Austin City Limits

My my I sure am blogging a lot today, aren't I? I think it's the cold weather. It keeps me from wanting to do anything.

Monday night Anna and I went to see Sarah McLachlan at the Austin City Limits taping. It was so cool! She put on a fantastic performance and was really witty and warm while bantering with the crowd. She did utter a few 4 letter words, though. Not sure how they'll edit that. The sound is AMAZING! Anna said it was the best sound she'd ever heard at a show, and I have to agree. The only concert that could even come close was Morrissey at Royal Festival Hall in London, but they better have good sound there as that is a symphony hall! We were really close to Sarah, and it was so neat to watch the cameras do their work. A couple of times as the large crane camera swept over the crowd, I had some fear I might lose my head! But our noggins remained intact. They even had free beer, which I was so sad to not be able to take advantage of.

When we arrived, I swooped into a super-close space at the corner of 26th (Dean Keeton) and Whitis, right in front of my old dorm, Kinsolving. We headed to the Communications Building and asked a man where will-call was. It turned out to just be a guy in a blue shirt with a stack of envelopes standing outside the building. Very high tech. So we got our tickets, our hands stamped and we headed in the elevator up to the 6th floor. They have volunteers to shepherd you every step of the way, even operating the elevator for you. When we reached the 6th floor, we saw a sign informing us that the only restrooms were on the 2nd and 3rd floor (where we came in), so we headed back down and used the facilities. Then it was back upstairs for beer for Anna and water for me. All the seats were already taken so we stood in front of the stage. Eventually they brought tables and chairs and we were able to snag one after the 4th or 5th attempt (people kept stealing them from us. Sometimes being pregnant doesn't mean anything). We had a great time, and I was ecstatic that for her encore she did "Ice Cream", including an audience sing-a-long! I'm not the biggest Sarah McLachlan fan, but she is a great performer and her voice sounded amazing. I hope I can win more tickets to ACL tapings, it is a wonderful way to see live music!

The set is soooo fake in person, though. I can't believe that I used to believe that ACL was really taped outside in front of the Austin skyline. A friend my freshman year of college told me, "no, dummy, my Aunt works for ACL and it's taped in the communications building! That's a fake set!" Actually, I think she told me it was filmed in the basement, and it's really on the top floor, so maybe she isn't that smart either;)

Watch for Anna and I (and Sarah!) on February 14th on your local PBS station!