Category: Music
Austin City Limits 07 Accessibility Review
It's that time of the year for another great music festival and damn, Austin City Limits is a good one. It's big enough but not Bonnaroo big. The festival is hosted by Zilker Park and the two "main" stages are on opposite ends. The park grounds are much more wheelchair friendly compared to the farmland at Bonnaroo. At Bonnaroo, I ran into a lot of tire tracks and other uneven ground from the weeks of setup. For the most part, Zilker Park was pretty grassy and easy to roll over. I wasn't rocking out the big Kenda treads I was at Bonnaroo which I think definitely helped me out. My every day treads were good enough. I imagine they made it a lot easier to go uphill when switching between the two main stages throughout the day. At Bonnaroo, traveling between the two stages was a good workout. For us gimps at ACL, that damn hill is really the only pain in the ass. It's just steep enough that you don't want to tackle it head on. I found it best to go as far right as possible when heading towards the AMD stage. The hill felt smaller over there.
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Smirnoff Music Centre
I've never been to Smirnoff Music Centre and always thought it would be out in Frisco or somewhere around there opposed to just outside downtown Dallas. None-the-less, it was an alright venue. I usually don't dig outdoor venues simply because of the effects of weather and a few other different variables. Paul and I decided to do some serious pre-gaming before the Incubus show and so we arrived feeling quite good. Their was a ton of blue parking and most of it was pretty empty so we were feet away from the initial security gate.
When we first got to the security line this lady directed us to the left so I was thinking to myself, here we go, special treatment time but actually she was just showing us a less busier line. Immediately one of the security guy says he needs to check my bag (under my seat) and quickly kneels to do so. He says "Can't take the Coke in." Greaaat, we had a good bottle of Jim Beam mixed in there! Oh well, here's to paying $10 for two beers! This was a surprise because my under the seat bag has never been checked before at a venue like this. Hell, I've gone through airport security without removing it or having it searched a few times. No real loss though. I'm glad they checked it because Paul and I did not need any more liquor.
We made it to the ticket check safe-n-sound and the girl scanned our tickets. She didn't mention where we needed to go, where our "special" seating was, no map, signs, nothing. So we just rolled on in to figure it out ourselves. I had to take a leak so we veered left and found the restrooms. Their was one accessible stall. It was pretty damn clean because the venue had just opened up. The door opened outward and there was no trashcan. Well no trashcan anywhere in the restroom that I could find. Towards the end of the night I just started leaving my catheter stuff on the floor. I didn't want to put it back in my bag because who wants piss getting all over everything else. Well ... sometimes I'll do that but not here.
We then set out to find our seats. We headed for the first entrance we saw and quickly realized we were one section behind where we needed to go but surrounded by stairs. So we walked the entire length of the venue before popping out on the other side. I saw down in the middle of the venue what appeared to be another entrance and it was. Our seats were really nice, off to the right (center was for VIP) and pretty close to the stage. No complaints really. Even the companion seats were nicer then the usual metal/plastic ones.
Smirnoff Music Centre mikeagimp rating: 3 out of 5
House of Blues Dallas
House of Blues Dallas is now open. I recently was there for an Eisley acoustic show (which was kick-ass) and I was beyond impressed with their ADA training. As soon as we passed the original ticket check, a supervisor started yelling out "Everyone away from the green wall!" My friends and I were confused but they were doing it for me. He then ushered us out of the horrible heat and inside! He directed us to an elevator where another guy led us to our final resting place.
Our seats were kick-ass! Dead center on the balcony! So far they are the best seats I've had. Their was an older guy standing near us who was guiding other people to their seats and he was an ADA Nazi! He wouldn't even let my one other friend sit in any of the seats because they were ADA. Only one could be sitting with me at any given time. Which of course is the rule but damn, if the show isn't even sold out and there are plenty of seats around ... c'mon. He would not give!
The bathroom was a few feet behind us and was really clean. The door opened outward which as you know is always a bonus. I don't remember if there was a small trashcan in the stall but there may have been. Which is always sweet for a quick toss of catheter supplies or whatever else I'm using that day. It's just nice so I don't have to roll out carrying a pissed in tube and some lube.
HOB Dallas mikeagimp rating: 5 out 5