Puking at Austin City Limits

I hadn’t been to Austin since the mid '90s, and was amazed by how much it's grown. Tons of tall buildings where there really hadn't been any at all. So many good restaurants with balmy outdoor gardens and pretty lights. So much coffee.

The first day there, we had a day off. We had a great dinner that night at an Asian BBQ joint called LORO with my friends Steve and Katie. The next day, Reed and I were both pretty tired, plus it was 100 degrees outside, so we just hung out at the Airbnb enjoying the air conditioning. I didn’t feel so great in the afternoon - I thought maybe I was dehydrated and that a super healthy, custom juice of some sort would revive me. So I did a google maps search and found what I thought was a juice bar within walking distance. When we got there, it turned out to be an ice-cream parlor. So instead of healthy green juice, we had ice cream. And then I felt even worse. We had to order a Lyft instead of walking the 1/2 mile back to the house. We were excited to be playing Austin City Limits. We learned when we got to the venue that despite giving the appearance on television of being a theater in the round (a stage with audience members surrounding it on all sides), it’s actually just a partial round, with audience members on roughly three sides of the stage. I was glad it wasn't an audience "in the round" because I was not prepared to be watched from all angles. As far as the audience is concerned, I am two dimensional, and I want it to stay that way. The dressing room was a ten (couch, armchair, bathroom, mirror and acceptable fruit plate). I was still feeling bad when I went to the stage to soundcheck. Something was wrong with my in-ear monitors, so Vince, the sound man, came to the stage to help us troubleshoot the problem. Meanwhile, I was getting increasingly nauseous and really didn’t want to throw up on stage. So I skipped the rest of soundcheck and hurried back to the dressing room bathroom where I promptly puked. I have no idea why. Heat stroke? Bad catering? I was a little nervous that I'd throw up in the middle of the live set, but thankfully I started to feel better quickly. The audience for our first night in Austin was great. We felt very welcomed. When I got off stage, Andy Whittle (Erasure's Tour Manager) asked me why I wasn't wearing the glittery dress.

Backstage after our set, Sascha from the crew told us that they were hiring a masseuse the next day (woo-hoo!) and that they needed to use our dressing room until 5 (oh). I guess we weren't invited. Who needs massages anyway? It's not like we're a bunch of fifty-year olds traveling around in a van for two months.

The second night at Austin City Limits was great too. Saw my friend Barbara whom I had not seen since the mid-nineties. My other friends Katie and Steve came backstage for awhile, partially to witness me drinking whiskey. We hung out, chatted and drank whiskey, diet coke, beer and ginger tea. I wore the sequins. Reed got a huge cheer when he played his Depeche Mode reference in Electrons....good crowd. Awesome city.