Apparently, you can't just stack people up in seats when they have the same tickets.

A word to the wise: you can't sell the same two seats to three different pairs of people. They get upset (and understandably so).

Another piece of advice: if you do, for some reason, sell two seats to three different pairs of people, do your best to make sure that it hasn't happened in the past to any of those people.

Sigh.

No transition is ever painless, and at tonight's Dar Williams/Shawn Mullins concert, the Great Ticketing Software Change of 2008 doled out the hurt yet again. It doesn't matter that 99% of things have gone smoothly (well, okay... maybe 95%). What matters is the 1% that has not.

It's our job to make sure everyone has a great experience at the Englert. I think, after a lot of quick problem-solving, talking, listening and hoping, that the three groups of people affected by tonight's little ticketing snafu all ended up happy and enjoyed the show. If you're reading this - thank you for being patient and understanding. You didn't have to be, so I appreciate it.

I only saw the end of one song the entire tonight, but I heard most of both sets from the box office. Wow! I'm not just saying this to say it - both Dar and Shawn sounded amazing. In addition to effortless singing and sharp songwriting, both of them interacted with the crowd as if they were all sitting around in the living room of their houses.

The show got over around 10:40, and when I left at 11:30, Dar and Shawn had been out in the lobby for a good 45 minutes, talking with a (still) pretty deep line of fans and signing autographs: