It's a weird little city, Austin; a ramshackle clutter of voodoo emporiums, thrift stores, psychedelia and dive bars, nestled up against state buildings, hi-tech industries, mountains and lakes. There are wide streets and high-rises, the headquarters of Whole Foods Market, and more bloggers than anywhere else in the US. It is also, according to the city's official slogan, "The Live Music Capital of the World", and twice a year, Austin hauls out its finery and its southern charm to play host to two of the biggest annual music festivals in the world. South by Southwest - an industry showcase gone wild - sprawls across the city in various venues over the course of a week in March. Austin City Limits (ACL), for which we have come, follows the regular rock festival format of several stages erected in a big old field for a weekend.
Though we are here for the delights of ACL, the scruffy allure of the city keeps us in town more than we'd anticipated. A bohemian oasis in a redneck state, Austin has always been fairly cosmopolitan for its size (its population has recently swelled to a modest 1.5 million), inhabited by University of Texas students, aspiring musicians and a fair few eccentrics.
The capital of Texas has long been associated with hard-drinking and partying, a reputation dating back to the 19th century when General Custer's troops frequented the city's numerous nightspots after the civil war. Since then, the area around 6th Street and 4th Street have remained the hubs of the city's nightlife where you'll find music venues such as Stubbs BBQ, Emo's and the Parish Room.
Austin's eclectic music scene is as old as the city itself, on account of its Mexican, German and colonial origins. By the 30s the city streets were swarming with jazz clubs such as the Cotton Club, which were gradually replaced by blues bars in the 60s and then, in the 70s, country music came to Austin and it all got mixed up. Today, this is where country and bluegrass meld awesomely with stoner and psychedelic rock. Local musical heroes have included the be-plaited Willie Nelson (still going strong at 74), Roky Erickson, Daniel Johnston, the Gourds, Butthole Surfers, And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead and the Black Angels. To name but seven.
We arrive late on a muggy September evening, wired from jetlag, and sit out on the porch, chit-chatting and drinking beers all night long. Via the online noticeboard, craigslist.org, we have rented a little wooden house 10 minutes' walk from the centre of town. Renting a stranger's home for the weekend is always a bit of a gamble, but this place is clean and cosy and pretty, with a Day of the Dead toy skeleton sitting cross-legged on the garden bench.
Austin is a fine city for breakfasting: huevos rancheros, pancakes, quesadillas and watermelon juice are menu staples, and our night of travelling and boozing has left us ravenous. We hop on a Dillo (as in armadillo, varnished wooden buses that patrol Austin's streets with a jovial air, and cost precisely nothing to ride) and head downtown, over the Colorado river, to South Congress and the promise of one of the best diners in town. Congress is a broad avenue that bisects the city, with the magnificent dome of the state capitol building perched at the top. It used to be the main route into town, but during the 1960s gleaming new highways beckoned the traffic away from the once prosperous South Congress neighbourhood, rents went down and artists and independent retailers moved in. Today its bohemian tendencies, record shops and vintage stores have earned it the nickname "SoCo".
The Magnolia Cafe (1920 South Congress Avenue, cafemagnolia.com), sits plum in the middle of SoCo. It's that American diner of your dreams: low-lying, neon-lit, promising root beer floats and apple pie. It's busy this morning, with a queue that snakes out into the parking lot where, when we arrive, the lead singer of one of the ACL bands is scrabbling about in the dust in a frantic attempt to retrieve the pills that have tumbled from his pocket. There are omelettes, sandwiches on rye, fries and mighty fine burgers. As we wander out into the morning, dazed by the sunshine and heavy with breakfast, we spot the legendary Elmo's across the street, a brilliantly grotty subterranean dive bar that serves strong liquor, pool and live music seven nights a week.
The heat makes you slothful, the air warm on your lips and the pavement hot under foot, and so we pass a few lazy hours loafing around the neighbourhood, rifling through racks of candy-coloured prom dresses, boxes of silk neckerchiefs and shelves covered in kitsch paraphernalia in New Bohemia Retro (1606 S Congress Ave) and its swisher neighbour Feathers Boutique (1700 S Congress Ave), well-stocked with chunky 60s costume jewellery, mostly featuring owls. Later, we head up to the tremendous Waterloo Records (600A North Lamar, waterloorecords.com) and shoot the breeze with some cops over beers next door.
ACL puts on special buses for the festival, ferrying the revellers from downtown to its venue at Zilker Park on the outskirts, and the next day we hop aboard. It's a good-natured festival, the attendees meandering leisurely from stage to stage, and we join them until we grow so hot and dusty that we feel compelled to plunge into Barton Springs - the natural cold springs just across the way from the festival site, that are quiet and deep and greeny-blue. As we float on our backs we can hear the distant sound of amplified guitars drifting over the treetops.
The day has grown humid, and by nightfall the ceiling fan in our little wooden house can do little to stir the drowsy heat. Some local friends collect us in their pick-up truck, and soon we're heading to the best barbecue joint in town - Ruby's (512 West 29th Street) up in north Austin.
It's "the only BBQ restaurant serving all natural Texas brisket" apparently, with a head-spinning array of side-orders such as Andrew Bell's collard greens, creamy coleslaw with poppy seeds and southwest mashed potatoes. Outside the night air is still warm and gluey, and so it's a relief to clamber into the back of the truck and feel the wind in our hair as we zoom up the freeway. We're laughing and hollering and waving at passers-by when the first swollen raindrops plunk down upon us. A few more, a few more, they gather pace and soon it's torrential.
It's fun at first - nothing like a subtropical rainstorm in the back of a pick-up truck to make you feel free as a bird - but we're soon soaked through to our knickers and, upon arrival, have to take it in turns to wring our clothes out in the bathroom sink.
By morning the sky has cleared and we spend a blissfully sunny day back at the festival. Back in town that night, local psychedelic rock band the Black Angels who, we learn, like to bond with their new acquaintances over shots of Jagermeister, show us some of their favourite haunts. We swig from bottles of Lone Star beer at the Peacock (515 Pedernales Street) - a vast, dimly lit cavern where the DJs are playing heavy rock - before charging down the street to revel in the rough-hewn seediness of the Jackalope (404 East 6th Street).
The next day we are somewhat bedraggled. We haul ourselves to Guadalupe Street near the university, and sit in silence at Kerbey Lane Cafe (12602 Research Blvd, kerbeylanecafe.com), hoping that eggs and coffee might revive us. A little refreshed, we lope around some more vintage clothing stores such as Crème Vintage and Blue Velvet, and admire the Daniel Johnston graffiti, before seeking refuge from the blistering heat and our hangovers in a cab ride across town. Big mistake.
Upon discovering the fact that we are British, the taxi driver launches into a manic defence of David Icke's theories of alien lizards walking among us, for he has, he says, seen them too. Our heads pound, the driver rolls forth on his lizardy monologue, and the streets of Austin rush by, a blur of finger puppet shops, crawfish restaurants and cheap bars. Oh, we think, what a weird little city.
Way to go
Getting there
Continental Airlines (0845 60 767 60, continental.com/uk) flies Gatwick-Austin from £373 rtn inc tax.
Where to stay
The Austin Motel is a 70 year-old independent motel with double rooms from $100 (austinmotel.com).
Music festivals
SXSW Music Festival (http://2008.sxsw.com/music) March 12-16 2008.
Austin City Limits Festival (aclfestival.com) September 26-28 2008.
Further information
traveltex.com, 020-7978 5233.
