Historic Sixth Street Music Venues
Antone's, Steamboat and the Black Cat deserve markers for giving 6th its beat
Marker photoshops by Dave Prewitt.
Antone’s was the first renowned club on Sixth in 1975, and Steamboat had the longest run, but the Black Cat perhaps left the greatest mark, making Sixth Street weird and wild and outlaw from 1985 through the 1990s. But the Black Cat was also a place where you could leave your seventeen-year-old daughter and her friends to see Soulhat (as you parked across the street to make sure they were safely inside).
Clifford Antone and Paul Sessums were two maverick Austin clubowners who both died in their mid-50s—Sessums in a 1998 car accident and Antone of a heart attack in 2006—whose impact was immeasurable. We didn’t move to New York or L.A. or Nashville because we had Antone’s and the Black Cat, and they didn’t.
Let’s ignore how things are now on Sixth Street, until they get better. And they will on that resilient strip. So much of our foundation as a city, as a people, is built on six blocks from Congress Avenue east to Waller Creek. Six blocks “with just enough danger to make it interesting,” as the Austin Sun reported in ’78.
Six blocks that have represented all of Austin since 1839.
I am pretty sure I saw the Arc Angels, Soul Hat and Storyville ( the band that could have been) at Steamboat .
I was absolutely spoiled to come of age in Austin of the late 70's through the 80's and yes, I acquired a taste for my music served up live n kickin' n loud. Oh, did I mention I'm hard of hearing (e.g. w/o hearing aids on, I can barely hear and understand a conversation at 90db). That said, Ian Moore (and Moment's Notice) is the ONLY band that I've um, heard that was painfully loud enough for me to GTFO and head for quieter venues. TWICE. seriously.
And while I can be as snobbish as the next dude about cover bands, sometimes when the radio is broken or you don't want to think too long and hard about the night's ear poison, the Austin All-Stars were as pro and reliable as any in the biz - serving up your fave hits and more when the cover was cheap and the drinking was easy.