Wow, I hit both ends of the mood scale multiple times in Austin. I went straight from the airport to the venue - just a short ride on an 80 mph (!!!) highway and then experienced my first low as I prepared to go to the will call window for my meet and greet envelope. I happened to look at my paperless ticket receipt and OMG the credit card digits were unfamiliar!! I had used my TJ Maxx Mastercard for previous paperless tickets, but those numbers did not match. I searched my wallet for matching numbers - I had several cards with me - but none matched! Would I be missing both my meet and greet and the show after traveling all this way??? Panic!
Happily, with photo ID, my receipt, and several other cards with my name, Will Call said they were allowed to re-issue the ticket 30 minutes before showtime. What a relief. But now there was a huge line waiting for the gates to open and I had only 15 minutes to make it to the meet and greet location - a new panic set in. I asked security if there was a special entrance or "go to the head of the line" for meet and greet people, but no go. I waited nervously for the line to advance and then booked as fast as my old knees would go the long distance (1/2 mile or more) from the entrance to the stage. Made it just as staff was beginning to organize the group!! So now I was on that giddy pre-meet and greet high. All of us were fanning ourselves like crazy in the heat, hoping not to be hot sweaty messes when we met the man.
Keith was a little tardy but we patiently (well, impatiently actually) waited for his appearance. He arrived looking oh so fine in an olive green safari-style shirt. They nicely had divided the meet and greet crowd in small groups and the Ville members went first. I was with 2 Texas gals. We entered the dimly lit black tent (I was last). Keith greeted each of us individually with a hug : ) . I introduced myself as Linda from Iowa and Keith made my spirits soar a second time when he said " I KNOW you Linda from Iowa!" I took the opportunity to poke fun at him: "Texas in August!??" I asked. "You Southern Aussies must love the heat!!" Keith replied " Or I must have a death wish..." He asked the others where they were from. One gal replied "Mercedes" and Keith, the car buff, asked "Is there really a place called Mercedes?". The other gal was from San Antonio. He then scooped me into his left arm for the photo, looking at me and saying "I'm so glad you came baby," and reached around the Texas gals with his right arm. They snapped 2 shots and then, all too soon, it was over. I must have walked out in a daze because one of his staffers ran down the ramp after me, asking "Don't you want a bracelet?" (the souvenir).
As I went to my seat I kind of I looked around with a bit of a sinking feeling. There was NO roof over reserved seating at this venue, it was sweltering hot and several hours until sunset! (Little did I know I would be cursing the absence of the roof long after than). The video screens carried warnings to drink lots of water, don't wait until you're thirsty, and drink a water after every alcoholic beverage. But shortly my mood boosted quite a bit. Every venue numbers their sections differently. I had been to a few where sections 1,2, and 3 are up front by the stage and 4-8 or 9 are the upper tier sections. I thought I was in 4 and it would be another "upper tier" far from stage night. But no, I was in F4 which meant floor 4 (just behind the pit), 6th row.Much better seats than I thought I had ! I would have a great view of Keith!! (Little did I know again that that view would never materialize : ( )
I did have a great view of Dustin and Little Big Town. Little Big Town was great as usual. But Midway in LBT's set it began to drizzle (ah that's refreshing!), and then rain (oh, that's cold rain!). When they left stage the video screens suddenly showed a warning that a serious electrical storm was heading for us and we needed to evacuate the premises for our safety. They were essentially going to 'cattle herd' several thousand people (13,000?) about 3/4 of a mile in the rain to their "garages" for their formula 1 racetrack. They got a lot of resistance, and people try to hide away in the nearby washroom buildings, but they kept prodding the crowd along. I made it the half mile back to the park entrance but could see the garages were still distant and would require going down (and later up) a substantial hill. I didn't think I could handle that trek so I and quite a few others who had cars in the closest lots retreated to our cars for the duration (they opened all the gates and allowed this in this emergency). And it was a SUBSTANTIAL storm - lightening, torrential rain blowing sideways in winds that rocked my Chevy even though I was parked between other cars. It raged for a good 30-45 minutes. At 10 it had lightened to drizzle and we heard they would resume the show at 10:30. So the masses of people started making the long hike back (some actually "mooing" in this herd) but we were held out of reserved seating for quite a while. When we finally got close enough to see the stage I could see dozens of crew members squeegeeing waves of water off the stage, lifting dripping cables, looking sadly at equipment. The video screens showed only a few random dots of light. We waited another 15 minutes and then the manager gave us the sad news that the lights, the sound and production systems had been taken out by the storm and there was no way to resume the show. We were told to watch their website for info on how they'll handle this.
So it was another very sad hike out of the arena by thousands of disappointed fans. It didn't quite match the sadness experienced by those of us at the Mohegan Sun venue when Keith's performances there were canceled because Keith had entered rehab, but still very sad.
But the evening did not, thankfully, end with that 'funeral dirge' march back to my car. Earlier in the day I had looked up "late night restaurants" on that side of Austin, so I punched an address into my GPS and ended up at a really delightful place called Justine's Brasserie. Brightly lit with festive bulbs and nice outside tables, I chose to dry off at an inside table in this funky, somewhat French - looking place, which was just hopping with diners at midnight on a Thursday night. I had wonderful chef specials. I am definitely a foodie and Top Chef fan and loved my cabbage and radish salad with bacon viniagrette, blackberries and charred shishito (sp?) peppers, my grilled mackeral on a bed of bok choi and spring onions, and my grapefruit curd, grapefruit, shortbread, and ice cream dessert, making me feel oh so much better. Tomorrow is another day.
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