Close but not too close to the South Congress strip, the South Lamar pub is your favorite songwriter’s favorite venue: the 150-capacity club has been voted Best Music Venue to Play by the Austin Chronicle. The Saxon has hosted over 30,000 gigs since opening in 1990, sometimes squeezing in six acts from happy hour to last call. Rusty Wier made the cozy space his home club, and Kris Kristofferson dropped in whenever he was in town, saying performing here was like playing in his own living room.

It doesn’t get more legendary than this dive bar on the Drag, the UT’s main nightlife strip. (It’s even been recognized as a Texas historical landmark.) The 200-capacity club opened in 1974 as an arcade serving greasy food and 25-cent tequila shots, but it quickly became a live-music haven where anything could happen: You might catch Doug Sahm shooting pool, Spoon shooting a music video, or Emmylou Harris stopping by for a set after an ACL taping across the street.

Though it opened in 2013, the South Congress juke joint feels like entering a portal to Austin circa the late ’70s. Back then, C-Boy Parks ran a blues club, the Rome Inn, where he’d cook BBQ after shows by Stevie Ray Vaughan and The Fabulous T-Birds. Opened as a tribute to the beloved scene stalwart, the red-lit neighborhood favorite today is hung with vintage blues posters and hosts Chicken Shit Bingo on the patio on Sundays, along with a rotating lineup of mostly local rock, soul, and blues.

One of the last true music clubs on the “Dirty Sixth” strip, Antone’s has been an institution since Clifford Antone turned his sandwich shop into a blues bar in 1975. The 400-capacity space has since played host to legends like Muddy Waters and B.B. King, though today it hosts rappers like Paul Wall and cupcakKe and local luminaries like Gary Clark Jr., plus the long-running Blue Monday series hosted by Soul Man Sam. In any case, it’s your best bet for escaping the Sixth Street chaos.

The no-frills DIY space is where the local jazz avant-garde test the limits of their sound. Monks opened in 2016 as a pop-up listening room for improv jazz, then relocated in 2020 to its permanent East Austin home. By day, it’s a vintage-piano repair shop, and by night, it’s a tiny BYOB hideaway highlighting cutting-edge Texas jazz. With its fancy livestreaming setup, it’s also known as the city’s best virtual listening room—but the in-studio experience is where it’s at.

Up-and-comers and industry lifers alike gather at the Cactus Cafe, one of a few relics that remains dedicated to the folk and acoustic country scene that once dominated the city. Tucked in the corner of the historic Texas Union, its velvet-curtained stage has hosted intimate performances from great American songwriters early in their careers—think Lucinda Williams, Townes Van Zandt, and The Chicks. Its long-standing open mic tradition continues on Tuesday nights.

Since opening in ’91, the moody downtown club has identified as the opposite of a tourist trap, which means good beers, no-nonsense bartenders, and the best in local jazz. You might call the Elephant Room a jazz dive: It’s tucked in the historic Swift Building’s basement, lit by Christmas lights and candles, and plastered with dollar bills. As for the name: When developers broke ground on the building, they unearthed the largest discovery of mastodon bones west of the Mississippi.

A long line of new-school dives has occupied this stretch of East Cesar Chavez, and locals will recognize the low-slung lounge as the former home of Stay Gold and the Long Play Lounge. Where former incarnations focused on vinyl DJ sets, the Coral Snake skews toward live rock and metal, with rap and country scattered in the mix. The space opened in May 2023 with a new paint job—black, crimson, and yellow like its venomous namesake—but the cheap beer, taco truck, and rowdy atmosphere remain.

Though the hideaway opened in 2013, it’s got an old soul and deep roots. Austin has a long history of segregation, and most of its Black citizens lived on the east side; Skylark’s aim is to preserve the area’s Black heritage by highlighting the best in local soul, blues, and funk. Until she passed in 2020, the bar’s matriarch was Austin Hall of Famer Margaret Wright; today you can catch sets from Goldie Pipes and Willie D & the Hip Pockets and a Sunday residency from ATX legend Soul Man Sam.

The east side lounge is a welcome counterpoint to Austin’s focus on country and rock: a Texas juke joint steeped in African heritage, where world-class musicians play Afrobeat, reggae, and cumbia late into the night. The Sahara opened in 2011 in a former blues roadhouse (TC’s Lounge), and you can feel the history in the floorboards—when the party gets going, the building creaks. On Africa Nights, bands like Zoumountchi lay down heavy grooves alongside a West African buffet.