When you were at UT, What were the top clubs/bars?

Dog and Duck was at Guadalupe and 17th Street. It was a nice quiet pub until St Patrick's Day rolled around each year. Mike and Susan, the people who used to manage Dog and Duck, still have Opal Divine's in Austin.

 

Across the street or perhaps catty-corner from Banana's/Red Tomato, as I recall.

 

The first time I walked into this place, I walked out with a bloody nose (not hyperbole)



I think these guys (the Big Boys) were sort of like the house band at Raul's - the lead singer worked at Kinkos, a couple doors down on the drag. I remember one day I was in Kinkos for a paper I wrote and he had cut a swath through his hair with some shears and then parked a matchbox car up in there, like it was sitting in its driveway. I dont know how he got it to stay put but that little car stayed parked in its little drive, despite the always hectic pace at that place. The next time I saw him, dude was completely bald. It's weird the things you remember.



(this is not me, contrary to what you may have heard)

 

Hands down, the greatest club in Austin history - talk about leaving a mark

 

Another spot convenient to campus

 

I once saw Joe King Carrasco walk into the womens restroom here, with a long cord, and he just kept playing the guitar from inside. You could see the cord going under the closed door. The band kept playing, and the folks kept dancing. Men in the girlsroom wasnt as common back then

 

This was a great spot for two-stepping. There were several bands we would almost religiously go to see out here, but the shows i remember best were Delbert McClinton - so much fun. Also Joe Ely was a blast

 

I knew the bouncer here from surf trips to Mexico, so I always got in free. Some nights I just stood there swapping stories with him and never actually went inside. That guy ended up working on Wall St.

They just dont name them like this anymore, do they?

 

Once saw (pre-well-known) Stevie Ray Vaughan playing outside this place on the sidewalk, trying to get (basically begging) people to come inside

 

Not really "a club" and not at all near campus, but a part of the music scene in those days. The Grateful Dead played here most years -- that was quite the surreal environment. Just the parking lot alone was worth the effort to get there and it was an effort. And their shows were often 3 days. I got backstage one year - there was a tiny clubhouse in the back, with a small, tight pool table, an AC! and a stocked bar. I beat Phil Lesh in a game of pool - I could barely understand what that guy was saying.


They also filmed the live music scenes for the film "Roadie" here with Debbie Harry & Meatloaf. I am in the crowd down front with a very cute girl from West Texas on my shoulders for this. That screen was supposed to make Texas looks like Pittsburgh or somewhere like that

 

That unique mix of punk and cowboy and blues/rock just screams Austin! There are some other good live music towns like Seattle, NYC, Nashville, even Dallas, (and, of course, London), but I don’t think any place has ever created anything like Austin.

I radically expanded my musical tastes living in Austin to include all of the above and more.

 

That’s a beautiful photo.

For a couple of years I lived around the corner from CC in Travis Heights. Had a few good times there.

 

I came to UT listening to Led Zeppelin, The Who, David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed.

I left liking Country, Jazz, and Punk Rock, along with Classic Rock. I recently downloaded The Clash, The Dead Kennedy's and The Sex Pistols to my Apple Music. Eclectic, I know. You just hear it all in Austin. I remember Maggie Mae's and the Lizard Lounge. Oh and Liberty Lunch, I vaguely remember that place. In more recent years I have hung out at the Cedar Door.

 

Holy crap I forgot about the Cedar Door! I loved that place, the Mexican Margaritas, the deck, that old original bar they moved from the Lavaca (?) location. Austin Greatness.

 

Still is.

 

Yeah, but it's completely surrounded and overwhelmed by hipster condos on all sides. Back in the day, it was a lot more authentic with a radiator shop next door.

 

That's awesome.

Unfortunately in the 90s/00s "Emo" came to stand for something completely different in the music world.

 

By the early 90s, Don Walser was playing there some. What a hoot his act was. I didn't like country much until my Austin days when my tastes became very eclectic.

It's not that Austin causes you to think outside the box. It's that in Austin, there is no box.

The original Green Mesquite South of the River on Barton Springs = same sort of thing--vintage Austin. Good smoky Texas BBQ, with beer, served by waitresses with purple hair, tattoos, and many piercings, with a slightly weird country band one night and an indie/punk band the next.

 

Good call. You used to be able to sneak in (sometimes) through the small window into the mens room of Liberty Lunch. There was some white guy reggae band that played there a ton we saw all the time. Their best song was a cover of 96 Tears. Anyone recall the name of that band?

 

ps -- I can still visualize the moment another UT student told me about The Clash for the first time. We were at some Business School social function (lol) and he got so excited he started pounding my chest screaming, "You have to listen to this band! You will love them! The Clash are the only band that matters! Ayyyy!" I can still see him and hear him (afros for white guys were in back then), but I cant recall his name at the moment.

 

Amusing story on multiple levels...

The Clash’s Rock the Casbah video was filmed in Austin. Not a bad cameo for the city coming from (arguably) the hottest punk band in London at the time, the then-world center of that scene. They put a live armadillo in the video along with Winchell’s Donuts, an oil well pumpjack, a fake Arab sheik, and the City Coliseum. I heard Austin loved them, but the sheriff (the “sharif”) really hated them...

 

Of all the true Punk bands, The Clash was the best. They could actually play their instruments, unlike Black Flag, Dead Kennedy’s or The Sex Pistols. But without that stuff we would never get U2, REM, The Police and the like. How we got to the utter garbage they call music nowadays I have no idea....hey kids get off my lawn!

 

1975-1979

The Bucket
Abbey Inn
The Still
The Keg (15 cent beer night was legendary)
The Silver Dollar (ditto $1 pitchers)

 

The Clash - the only band that mattered.

 

Don Walker had some serious pipes.

 

I always thought the lead vocals and guitar of the Pistols was a great match and their combined sound worked for some weird reason. But their bass players were bad-to-awful and you cant run a good rock band without a good bass player.

 

If we are going there, then then Union itself had some cheap beer. We once got out of a freshman English Comp midterm in the middle of the Union when I beat the prof (part time guy) in the last toss of a death match game of quarters. Proudly took one for the team that day. Later wrote my "Leon and the Beanstalk" story where we had to convert a fable/fairytale to the current day. Jack was played by Leon Spinks, the giant was Muhammad Ali and marijuana seeds were the magic beans that yielded the most valuable commodity in the region (Spinks had somehow beat Ali for the heavyweight title in real life). Final grade A. Knowing your audience/customer is a huge part of sales.

 

Can confirm the armadillo

 

I really only got to experience Silver Dollar and I think the Still. Was that on Like 40th and Guad? The Keg was gone in 1980 Fall, but I understand that's where Earl hung out.
Where was the Bucket?
My brother was a bouncer Jeremiahs Greenhouse in that era. That could of been the old Still....

 

That would be the Lotions.