There was a time, say the mid-70s to late 80s, when some of the most plugged in places in town started around 24th and stretched north. “You didn’t have to make plans, the plans kinda found you.” Michael Corcoran, Outside Industry, 2011. BLUEBONNET PLAZA 24th & San Antonio Kerry Awn’s rendering of Bluebonnet Plaza, 1973, courtesy Austin History Center . March 1971, Photographer unknown, courtesy Austin History Center. What it looks like today, courtesy Google Maps. Now anchored by a Starbucks (broke my heart) but once a rambling two-story complex of offices and retail, this was The Texas Observer’s first home. Downstairs UT student Joe Bryson opened a record store called Inner Sanctum, adjacent to the Les Amis Cafe. Inner Sanctum Records staff, 1978: (l-r) Big Al Ragle, Joe Bryson, Neil Ruttenberg, James “Cowboy” Cooper, Stephen Goodwin, Richard Dorsett (Photo by Ken Hoge) The Austin Chronicle, Aug 13, 2010.  Bryson assembled a crew of musical aficionados whose expertise he'd rely on, like store manager James "Cowboy" Cooper and Richard Dorsett, eventually the jazz buyer. The store specialized in cosmic cowboy sounds, but they stocked everything. Pioneering the sale of used records – plus their controversial (among major labels, at least) practice of renting records at $1/day – helped make Inner Sanctum one of America's most influential independent record retailers.  Tim Stegall, Austin Punk Chronicles, The Austin Chronicle,  Dec. 24, 2021.  The Austin Chronicle’s Margaret Moser laid out a wonderful explanation of how a creative ecosystem works. Inner Sanctum Records opened three weeks after the Armadillo World Headquarters. And in those much smaller world times, the domino effect was infinitely more compact. You went to see the headliner at the Armadillo because you had the record you bought at Inner Sanctum. If you liked the opening act, you went back to Inner Sanctum and bought their album, and that's where you saw a poster for the next show you wanted to see at the Armadillo and bought your tickets right then and there. It's the exact same template for buying music at Waterloo Records today.  Margaret Moser, The Austin Chronicle, August 13, 2010 . Inner Sanctum, Jim Franklin, 1972. courtesy Austin HIstory Center General Video Collection THE HOLE IN THE WALL 2538 Guadalupe “Courtney Love commandeered the men’s room for a sniffing session the night before her rambling SXSW interview….the entire crowd chased a guitar thief out the door and caught him……Dave Grohl had a pitcher of beer poured over his head by a female to get his attention….on Christmas night 2010 a drunken Santa Claus fell through the big front window while doing a karaoke turn.” Michael Corcoran’s memories, as laid out in Overserved. Photo by Jordan Vonderhaar, Austin Monthly, March/April 2023 . Doug Cugini and his parents opened Hole in the Wall in 1974, after moving here from Buffalo and running a couple truck stop cafes in south Austin.  The menu featured country cooking, nickel beer and 25-cent tequila shots. There would be two waitresses and a hostess. And Mrs. C would sit up at the bar and drink wine out of a plastic tea glass. There was a lunch special, and it sold out pretty much every day, no matter what it was. Brooks Brannon, former manager, Austin Monthly, March/April 2023 . The Cuginis put video games and pool tables in the back, a bar up front, and a tiny stage next to the door in front of a giant window overlooking the drag. That summer, at the College of Communication across the street,  the local PBS station started taping a new live music show called Austin City Limits.   I turned around one day, and there’s Townes Van Zandt. I said godd*mn, what are you doing here? He said, ‘I’ve got a show across the street, give me a gin and tonic.’ Brooks Brannon, former manager, Austin Monthly, March/April 2023 . (Being) across the street from the Austin City Limits studios also meant that big names popped by now and again – a surprise visit from Emmylou Harris or a Don Henley game enough to sit in with Mojo Nixon for a rousing version of “Don Henley Must Die.” Jason Millard, The Center for Texas Music History at Texas State, Texas Standard, June 12, 2024 Emmylou Harris, Rosie Flores and Terry McBride, from Michael Corcoran’s Overserved. Nanci Griffith played a residency on Sunday nights. Over the years the club featured Austin icons ranging from Doug Sahm to Stevie Ray Vaughan to Spoon.  When 80s sensation Timbuk3 was all over MTV with The Futures So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades , they booked under the pseudonym Fred and Wilma so the place wouldn’t be overrun.   V. Marc Fort, former Austin American-Statesman music writer, musician in Schatzi:  It could be thought of as a perfect listening room. But that’s if listening rooms were rowdy, beer-fueled house parties. I can’t remember a quiet set I’ve heard at Hole in the Wall.  Michael Hall, Wild Seeds:  I’d been in the Hole in the Wall so many times where some singer-songwriter got up there and got pissed off because people wouldn’t shut up while he was playing. ‘Hey, man, you know, this is a sensitive song.’ People, of course, would just go ‘f*ck you.’ Pat MacDonald, Timbuk3:  We got up to play and we were like, ‘Hey, are you gonna turn off the TV?’ And they were like, ‘No, we don’t turn off the TV. It stays on.’ The (Mostly True) Story of the Hole in the Wall , Dan Gentile, Austin Monthly, March/April 2023. The Hole in the Wall claims, and there’s no reason to think otherwise, that it was the first restaurant in Austin to serve Buffalo wings. The Cuginis brought the recipe down with them. The sandwiches also had a dedicated lunch following among faculty and students. Journalism professor Mike Quinn would occasionally pose the extra credit question “ What is reality? ” The correct answer — a sandwich at Hole in the Wall, anchored by a chicken-fried steak slathered in queso.   The reason why it was called The Reality is because the guy that requested it would come in after a night of drinking, and it brought him back to reality. Brooks Brannon, former manager, Austin Monthly, March/April 2023 . Bob Dylan’s Hole in the Wall is listed with the contemporary art gallery Halycon. Bob Dylan paid tribute, rendering the club with one change — he painted an Elvis mural instead of the actual mural, a drawing of him by Austin artist Federico Archuleta. Photo by Jay Janner, Austin American-Statesman, 2022. The joint’s been through several owners and even weathered a brief closure, but this summer Hole in the Wall celebrated 50 rather improbable years. Photo by Jordan Vonderhaar, Austin Monthly, March/April 2023 ANTONES 2915 Guadalupe (1981-1996) courtesy Michael Corcoran’s Overserved, 2022. 1975: CLIFFORD ANTONE OPENS A CLUB DEDICATED TO THE BLUES In 1981 Antone’s moved to its third location in six years, a former Shakey’s Pizza Parlor just up the street from the Hole in the Wall.  Thus started a glorious run.   collage design by Cody Ground, Vicky Andres and Laura Gonima, Arts+Labor. Clifford Antone eloquently articulated why the blues matter. Why they’re real.  His is a complicated legacy but our city and our culture are richer forever because of what he brought to town. Although Clifford passed in 2006, the club’s still running strong at its sixth location, 305 E 5th Street, a few blocks away from where it all started. Antone’s today, 305 E. 5th. Next week, south towards the University — the theaters, the market and the cast of quirky characters. On we go. Alan Berg, Publisher. How are we doing? We want to hear from you. 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