Austin, Texas • Live Music Capital
Clubs, honky-tonks, and the home of Austin City Limits — plus ACL Fest in October and SXSW in March.
Austin bills itself as the "Live Music Capital of the World," a slogan rooted in its unusually high number of live-music venues and a culture where you can hear a band play almost any night of the week. Music runs through the city's identity, its bars and clubs, its public television heritage, and two of the biggest festivals in the country.
From dive bars and honky-tonks to a restored downtown theater, here is how Austin's music scene fits together — and how to plan around it. Venue lineups and schedules change constantly, so check each spot's current calendar before you go.
Downtown's Sixth Street is the historic entertainment strip — a dense run of bars and clubs that draws crowds, especially on weekends, and skews toward a younger, tourist-heavy party scene. The stretch east of I-35 ("East Sixth") has become known for hipper bars and a strong live-music presence.
Just north of Sixth Street, the Red River Cultural District is the heart of Austin's original-music club scene, home to venues that have long been central to local and touring indie, rock, and punk. It is where many music fans go to catch bands rather than to bar-hop.
South Congress carries a classic Austin music history, and Rainey Street's bar district adds patios and DJs to the mix. Live music is genuinely everywhere — including at the airport, which is known for booking local acts.
On South Congress, the Continental Club is one of Austin's most storied music rooms, a longtime home for roots, rockabilly, blues, and Americana in an intimate setting.
Founded in 1975, Antone's is Austin's famous blues club — "Austin's Home of the Blues" — a room deeply tied to the city's blues history and the artists who came up through it.
The Broken Spoke on South Lamar is a classic Texas dance hall and honky-tonk, the place to hear country music and two-step on a wooden dance floor. It is a beloved, old-school Austin institution — the kind of dance hall the city is known for.
ACL Live at the Moody Theater is the downtown concert venue that serves as the home of the long-running Austin City Limits television program. Austin City Limits is a landmark PBS music series — the longest-running music program in American television history — and its heritage is a big part of why the city calls itself the live-music capital.
Named for the TV show, the ACL Music Festival is a huge annual event held in Zilker Park, typically spread across two weekends in October, drawing major headliners across genres and enormous crowds. It is one of the marquee events on the city's calendar — check the official festival site each year for dates, lineup, and tickets.
Held each March, South by Southwest began as a music festival and grew into a sprawling convergence of music, film, and technology/interactive programming that takes over downtown Austin for well over a week. During SXSW the city fills with showcases, panels, screenings, and unofficial events; it is one of the largest and best-known festivals of its kind. Dates, badges, and programming vary year to year, so consult the official SXSW site.
Beyond the marquee names, Austin is full of rooms worth knowing. Stubb's Bar-B-Q pairs a restaurant with an outdoor amphitheater that hosts touring acts. The Mohawk in the Red River district is a well-loved indoor-outdoor club. The Cactus Cafe, tucked inside the University of Texas, is a famous listening room for singer-songwriters and folk. The Saxon Pub is a longtime home for Texas songwriters, and the Elephant Room downtown is the city's basement jazz club. Lineups and even operating status shift over time, so check each venue's current calendar.
Country and Western dancing is its own thread in Austin's musical fabric. Two-stepping and swing dancing at honky-tonks and dance halls — the Broken Spoke being the most famous — are a living tradition, and many spots offer beginner lessons early in the evening before the band starts. It is one of the most quintessentially Texan nights out you can have in the city.
Because live music is so abundant, the trick is less about finding a show than choosing among them. Weeknights can be quieter and more relaxed than the crowded weekends downtown. Cover charges range from free to substantial depending on the act, and the biggest festivals sell tickets well in advance. Whatever you are after — a honky-tonk two-step, a smoky blues set, or a festival headliner — verify the date, lineup, and door details before you head out.
Downtown, East Austin, South Congress, Zilker, and the suburbs — where to live and hang out.
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