● Still spinning1955 — today
Continental Club
South Congress
Supper club, burlesque room, blues landmark. The 80s revival ran through this stage, and Monday residencies still feel like a secret the whole city keeps together.
CScene notes
The Austin scene
The live music capital keeps rebuilding itself on top of its own venues. These are notes from the rail — the rooms still holding the line, and the ones we owe a toast.
The rooms
● Still spinning1975 — today
Antone's
Downtown (5th St.)
Clifford Antone booked the blues legends everyone else forgot, and gave a teenage Stevie Ray a stage. Moved addresses more times than a touring band, never lost the thread.
● Still spinning1974 — today
Hole in the Wall
The Drag
The front window on Guadalupe has framed forty years of first gigs. Townes Van Zandt played here. So did every Austin band you love, before you loved them.
● Still spinning1964 — today
Broken Spoke
South Lamar
A honky-tonk dance hall wedged between condo towers that grew around it like the city apologizing. Two-step lessons at eight, real country at nine.
◌ Gone, not forgotten1970 — 1980
Armadillo World Headquarters
South First
The armory-turned-ballroom where hippies and cowboys discovered they liked the same music. Willie made it a home. Demolished for an office tower — the original Austin heartbreak.
◌ Gone, not forgotten1975 — 1999
Liberty Lunch
2nd Street
An open-air room with a tin roof where Nirvana, Sonic Youth and every touring act of the 80s and 90s played to sweaty capacity. Torn down for city offices. Never replaced, never equaled.
From the catalog
VIMZ-007Crate WatchDollar-bin diving in Austin: a strategy, not a gamble
The dollar bins at End of an Ear, Breakaway and Antone's Records are not trash — they're an unsorted archive. Here's my route, my rules, and last month's $14 haul.
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VIMZ-005Austin SceneThe Continental Club: what 1955 sounds like in 2026
South Congress has been remodeled around it, but the Continental's back room still sounds like Austin used to. A short history, and why Monday residencies are the city's best-kept ritual.
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