https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/music/2023-01-13/tour-diary-on-being-a-lemonhead/

Tour Diary: On Being A Lemonhead

By Paige Applin, January 13, 2023, 2:45pm, Earache!

Paige Applin is the singer/songwriter/guitarist behind the Austin band On Being An Angel. In December, the group returned from their first-ever tour opening for the Lemonheads, for three weeks.

The run, during which the Boston alt-rockers performed their 1992 album It’s A Shame About Ray in its entirety, also included dates with Juliana Hatfield. The Chronicle asked Applin, also an employee at End of An Ear, for her reflections.

Working at a record shop, there are inevitably artists that perhaps get a little too much play-action at the hands of particular employees. Personally, I can admit that I am guilty of letting the Lemonheads and Juliana Hatfield fall into my rotation maybe a little too often (in the opinion of my coworkers, that is). So imagine my surprise when I found myself hanging at Hotel Vegas at the same time as Lemonheads frontman Evan Dando during the arguably more mellow post-COVID South by Southwest return of 2022.

I’ve never been one to shy away from saying hi to my idols, so I knew my only choice was to introduce myself and see where it would go from there.

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After talking over the obvious subjects (Gibson SGs, Jeep Cherokees, Florida Georgia Line, etc.), I was over the moon to realize I just made a new friend in one of my favorite musicians. We exchanged phone numbers, and just a month later I wound up in LA at the Wiltern for the Lemonheads show – and then onstage singing backup for “Bit Part” with Evan (a vision that I very well might have had once while daydreaming).

We said our see-you-laters as the night drew to a close. Evan handed me the acoustic guitar he had been toting around all night (restrung lefty for me to play some songs for him) and said, “This is yours now. I want you to have this.” I stood there, jaw dropped, trying to deny that I could take the gift – but he was insistent that he didn’t want it anymore, and I had to take it.

Once I returned to Austin – and, more importantly, to reality – I found myself regularly going back and forth with Evan, sending songs we’ve been listening to and videos playing guitar amongst the chit-chat. One day, I sent him a rough demo of a new song [On Being An Angel was] working on (which became “You Say”). He replied with, “You should come on tour with us later this year with Juliana [Hatfield]” … Um OK!

As I sat around for a couple months holding this secret (in fear of jinxing it), I finally got the call from their manager saying it was all settled: We were on the tour! It seems like a dream to open up for two of your favorite musicians, let alone for your first tour ever. We had a few months to get everything sorted before heading out, so now was time to turn up the heat.

We burned some CDs, screenprinted some shirts, recruited our friend [Carson Wilcox] (of Houston band Narrow Head) to play drums, and rented out a van for the month. We got our friends, local filmmakers Sarah Nation and Nick Harral, to film and edit a music video for “Brit Boy” before the tour, to give people a little taste of what they were going to see. All that was left was to begin the trek from Austin to Seattle for the first show.

About three days later, we arrived on Thanksgiving night to find our friend Dan Salas (of Seattle’s rockers Versing) preparing a gracious feast for us, and the next day we were primed up and ready to rock. As an opening band, there’s always a little bit of worry that people won’t show up early, especially if you’re a pretty unknown band playing in new cities for the first time. But lucky for us, the majority of the shows had a killer crowd there by the time we hit the stage, and we received great responses throughout the tour!

Whether it was singing backup on “Bit Part” in Denver with fill-in drummer Bill Stevenson (of the Descendents, and a Lemonheads himself at one point), or playing to a sold-out crowd at the legendary First Avenue Club in Minneapolis, this tour was one for the books. I find myself wondering how much of this experience was pure luck, but it all started with just saying “hey.” Not only did I get to meet one of my favorite musicians, but he proved to be a great person overall and someone I now consider a friend.

Only time will tell what 2023 has in store for On Being An Angel…

For more OBBA, find the band playing with Seattle act Supercrush and Pile of Love at Mohawk on Jan. 25. Applin also provides spirited updates on their website, onbeinganangel420.com.