Be my guide: Austin, Texas, music scene is packed with good, bad and weird bands [Updated]

Readers seemed to have endless suggestions for my stop in Austin on my two-week, music-driven trip. No wonder. This city lives and breathes music. I tried to hit as many spots as I could, which made for a long night of good, bad and just plain weird performances.

The weirdest was Patrick Wolf at Antone’s. A slender man wearing a black, S&M-type get-up, he played guitar, pounded on keyboards and even whipped out a violin for a couple of songs. The blond-haired, glitter-covered British chap removed his chain accessories and rolled around in the mosh pit (see photo at the top) while the band performed very catchy dance-rock tunes.

His drummer was phenomenal,  and the band’s violinist was a master of catchy riffs. Wolf, too, was talented and eccentric, with a voice similar to the lead singer from the Darkness and a demeanor on par with Kevin Barnes, the sexually ambiguous front man for the rock group Of Montreal. And the sizable young crowd joined in step,  putting together a conga line at Wolf’s request.

Not everyone was buying into the cheesy, ’80s androgynous throwback, however. Note to the long-haired dude next to me at the bar: I totally agree with your text message. Sorry for snooping, but here’s what it said: “This is the most bizarre show I’ve seen in a long time.”

Wolf’s act seemed even out of place for the bar that was hosting it. The bartenders at Antone’s — a stop picked by reader Marc Smith — ridiculed Wolf.  When I told one that I was covering the show for the Los Angeles Times, he apologized and begged me to come back another night to see what the blues bar was really about.

I moved on to Lovejoys, another Smith pick. The small half-bar, half-brewery was clearly a guy hangout, with cartoons on the TV and posters of topless women plastered above the bar. Every five minutes, a worker came by and slammed empty beer bottles into a trash can.  Clank!

Later  I went to Maggie Mae’s, suggested by readers Dinh Lu and Ken Dotson. Eric Tessmer, an Austin guitarist, played unimaginative cover songs with a bassist and drummer. Gossamer was technically sound but nothing special.

There, I met perhaps his two biggest fans. These cute local girls gave me a crash course on Austin and talked me out of eating at Chuy’s, a chain of Mexican restaurants, not exclusive to Austin, that  was suggested by quite a few readers.

I hit a number of other great spots earlier in the day. Waterloo Records — picked by Jared and Jan Stallone and Sheeler — is a music retailer run by folks who clearly know their stuff. Posted notes gave a quick history of certain artists (see the photo above), and some fantastic songs played constantly over the PA.

Stubb’s BBQ was picked by a bunch of readers, including Beth, Chris, the Stallones and Kemp—with good reason. The beef sandwich was exceptional.

As you can see, there was no shortage of things to do in Austin.  My next stop is El Paso.

To provide travel tips for my reader-driven road trip, inspired by music, send e-mails to mark.milian@latimes.com, leave comments on the Los Angeles Times Daily Travel & Deal Blog or, for those on Twitter, send tweets to @mmilian. To follow my road trip status live, visit http://twitter.com/mmilian. For the trip schedule and cities, check out earlier posts.

Corrected, July 7, 3:24 p.m.: A previous version of this post incorrectly named the guitarist at Maggie Mae’s as Eric Gossamer. His name is actually Eric Tessmer.

—Mark Milian, Los Angeles Times staff writer

[Photos, from top: Patrick Wolf in the mosh pit at Antone's; notes on artists at Waterloo Records. Credit: Mark Milian/Los Angeles Times]

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This entry was posted on Thursday, July 2, 2009 at 2:12 pm by Mark Milian and is filed under Arts & Culture, Be My Guide, News, Tips & Advice, Southern States, Summer, Texas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.