"Austin City Limits" closed taping for its 31st season on public television with perhaps its biggest star ever — Coldplay. And the show also will feature the quickest turnaround in the show's history, with just 8 days between recording and airing.

Seeing Coldplay in the cozy confines of Studio 6-A was an incredible experience. I saw the band from a mile away at ACL Fest this summer and came away disappointed, but this time it proved impossible not to feed off Chris Martin and company's hyperkinetic energy.

Most of the setlist was unsurprising, drawing heavily from X&Y ("Speed of Sound," "Talk," "Kingdom Come") but featuring a few earlier hits as well ("Yellow," "In My Place"). But there was one surprise — about a half-hour into the set, Coldplay brought Michael Stipe onto the stage to cover "In the Sun" by Joseph Arthur and REM's own "Nightswimming."

The music was good, but the banter was even better. Martin interacted with the 400 or so audience members between just about every song. He took special interest in a couple 10- and 11-year-old boys standing up front, dispensing advice for pre-adolescents, handing them lyrics sheets, and occasionally self-censoring his cursing. He also jokingly called out a clearly-embarrassed young man watching the band with arms crossed, and saluted Austin mayor Will Wynn for joining the studio audience.

This was my first ACL taping, and it's going to be difficult to try to top it. Celebrity doesn't necessarily presume greatness, but there's no question the world's biggest band delivered a great performance. And the experience itself was great as well, with the audience dotted with local celebrities like Lance Armstrong, Sheryl Crow, and Charlie Sexton, and ACL's first-ever live simulcast to a capacity crowd gathered across the UT campus.

See it yourself Saturday, Dec. 17 on your local PBS station.