When a city’s tagline is Keep It Weird, you know you’re going to have a good time. Dive into one of the best live music scenes in the country.
Welcome to the Live Music Capital of the World. Austin, known as Texas’ liberal outpost, is home to the offbeat, the weird, and the wonderful. And that’s nowhere more evident than in the city’s Downtown, which is home to some of the city’s best museums and live music venues.
The Contemporary Austin: The Jones Center hosts one of the state’s very best contemporary art collections, with free entry on Tuesday. There’s also a great Mexican art museum and the Bullock Texas State History Museum, which recounts the complex story of the Lone Star State. Presiding over the district is the Texas Capitol building (which is bigger than Washington D.C.’s). Tour the building and its 22-acre gardens for free. Don’t miss another city institution: the Paramount Theatre, a 1915 landmark that’s still used as a movie theater today. It also plays host to multimedia events like South by Southwest, which takes over the city in March.
But it’s not just about official culture in Downtown Austin. This is the city of busking, breaking the rules, and embracing a bohemian lifestyle. Head to Sixth Street, which has been one of the city’s fun-time hubs since the 1970s. From 24-hour donut shops to old-school arcade game bars, Austin’s hipsters come out and play along here. Remember, this is the city that delights in living up to its slogan, Keep It Weird.
You can’t come to Austin and not take in some live music and in Downtown Austin, it’s almost impossible not to hear the guitar riffs that waft out of the numerous bars. Indie guitars are just one of the sounds you’ll hear tearing up the night; there’s also rap, jazz, spoken word, and mishmashes of everything else, all thriving in a DIY culture that keeps the city grooving and moving year round.