| Sometimes
it seems that all roads lead to Austin. Once a sleepy
college town and provincial capital, Austin is now the
17th-largest city in the country and a major center for
high-tech innovation, and it hosts 19 million visitors
a year. A good number of them are music fans making a
pilgrimage to the self-proclaimed "Live Music Capital
of the World." Aaron Reed takes a break from the
open road to lead an insider's tour of clubs, restaurants
and off-beat attractions in his hometown city. |
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Congress
Avenue runs straight and true from the funky SoCo
retail and entertainment district to the state
capitol. |
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The
1995 bronze sculpture by Glenna Goodacre captures
naturalist Roy Bedichek, folklorist J. Frank Dobie
and historian Walter Prescott Webb in what was
likely a typical pose for the three friends. Here,
on the hill above Barton Springs, the mid-20th
century authors carry on a conversation with no
end. |
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A
lifeguard scrubs algae and silt from the bottom
of the upper reaches of Barton Springs pool. |
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The
Continental Club on South Congress Avenue is an
Austin landmark. Jon Dee Graham, who plays a residency
show here most Wednesdays, calls it his "home
office." |
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The
Dry Creek Cafe is rumored to have the oldest still-valid
beer license in Austin. It opens in time for happy
hour, and closes by about 10 each night. Check
out the bar's backstory at its
very own MySpace page. |
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Guero's
Taco Bar is across the street and about half a
block south of the Continental Club. Stop in for
the top-shelf margaritas and self-serve salsa
bar. |
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Austin
has long been known as an oasis (or blemish, depending
on your point of view) of blue in a red state.
As dot-commers, real estate developers and tech
savants flooded into the area in the 1990s, so
did big chain stores. In 2000, "Keep Austin
Weird" became a rallying cry for local independent
businesses, answered by some in other parts of
the state with, "Keep the Weirdos in Austin." |
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A
terrazzo floor beneath the rotunda of the Bob
Bullock Texas State History Museum reminds visitors
that the story of Texas was "born around
the campfires of our past." |
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The
Texas State History Museum is, like the state
itself, bigger than life. A lone star fronts the
building and dwarfs a group of schoolchildren
on a field trip. |
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Schoolchildren
examine gem and mineral specimens in the Grand
Hall of the Texas Natural Science Center on the
University of Texas campus. |
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This
mososaur, an aquatic reptile about 30 feet long,
lived in the watrs covering central Texas more
than 65 million years ago. This specimen was discovered
in Onion Creek, which runs through Austin, by
UT geology students in 1934 and is now on display
at the Texas Natural Science Center. |
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As a road-trip destination, Austin, Texas, needs
no publicity agent, just the siren call of sound spilling
onto the city's streets and sidewalks. Here in the self-proclaimed
"Live Music Capital of the World" (the city has
actually trademarked the name), music sets the tone of the
town: vibrant, low-key and honest. It started back in the
Cosmic Cowboy days - more than three decades ago -- when Willie
and Waylon and Jerry Jeff and a score of others were redefining
roots music down at the Armadillo
World Headquarters and a handful of other venues. It continues
today with marquee festivals that have gained an international
following and bring hundreds of thousands of road-trippers
to central Texas each year.
For three days in the middle of September, some
65,000 visitors each day troop down to Austin's Zilker Park
for the annual Austin
City Limits Music Festival. In 2007, the event featured
more than 130 bands on eight stages. Earlier, in March, the
legendary South
by Southwest (SXSW) festivals brought about 1,400 performers
to town over four days. Now in its 20th year, SXSW attracts
music and film industry types and audiophiles from around
the world.
The festivals are a great way for music junkies
to catch top national names and local talent in one place,
for one price. For those of us who live in Austin, they bring
snarled downtown traffic, crowded restaurants and watering
holes, and a desperate desire to hit the open road. But Austin,
much like the rest of the Lone Star State, is a wide-open
and friendly sort of place. During the other 51 weeks of the
year -- when the crowds and concert promoters are on hiatus
-- the city's workaday heart and soul continue to beat strong.
What follows is my idea of how to experience
Austin the way the locals do.
My favorite music
There's no need to wait for a festival. Austin
has plenty of live music every night of the year. Some wag
once said that on any given evening, more than 100 live music
acts are onstage in the River City. I think that estimate
is probably high, but it's certainly true that you'll find
plenty of good music no matter when you roll into town.
"Residency shows" -- standing gigs
by established local artists -- are some of the best musical
values in town. Not only are the shows easy on the wallet,
the musicians are playing to small crowds of loyalists in
places where they really feel at home. These are the venues
where artists stretch their chops and try out the songs that
might appear on their next album.
Residency shows are bread-and-butter gigs, and
the schedules will change when the artists are on the road.
Be sure to call ahead to check each club's evening offerings.
Here are my picks:
Sundays at 7 p.m., head down to The
Saxon Pub on South Lamar Boulevard for a freewheeling
show by Austin's own supergroup The
Resentments. Scrappy Jud Newcomb, Bruce Hughes, Stephen
Bruton, Jon Dee Graham and John Chipman (on drums), swap songs
and instruments and microphones in a laid-back set that demonstrates
why each of these veteran performers boasts his own successful
solo career. This show is, above all, fun, and the venue is
one of the best listening rooms in the state.
Immediately after that show, head north across
the river to Momo's
at 618 W. Sixth St. The lounge, which has an expansive rooftop
deck, features fiddle virtuoso Warren
Hood (and his Hoodlums) from 9:30 p.m. to midnight. The
cover is just $5 at the door.
Monday evening, hop back over to The Saxon Pub
for an $8, 8:30 p.m. show by Bob
Schneider & Lonelyland. Schneider has gained a national
audience with his often irreverent songs, and roadshow tickets
often sell for $20 or more. In addition to being a fine songwriter
and musician, Schneider also is one heck of a businessman.
All of his shows -- including his standing date at The Saxon
Pub -- offer the opportunity to purchase a high-quality CD
recording of the show while the band is still clearing the
stage.
Wednesdays deliver my favorite double bill in
Austin: Jon
Dee Graham and James
McMurtry back-to-back at The
Continental Club at 1315 S. Congress Ave. Graham goes
on stage with his band at 10:30 p.m., and McMurtry takes the
stage at midnight. See both for one $7 cover. Though both
these artists have a place in the Texas singer-songwriter
tradition, they have very different styles. Graham wields
his electric guitar like it's part of his body, and his songs
often have a sharp edge -- both musically and lyrically. McMurtry
(yes, he is novelist Larry's son) has a more traditional acoustic
sound and has, in recent years, written some thought-provoking
and sometimes biting social commentary. Both are a ton of
fun to hear.
My favorite restaurants
You're going to have to eat, of course. Lucky
you! It's an odd fact that Austin has better Mexican food
than San Antonio or Laredo or El Paso. Of course, that's just
my opinion, but I'll defend it with my last tortilla.
Sunday evening, before heading to The Saxon Pub,
drive waaaaaay down south to Evita's
Botanitas at 6400 S. First St. This hole-in-the-wall restaurant
is my favorite (interior-Mex versus Tex-Mex) anywhere, and
it serves a veritable salsa buffet to every table. Try the
chicken mole.
Another Sunday option, either before or after
Warren Hood's show, is to stop in at Katz's,
the New York-style kosher deli downstairs from Momo's. It's
open 24/7, and the pickles are always crisp. My favorite here
is the Reuben sandwich: piles of juicy corned beef and sauerkraut
on crispy rye.
Monday night, give Curra's
Grill at 614 E. Oltorf St. a shot. Everything is good
here, but be sure to try the avocado margarita. It's a creamy-delicious
wonder.
Wednesday night's late shows at The Continental
Club offer a perfect excuse to hop across the street to Guero's
Taco Bar at 1412 S. Congress Ave. The charming, late-19th
century building is home to world-class margaritas. The tacos
are pretty darned good, too, and the fresh salsa is self-serve.
As you wend your way through South Austin (Oltorf
is a good cross street, connecting South First, South Congress,
and South Lamar), keep an eye out for Leslie
Cochran, the "cross-dressing homeless queen of Austin."
You'll know him when you see her.
But what about Tuesday?
Sure, there's live music on Tuesdays. But with
all the late nights this week, Tuesday might be a good day
to relax at the pool at Barton
Springs in Austin's downtown Zilker Park . The spring-fed
swimming pool maintains a steady temperature of 68 degrees
year-round and is home to the endangered Barton Springs salamander.
The pool is open from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. with lifeguards on
duty from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., except on Thursdays, when the
pool is closed for cleaning. Entry is free until March, then
$3 for adults.
Austin's museum scene is burgeoning, and the
Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum tells the bigger-than-life
story of the Lone Star State in grand (some might say grandiose)
fashion. Nearby, at 2400 Trinity St., on the campus of the
University of Texas, the Texas
Natural Science Center offers four floors of exhibits
from the university's world-renowned collections. Free to
the public, the center is open Monday through Friday 9 a.m.
to 5 p.m., Saturdays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sundays 1 to 5
p.m. Be sure to check out the "Paleo Lab" on the
bottom floor, where visitors are encouraged to watch the preparation
and preservation of fossil specimens and ask questions of
the paleontologists working there.
Another fine option for any day of the week is
a road
trip through the Texas Hill Country. Tuesday evening,
watch the sun set from atop Mount
Bonnell at 3800 Mount Bonnell Road, then head back down
the winding road to the Dry
Creek Café at 4812 Mount Bonnell Road for a cold
beer. The Dry Creek -- set in one of Austin's toniest neighborhoods
-- has been called "the dive to end all dives."
Sarah, the proprietress, is now enjoying a well-earned retirement
(she served icy-cold longnecks here well into her 90s), and
her son has spruced the place up a bit. But the jukebox is
still scratchy and full of treasures, the tables are still
rickety, and it's still a good idea to carry your empties
back to the bar.
These are the good old days
Bandied about so often that, frankly, it has
become tiresome, is this phrase: "Austin has really changed.
You should have been here in … [insert whatever year
the speaker first landed in the River City]."
And it's true, the city has changed - it's changed
noticeably in just the dozen years I've called it home. The
city once was a sleepy college town and provincial capital;
it's now a center for technological innovation and has grown
to be the 17th-largest city in the nation. It's also true
that it's harder to be a slacker here now. But if you know
where to look, there's still plenty of the "old Austin"
- the funkified, raw, hippie, unpretentious and just-plain-weird
Austin - to be found.
So, get out there and experience it, and someday
you, too, can say: "Yeah, but you should have been in
Austin in …."
Aaron Reed
11/30/07
