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Your A-List: Best Outdoor Music Venue
Ah, the good old days. The picture above comes via a Google-image search of the once-rural setting of the Backayrd, with 32 percent of the vote, winner of the Your A-List poll for Best Outdoor Music Venue.
How times change. Now, in place of trees and footpaths leading from the wooded parking lots to the tree-canopied venue, you will find all manner of national chain stores. Tired after a long night of grooving to Widespread Panic? Stop by the Mattress Firm and pick up a pillowtop on your way home. Some girl wearing the same top as you to a Shins concert? Well, head on over to Old Navy.
You get the picture. The great engines of change and commerce have steamrolled over the once-bucolic setting, a development that has led to the imminent closing of the venue, which Direct Events head Tim O’Connor says he plans to reopen somewhere else in Bee Caves, on a on 37 acres protected from infringing developments. Take that Bed, Bath and Beyond. But we come here to praise the Backyard, not to mourn it, or the tragic changes to the face of its neighborhood in the form of the monstrosity that is the Hill Country Galleria.
For over a decade, the 5,000-seat venue located near the intersection of Texas 71 and RM 620 has played host to world-class musicians, from David Bowie to Widespread Panic, Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett and many, many more. Sure, the venue may have been a short drive out toward the country, but that was the beauty of it — a short drive toward the hills rewarded with a blissful night of music in one of the best settings in the state. As the 16th and final season at the Backyard stumbles toward the finish line (311 and Snoop Dogg, anyone?), we can only hope that the future venue will be half as cool as its predecessor, and judging by O’Connor’s statements, it seems we all have reason for hope.
Photos of the Backayrd through the years.
Statesman critic Michael Corcoran shares his favorite moment at the Backyard.
Others receiving votes
- Stubb’s, 29 percent
- Zilker Park, 10 percent
- Auditorium Shores, 7 percent
- Cedar Street Courtyard, 4 percent
- The Mohawk, 3 percent
- The Glenn at The Backyard, 3 percent
- Emo’s, 2 percent
- The Belmont, 2 percent
- Scoot Inn, 2 percent
- Club de Ville, 2 percent
- Freddie’s Place, 1 percent
- Austin City Hall, <1 percent
- Creekside Lounge, <1 percent
- Kenny Dorham’s Backyard, <1 percent
- Light Bar, <1 percent
Write-in: Threadgill’s
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