South By Sara Bareilles

I have a new girl-crush. Her name is Sara Bareilles, and I stood 15 feet away from her today in Waterloo while she and her two-guy "band" played and sang the most amazing music.

Admittedly, I had only heard "Love Song" on the radio when I rolled into the store today, benefiting from early arrival and rock-star parking. As I managed to find a good spot in front of the raised dais they were setting up as a stage, I realized if I'd been smart like the people around me, I'd have cruised to the Ice House next door and acquired a lovely foamy adult beverage. Que Sara Sara.

By the time she came to sit down in front of the electric piano, the place was packed to capacity and they were turning people away at the door. Everyone around me was keeping a respectful distance from each other, though, so it wasn't the crush you might expect. Although, I gotta say, hey, you, 6ft3 girl in front of me, what the hell. Back against a wall, sister, no one could see around you.

She seemed pretty genuinely surprised that so many people would come see her in a record store, and even more surprised when she asked who was here in town for SXSW, and no one said a word. We were all local, as was apparent by the way we cheered her compliments about Austin and the extreme absence of hipster ID badges and neon wristbands.

Honestly, her voice was amazing. Not, like, Mariah Carey arpeggios or anything, but full of feeling and nuance. You could tell there was a soul there, and she interacted a lot with the audience as she was singing. There was a mother and about 6-year-old daughter in front of me, and that little girl knew all the words, let me tell ya. She was a cool enough kid that she just mouthed them, but a couple of times the kid caught Sara's eye and she'd smile at her while singing, and you could tell she and her two guys (an acoustic guitarist and drummer with a stripped-down kit) were really enjoying the enthusiasm and appreciative of the reception. the best part was the performance was being recorded for a compilation that will be released for Record Store Day on April 19. So you might actually get to hear me "Wooooo!" somewhere in there.

The line to sign stuff was forming after the performance, and I started to buy a disc and have her sign it, but two things stopped me: 1) I like my music digital, and that's technically green, and 2) the line snaked around the building and stopped directly in front of Amy's Ice Cream. I'm trying to be good, and I would roll an old lady for some Mexican Vanilla with strawberries. So in the end, I got in my car and cruised over to Baby Greens to get a kick-ass salad and got to work a scosch early.

There's also a chance some of us will get to see Bowling For Soup at the Cedar Door at 1 a.m. tonight/tomorrow morning. Details to follow in this unplanned SXSW adventure....