equipment into Amadio's Ford Explorer and braced for the 30-hour, nonstop road trip to Austin.
A playlist of the band's leading influences - The Beatles, The Stones, Bowie, The Police, The Smiths, Lou Reed and Elvis Costello - helped ease the tension of the ride, as Amadio and Vantine pulled alternating five-hour shifts in the driver's seat. "It was a brutal ride, but we enjoyed it. It was something we always wanted to try - living on the road like that," says Amadio.
The Fleeting Ends had been chosen to replace some no-shows at the Philadelphia Invasion, a performance showcase featuring some of Philly's most upandcomingest acts, including local funkologist, Boy Wonder. The venue, a club called 219 West, was located just two blocks from Sixth Street, Austin's main drag.
Rolling into town at 8:00 p.m. Friday night, sleep-deprived and sore from their cross-country trip, the band had less than a day to settle in and get familiarized before their Saturday afternoon set. Onstage, they say, it didn't take long to find their groove. "All-in-all it was a great experience. We played a great show and had a lot of fun," says Vantine.
After their performance, they stuck around, had a few drinks, soaked in the atmosphere and enjoyed the rest of the evening's lineup. "The crowd started to pick up as the night went on, and, just like at all our shows, we made sure that everybody got a copy of [our self-titled] album," says Amadio.
They say the gig turned out to be a great opportunity to network with likeminded bands and score quality facetime with promoters, producers and other industry heavies. "Austin was thriving because of SXSW," says Vantine. "It was music all across the board and people from all over the world."
Playing a venue of that magnitude, spur of the moment, really seems to have clinched something for The Fleeting Ends. "We plan on taking [our music] very seriously going forward," says Amadio. "We want to make some great albums, grow our fan base...We got our first taste of what it's like to tour and we loved it."
