Best of Austin: Nightlife
Presenting our 16 favorite clubs in the Live Music Capital of the World (hint: there’s more to Austin than Sixth Street).
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The Long Center
Year Opened: 2008
Cover: Yes
Drinks: Full bar
Capacity: 2,400 (Michael and Susan Dell Hall)
Noise Level:
Austin finally got rid of that ridiculous Palmer Auditorium, the huge seaweed-green civic auditorium that resembled a sickly turtle and branded the city as a place stuck in the past. A good deal of the old building was salvaged—including the chamber ring that held up the roof—but in the context of the new Long Center, the whole thing looks positively mod. The $77 million structure has only been around for a year and a half, but it’s already busy with its three staples—the Austin Symphony Orchestra, Austin Lyric Opera, and Ballet Austin. Leonard Cohen sold out two memorable nights in April, and Marvin Hamlisch played a one-year birthday party in March. Perhaps the most notable event from the first year was when 881 people dressed up as zombies to reenact Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” on the terrace. Most shows are held inside, in one of two auditoriums: the 229-seat Rollins Studio Theatre and the 2,400-seat Michael and Susan Dell Hall. The sound is impeccable; you can hear every vocal harmony and plucked note. Even better, there’s not a bad seat on any of the levels. One of the most intriguing features: You can order a drink to be waiting for you at intermission. And the wine comes in an actual glass. Take that, Emo’s. 701 W. Riverside Dr., 512-457-5100 or thelongcenter.org. Check Web site for schedule.
The Mohawk
Year Opened: 2006
Cover: Varies
Drinks: Full bar
Capacity: 850
Noise Level:
The emergence of the Mohawk as the favorite bar of Austin’s indie-rock-loving cool kids was something of a shock. The place is best remembered for its seventies-era heyday as the Caucus Club, an upscale hangout for legislators, lobbyists, and would-be wheeler-dealers, which was followed by a late-nineties incarnation as a venue for bad jazz and neo-lounge acts that earned it the nickname “the Caucasian Club.” But now it’s The Place to Be on Red River, its elegant dark-walnut bar melding perfectly with the hipster irony of bed-head haircuts, homeless-guy beards, summer scarves, and cans of PBR. The spot feels like the kind of multilevel nightlife theme park you’d find in L.A. or New York. There’s a large outside stage and a more intimate one inside, plus five bars, two sweeping decks, and, if you need a break from the music, a quiet upstairs lounge that once hosted Texas Hold ’Em games for wayward state officials. The acts are as eclectic as the term “indie” implies, welcoming road shows like the Juan MacLean and the Decemberists and triumphant homecomings for bands like Spoon, Okkervil River, and Ghostland Observatory. 912 Red River, 512-482-8404 or mohawkaustin.com. Open daily.
Momo’s
Year Opened: 2000
Cover: Yes
Drinks: Full bar
Capacity: 360
Noise Level:
In the newly thriving west Sixth Street district of discos and pubs, Momo’s is the place that consistently books live music—and a lot of it, usually averaging four different acts, beginning around five and going until two. The club has a great stage, a dance floor in front of it, and chairs farther back. When you get tired of hearing the music up close, you can go onto the rooftop and enjoy the stars and the skyline; the club has kindly put up speakers outside so you won’t miss a beat. The bands are mostly young, with music ranging from singer-songwriters like Kacy Crowley to pop guys like Craig Marshall and college-rock bands like the Vincents. Recent Austin transplant Freedy Johnston has a Monday night gig, and Patrice Pike has done regular shows there too. 618 W. Sixth, Ste. 200; 512-479-8848 or momosclub.com. Open daily.
The Parish
Year Opened: 2005
Cover: Yes
Drinks: Full bar
Capacity: 425
Noise Level:
Noted first and foremost for its excellent sound and sight lines, the Parish is considered the best listening room in town. But you don’t need a sound engineer’s sense for the club’s high-dollar system or the acoustic properties of its brick walls and hard maple floors to appreciate what that means—it’ll be reflected in the band’s performance. This is a club that musicians love to play. The Parish typically features touring acts that are too big or too loud for the Cactus Cafe, and the crowds tend to be fans with discriminating ears. If you don’t bump into at least one clerk from Waterloo Records, you probably haven’t moved from the bar in the back of the room. Since opening in 1998, it has been the site of some of Austin’s great musical moments, like a secret Wilco show in 2002 and solo performances by indie chanteuse Keren Ann in 2004 and erstwhile Brit rocker Nick Lowe in 2006. 214 E. Sixth, 512-479-0474 or theparishroom.com. Check Web site for schedule.
The Parlor
Year Opened: 2000
Cover: No
Drinks: Beer & wine
Capacity: 75
Noise Level: +
Perhaps the best family-run punk-rock pizza joint in the world, the original location of the Parlor is a tiny room crammed into the midst of the hip clothing and music stores along North Loop, in North Austin. It opened in 2000 and is run by Deborah Gill and her husband, Damon, who have six kids and five grandkids. The walls are red, with Damon’s and his son-in-law David Lujan’s paintings in black of Willie Nelson, Robert Johnson, the Ramones, and Alice Cooper, among others. The Parlor has a refreshing do-it-yourself attitude, from the food (the Gills make their own vegan sausage) to the service (many of the people behind the counter are musicians who play there). Though you’ll hear some weird folk and alt-country, such as solo multi-instrumentalist Ralph White (from the Bad Livers) or Scott Biram, most of the music at the Parlor is loud and fast, bands like Sodomorrhea and I Kill Cars. There’s no stage; bands play in the space to the right of the door as you walk in. The PA is simple and usually overmatched by the young kids playing their guitars unbelievably loud. And bands have to bring their own microphones. The Parlor never charges a cover, so if the bands want to make any money they pass around a tip jar. That means the musicians who perform do so for the hell of it. What could be more rock and roll than that? 100 E. North Loop Blvd., 512-454-8965 or theparloraustin.com. Open daily.
The Scoot Inn
Year Opened: 1871
Cover: Varies
Drinks: Full bar
Capacity: 800
Noise Level:
The owners claim that this funky old building east of downtown along the railroad tracks is the oldest continually operating biergarten in Central Texas. In 1940 it became Red’s Scoot Inn; lately it’s been known as the Scoot, the place with thin walls, whorehouse-red wallpaper, and a huge backyard where you can drink beer under oak trees that have been here as long as the place itself. In 2006 the Scoot was bought by the folks who own the Longbranch Inn. They built an outdoor stage—at which Spoon played a sold-out show in April—but they kept the ambience on the inside, including the excellent draft beer selection. They expanded the bar’s booking, bringing in everyone from the foot-fetish funk of Foot Patrol to prog-psycho-like Experimental Aircraft to rock bands like Dixie Witch. So come ready for beer and music—and be nice to the black cat that hangs out on the bar. 1308 E. Fourth, 512-478-6200 or scoot-inn.com. Open daily.
Stubb’s
Year Opened: 1996
Cover: Yes
Drinks: Full bar
Capacity: 2,100 (outdoor stage)
Noise Level:
Three different histories hang in the air at Stubb’s. The first belongs to the club’s namesake, late barbecue impresario C. B. “Stubbs” Stubblefield, whose original cue-and-juke joint opened in Lubbock in 1968 and quickly became an incubator for the generation of West Texas musicians—Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, etc.—who colonized/conquered Austin in the seventies and eighties. The second is the legacy of the One Knite, the blues club operated in this old stone building’s upper story in the seventies, a favorite spot to see Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan’s early bands, Texas Storm and Nightcrawler. But the more recent magic has come from shows at Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheatre. This outdoor stage stretches below the upstairs dining porch and looks out over a lawn dotted with live oaks that feels, despite its decidedly downtown location, like a Hill Country meadow. Touring acts appreciate that change of pace, judging from landmark shows by performers as diverse as George Jones, Broken Social Scene, the Roots, and, more recently, Conor Oberst and Jenny Lewis. The inside stage is for up-and-coming local acts like pop songstress Suzanna Choffel and wide-screen soundscapers Balmorhea, and on Sunday mornings Stubb’s hosts Austin’s original Gospel Brunch. 801 Red River, 512-634-8277 or stubbsaustin.com. Open daily.
T.C.’s Lounge
Year Opened: 1980
Cover: No
Drinks: Beer & wine
Capacity: 125
Noise Level:
The East Side Lounge is gone. The Shalamar Lounge is long gone. The Victory Grill is open, but only off and on. The Longbranch Inn is open but different, gentrified. And that leaves only T. C.’s Lounge, the last of the traditionally black East Austin blues joints. It’s a ramshackle wood-frame building about four miles from the Capitol, with questionable AC but plenty of free soul food in a crockpot on the bar. The crowd is mixed and the place so packed with dancers on Monday nights that the club literally shakes, a scene the downtown kids call “white night.” But Tuesday talent shows are a big draw for more-regular regulars, and with acts like Little Elmo Reed and Soul Track Mind on other nights, audiences can hear the best musicians that Austin never heard of. And don’t miss the early shows on Sundays, when Hosea Hargrove and the Blue Bloods play. 1413 Webberville Rd., 512-926-2200. Open daily.
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