788. Austin's Live Music Scene

Where: Austin, Texas
When: June 2-5, 2015
With: Dave, Lazar & Patricia

Austin and live music. 

The two words go together like Texas and cowboys. When trying to plan this Austin weekend, it was hard not to find a bar with live music playing. So this entry is more about my time in Austin and what I did since music was just always a part of the activities. 

When we arrived, Patricia and Lazar picked us up at the airport, and we were off. Driving through the outskirts of Austin, I got the vibe of Brooklyn-meets-the-south. The city had a fun, edgy feel to it, plus lots of food trucks promising great Tex-Mex. I was sold on this place almost immediately.

We got a great airbnb right in the downtown area, so once we were all settled, we could walk to the main drag of Austin: Sixth Street. This is the Austin version of Bourbon Street. At night, the entire street is shut down to cars, monitored constantly by police on horseback, as drunken college students, bachelorette parties and locals flood the streets with their loud tomfoolery. It was quite a sight to see and brought me back to my college days. 

While it was fun to see, I'm ten years past it and can only take so much. Luckily, Dave booked us a table at a speakeasy (reservations and password required) called Midnight Cowboy. The history of this bar space was almost as interesting as the bar itself. The building used to front as an Asian massage parlor, but when the authorities cracked down on it, they found it to be more of the "happy endings" type of massage. So the building was bought out, cleaned up (I hope), and turned into a quiet cocktail bar. Really fun. 

While that was a great way for us to all catch up, we needed a bit of music in our life. So after finishing our drinks, we invoked our inner 22-year-olds and went across the street to a bar with cheap beer, loud music, and lots of people. Plus, the bar's second floor allowed us a view onto Sixth Street below. We danced our hearts out for all of 20 minutes before they shut down for the night, but it was the perfect amount of time. 2am? Bedtime. 

The next morning was our day to explore Austin. And what better way to start than with a Tex-Mex breakfast. This place was a bit out of the way and hidden, but totally worth it for its migas (basically scrambled eggs mixed with a bunch of stuff, like cheese and veggies, but most importantly, bits of corn tortilla). 

Next, we did what any good visitor to Texas should do: go worship the Lone Star in the State Capitol.  

And seriously, if this building is a church, then the star is its cross. Those things were incorporated EVERYWHERE. I had no idea what I was in for when I saw the front gates. 

Outside the building is a nice little park with some controversial homage paid to the Mexicans, Native Americans, and Spaniards. Everyone looks so happy and mingly. Not sure that's how it really went down between these groups of people. 

But aside from the potential racism, the park was a shady respite in the oppressive Texas heat. 

Upon entering, some more stars and Texas lovin' (even in the hinges of every door in the building). 

Once inside, the dome was completely open in a giant rotunda. Hard to get a good shot but it went up so high and was very pretty.

The dome provided great acoustics, which was displayed by the quartet playing when we entered. It was really nice and peaceful to hear. 

Oh wait, what's that at the top of the dome? Right, another star. 

Pay homage to W. 

The Capitol runs tours every 15 minutes, so we hopped on the next one to get the lay of the land (even though you can shockingly just wander around these parts with no accompaniment). This was the Senate Chamber

This was the House of Representatives. 

Check out the lights and the chairs. More stars! It was like an Easter egg hunt.

Lyndon B. Johnson, another Texan. 

We quickly lost interest with the tour group and wandered off on our own through the building. Which means we got terribly lost, but got to see some different parts. Mostly more lone stars and a lot of remembering the Alamo.

Officially museum-ed out for the day, we ate some lunch and started our exploration of the city itself. In the later part of the day, the sun became mildly less intense, and we decided to do a self-guided walking tour through a phone app called deTour. The company offers off-the-beaten-track tours of cities and gets its listeners to interact with locals, enter shops they normally wouldn't and explore areas they'd never see otherwise. The app hones in on your location and tells you where to walk with tidbits along the way as you pass certain sights. It was so cool!

The only tour offered for Austin was a little known story of a series of murders that were never solved. In 1885, seven women were dragged from their beds at night, mutilated, and found dead in the streets. The city was in a frenzy, and the murderer was never found (some question whether the murderer moved to London, as Jack the Ripper popped up a couple years later with a similar style and MO). Five of the seven women killed were black servant girls, giving the unknown murderer the name "Servant Girl Annihilator". 

The tour is meant to showcase Austin's history and present using the case as a baseline. To start, we were told to walk into an old hat shop, pick up a bottle on the counter next to the register, and smell. The musky scent was a popular cologne of the late 1800s and was meant to take us back 130 years. The lady behind the counter was completely not bothered by the whole exchange. 

We then walked to the house of William Sydney Porter, a famous American author known as "O. Henry". He lived here in Austin during the murders and coined the name of the serial killer. Actually, in a letter to his friend, he stated that at least the murderer "makes things lively in the dull hours of the night". Compassionate. 

The old train station, where people used to arrive to Austin in the 1800s, now a restaurant and bar. 

One of the creepier parts of the tour is when we had to walk along Walter Creek, where a couple of the bodies had been found. It's still a seedy area, with lots of sketchy people living down there. The tour even tells you "just keep walking, no one will bother you if you don't bother them". 

One of my favorite parts of the tour was this hidden courtyard that contained a maze in the cobblestones. The idea was that if you pick a path and resolve to follow it, your mind will clear by the time you reach the center. Needless to say, we spent about 15 minutes here, all walking, no one speaking, while music played from the tour on our earbuds. It felt like being in some indie movie. 

 The next stop on our tour was the Driskill Hotel, one of Austin's most luxurious hotels. Completed in 1886 (one year after the murders) we were encouraged to go in, have a drink and soak up the atmosphere. 

The Driskill had this amazingly Texan hotel bar (lone stars on the ceiling!). Definitely felt like classy citizens in the 1800s. Even more so when the live music began. A really cool atmosphere.  

Our final stop on the tour was at the top of a parking garage...? Yeah, the tour was really fun, but some of the places we went were odd. This was actually the location of the home of the last victim, but the tour led us to the top of the garage to give some great views of Austin. And again with the hipster indie music playing in our ears while the sun went down, we felt like we were in a movie. 

Our closing photo of the tour: the shadow photo. Super hipster.

Our final Austin activity of the day was to attempt to see the famous bats of the Congress Avenue bridge. Literally, millions of bats live under this bridge and every night, they migrate out in a black wave of horror. We headed to the bridge as the sun was going down for a good spot.  

The view from the bridge. As the night settled in, boats, kayakers and SUPers started gathering at the base of the bridge to see the bat show. 

By the time it was dark, the humans were in a full on frenzy. The park along the river was filled with people, "bat lamps" were shining on the bridge, and we were all squinting in the dark waiting for the bats to appear. 

Then someone pointed down. In one of the most disappointing spectacles I've ever partaken in, it appears the bats didn't want to leave. They were just flying in circles around the lights under the bridge. You could just barely catch a glimpse of them. No giant wave of black escaping from beneath us. No giant shapes filling the night sky. Just teeny-tiny flecks darting in and out of the light. You can see the random smattering of them in the photo below. Although that could just be the reflection of light off the water. I can't tell. 

Point being, a big letdown. We learned later that this isn't the season for the bats. Oh well, thanks a lot, Trip Advisor. 

The next day, we headed out to Texas Hill Country, but that is another item from the book and another post. So I'll skip ahead to our last day in Austin, when we went to a local-landmark-turned-tourist-trap: Stubb's Bar-B-Q. Every Sunday, they are famous for their Gospel Brunch which features live music (shocker) and all you can eat breakfast and BBQ. 

The prime time seating is in the basement, where the band rocks away. We were not so lucky to sit down there, but the music was blasted throughout on speakers and I snuck down for a few photos. 

The spread was pretty ridiculous. Everything you could imagine was served, with as much of it as you could want: brisket, eggs, beans, bacon, catfish, migas, biscuits & gravy, pancakes, grits, and sausage. And of course, pies and cobblers for dessert. It was tough to be so full but still want so much more to eat. 

On our way to the airport we made one last stop at one of Austin's largest boot shops, Allen's Boots. We just had to see it. 

I guess I was surprised by two things. One was the sheer variety in color and design available for cowboy boots. There were just so many! Second was the cost. Real leather is not cheap!!

While we enjoyed looking around, we saved our purchase of cowboy boots for another day. We still had lots of fun trying on hats and admiring the "formal" cowboy clothes.

 While there was lots of live music left to be heard, it was a great first experience with Austin. I always love visiting Texas and seeing how unique a state it is. Next time, I'm coming back for these boots.