Hot Country Punksters

"It's embarrassing," says Boone. "We're just glad nobody from Austin is there to say, 'Yeah, right.' When people start calling you Austin's hottest band, you don't know how other people are going to feel about that."

Yet during a recent stint on the road opening for Cake, The Damnations TX found it might be sparking more heat than just the appreciative reception it received from audiences. First, while playing the Bowery Ballroom in New York, the building next door caught fire. Then less than a week later, while on stage at the Agora in Cleveland, combustion happened again.

"We had all these problems with feedback, and we kept looking over at the monitor guy because it was really loud and hurting our ears, and he just threw his hands up in the air," recalls Boone.

"I was right next to him," says Kelly, "and he goes, 'I can't even deal with the soundboard right now because the system is on fire.' There was smoke pouring out from behind the curtain. Amy kinda wanders over to me nonchalantly in the middle of the song and whispers, 'Don't freak out, but backstage is on fire.'

"It was kind of weird: a second 'fire incident' while we were opening for Cake. We thought they were going to start thinking we were arsonists."

So maybe, in a way, The Damnations TX is Austin's hottest band.