New Venue Stretches the Austin City Limits

3/12/2008 Staff The PBS series, Austin City Limits (ACL) will soon be performing in a new theatre in downtown Austin that is slated to be ready for live shows in the next two to three years.  Loyal, nostalgic fans of the 33-year old music program can rest assured that much of the signature atmosphere will remain in the show's new, larger location. The new Austin City Limits theatre will seat approximately 2,000 people, and be able to host other concerts when not producing the music show.  While the iconic black, rectangular, wooden stage will make the move, the classic skyline backdrop is too fragile to travel, so the staff is hoping a 3-dimensional model will be a successful replacement now that the show is recorded in high definition. "Our foremost goal, above all else, is to maintain the same vibe, the same atmosphere that was created here, that has worked so well," says ACL producer Terry Lickona. "The last thing we want is to open this place, after all the dreams we had in the three years of designing and planning, and then have people come and say, 'They ruined it. They had a great thing and destroyed it.'" Many viewers are surprised to learn that the current Austin City Limits studio was built in the 1970s on the University of Texas campus.  Only 300 of the original 900 seats remain.  Brad Paisley, whose third appearance on Austin City Limits aired this past January, says, "It's like finding out that the Death Star in Star Wars was a 23-inch by 23-inch globe. It's tiny and intimate ... and indoors! And it's on the sixth floor of a building. It is a rare treat for the few hundred who ever get tickets to these shows because you rarely get to see touring artists in that intimate of a setting."  The country music star goes on to say, "It weighs heavy on your mind the whole time you play that this is no less important than recording an album, as far as securing a record of who you are as a performer."  

Austin City Limits has hosted over three decades of music performers across many genres.  Willie Nelson appeared in the 1975 pilot episode.  Texas-based bands Asleep at the Wheel and Townes Van Zandt highlighted the shows of the 1970s, while country artists Alabama, Reba McEntire, Emmylou Harris, Lyle Lovett, Dwight Yoakam, and George Strait appeared in the '80s.  Since the 1990s, Garth Brooks, Dixie Chicks, Vince Gill, Dierks Bentley, Brooks & Dunn, Toby Keith, Miranda Lambert, Dolly Parton, and Keith Urban have performed on Austin City Limits.  "I learned so much about guitar watching that show," Paisley says. "You don't see musical creativity on awards shows or variety shows or, especially now, reality shows. They restrict you too much. But Austin City Limits is up to the artist. I loved performances by Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Johnson, the Desert Rose Band, Steve Wariner, Thom Bresh, Chet Atkins. .... I guess all the guitar greats. It's the perfect venue for a player to stretch out."  According to Lickona, Alan Jackson also claims the Austin music show as his childhood inspiration to become a musician. These days Austin City Limits is more than just a television show.  ACL has organized a huge music festival and produced several CDs and DVDs of full concerts from the Austin City Limits archives, with hopes of eventually having each show available for download online. "We may be one of the few places left where you can tune in and enjoy a performance of five, six or seven or more songs, as opposed to just one shot, without commercial interruptions, so it really does feel like a concert experience," Lickona says. "Obviously, there are enough people out there who like it and keep coming back for more."