Thursday night was a historic one for Austin City Limits: the studio was officially designated as a rock and roll landmark, and it put on it’s first hip-hop show.

My neighbor Dusty was kind enough to give me one of his space available tickets for the (somewhat grueling) 3-hour double taping—we stood on the floor for the full set, and I learned one thing: it’s near impossible to draw and raise the roof at the same time.

Really rough doodles below.

Mos Def

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I’ve been wanting to see Elvis Costello live ever since I was a teenager. Last night, we got to see him tape Austin City Limits. Talk about wish fulfillment!

Sure, he was playing bluegrass (with The Sugarcanes), but his voice sounded great, the band was top-notch, and he was witty and great with the audience. We even heard “Mystery Dance”, “Everyday I Write The Book,” and “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding.” Not too shabby.

I was going to take the evening off and devote my attention solely to the music, but I pulled out the Sharpie for a couple doodles.

I frequently get asked by people how they can get tickets to ACL. You’re best bet is to follow Leslie (@theotherleslie) and Emily (@acltv) on twitter, and subscribe to the Austin City Limits blog for giveaways.

And to see drawings I don’t post to the blog, check my twitter feed!

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See all my drawings at Austin City Limits.

Drawn live during the taping w/ pen and index cards, stitched together in Photoshop.

Many thanks to Leslie Nichols and the folks at Austin City Limits.

Reviews of the show:

• Ultra8201 (including the set list)
  
• The Austinist

See my other drawings at Austin City Limits.

(Marker on index cards.)

St. Vincent: cute girl from Dallas with a pretty voice and a guitar that will melt your face off.

Thanks to @theotherleslie, @acltv, and @krlu for the tickets!

PS. Check out this rad picture of Dolly Parton St Vincent posted from the ACL dressing room.

PPS. The setlist & a rehearsal pic.

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A while back the Austin City Limits folks asked me to do a drawing for a tote bag. They’re not for sale yet at the ACL store, but they were selling a couple at the Heartless Bastards taping, so keep your eyes peeled if you’re heading to Studio 6A anytime soon…

UPDATE: Sara and Emily from KLRU tell me they’re for sale in the KLRU lobby!

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This was so much fun: when I was a kid, I used to stay up late nights watching the Columbus, Ohio PBS station to catch Austin City Limits. I dreamed I might play on the stage one day…turns out I’d be drawing the stage! Life is strange.

(The drawing came from the Drive-By Truckers taping.)

Thanks to @klru for the tickets. See all my Austin City Limits drawings.

We took a break from SXSW on Wednesday and went to the KLRU studios to see Andrew Bird tape an amazing set for Austin City Limits. If you don’t count the Squirrel Nut Zippers, I first saw Bird solo in Columbus in 2004, opening for the Magnetic Fields (he totally stole the show). I’ve now seen him three times. You must see this man live! Drew these after two or three free beers…

See more of my drawings @ Austin City Limits.

Whoo boy, you need to see these guys live. GREAT show. I got almost too buzzed to draw. Just solid country-tinged rock and roll. You can listen to most of their new album on myspace, but it doesn’t quite capture the energy of the live show.

I have more nice drawings from the night, but they might be used for a secret project…more to come on that.

Thanks again to the ACL folks for the tickets!

UPDATE: Here are two other drawings that I did during the taping—the second was used by the Austin City Limits folks on a tote bag!

UPDATE #2: From Patterson Hood:

…our Austin City Limits show from last fall will be released on July 7 on DVD. The DVD will include the entire performance (only about a third of it was aired when it came on TV). This is by far the best live performance of ours ever caught on film.
We were on, the sound was excellent, and the production value top-notch. We loved playing on that stage and the crowd was fantastic. It also features one of the last ever performances of “18 Wheels Of Love”, featuring the full monologue and the sequel monologue.

The Austin City Limits folks were kind enough to give us a couple of tickets to singer/songwriter Aimee Mann’s taping last night. She played a good batch of songs—a lot of stuff off her new album, like “Freeway” and “31 Today“, and my favorite performance of the night, the absolutely fantastic “Little Tornado“…complete with spaghetti western-esque whistling!

What’s interesting about her band is that its core is her on acoustic guitar, a bass player, and a drummer, and that tight unit is augmented with 2 keyboard players that provide coloring and atmosphere—altogether I counted 8 keyboards, including a MOOG synth, and a Hammond B-3 with a gigantic Leslie speaker. (Pity the poor roadies.)

She was nervous, so she told a lot of jokes. There’s free beer at ACL tapings, so people are constantly shuffling in and out to hit the can—”there go the pee-ers.” She called the camera a “weird, one-eyed monster” and told a funny story about trying to do a song for Shrek 3, before going into “Borrowing Time.”

There was a section in the middle where she did songs from PT Anderson’s wonderful film, Magnolia, including “Save Me” and “Wake Up.” She also did a song she wrote for PTA, “Red Vines.”

Bass player Paul Bryan was really the secret weapon of the night: great backing vocals, McCartney-esque basslines…and a terrific solo on the Three Dog Night song “One.” (Used as the opening for Magnolia.)

Here’s what the studio looks like as people shuffle in:

Thanks again to Austin City Limits!

Weekends in high school, I’d stay up late playing guitar, and then I’d watch Austin City Limits. Though I’ve visited the KLRU studio twice before, last night was my first time seeing live music there. I couldn’t have asked for a better show than Iron and Wine.

I’ve been a fan of Sam Beam (who now lives in Dripping Springs, about 20 miles SW of Austin) since I was in college, when his first album came out. He sounded like a southern Elliott Smith, whispering hushed songs from his bedroom. Each album of his has gotten better and better, adding more players, more instruments, more rhythms and intricate parts. The band last night was a downright funky bunch of eight musicians—the core was Sam on vocals/various guitars (he’s a fantastic finger-picker) and his sister Sarah on backing vocals/violin, filled out with Calexico pedal steel virtuoso Paul Niehaus, a Rhodes/piano player, a bassist, a drummer, percussionist, and guitarist/vibe player. (I wonder how many of the musicians were local…if anybody knows, please comment!)

I didn’t draw too much or take down a setlist because I was having too much fun drinking free beer and enjoying the music and Meg and watching the people and the lights and the camera booms swing around. However, there is a funny story behind this drawing:

When I saw the pedal steel player come out on stage before the set to tune up, I doodled this little cartoon. I love the sound of pedal steel. Meg bought me a lap steel a couple Christmas’s ago, but I still haven’t mastered it (I’m a decent guitarist, but not great on slide). I didn’t recognize him as Paul Niehaus of Calexico (huge fan). Later in the concert, Sam announced that it would be their last show with Paul for a while, so for the rest of the show, people shouted “Paul!” and Sam encouraged us all to “give another hand for Paul.”

The pedal steel player was the most popular guy in the room!

Here’s a good video of Sam and Sarah singing together, and here’s a good video of the band on Letterman (with a different piano player). You can read two other bloggers on the show here and here.

The show airs on November 15th. Don’t miss it!