Hot August nights

Wow - summer is finally here. And it came crashing in. As I've mentioned earlier in this blog we had a rainy season that lasted up until about one week ago. Now we are back to normal. It's about 10pm here in Austin now on August 6th and the temperature is in the 80s. Of course tomorrow in the daytime it will be in the 90s, that's in the shade, and it will feel like 100. I love the heat though, probably one of the main reasons I live here versus somewhere up North. Pretty much everywhere in the continental 48 gets a bunch of hot days except for Maine, but here in Austin it stays hot through September and at times through October, if we're lucky. But right now in August in Austin we are enjoying the heat, especially at night. Enough about the weather.

Sunday was my birthday so on Saturday my wife and I visited Club DeVille, on Red River, about 10pm, had a beer and then started walking. We parked at Club DeVille because we can. It's the only club with a true parking lot. So we had the one beer there and started to walk around and check out the scene. Across the street the heavy metal was starting to crank it up, on down the road there was something that sounded and looked like hip-hop. That's interesting. We walked all the way over to the Elephant Room to check out the live jazz there 7 days a week. That place is so mellow and relaxed. Then we got back to the Red River area, close to Club DeVille - around 12 midnight. I love that area from that time. The 6th street/Red River area is interesting. There is not much going on around there until around midnight, and then everyone starts to come out.

Austin has always had the real blues music, from the 1920s on. Earlier on in the early 6th Street days Joe opened a place called Joe's Generic Bar. He operated that place on 6th street up until about 2 years ago. Then he got shot and died (None of us really know what happened there.), Joe's Generic Bar suffered a fire and finally closed. But it was a cool place, always free and just laid back. One could get a cold beer for around a couple of bucks and just sit back and listen to the real blues from local skilled artists. Every so often they passed around a plastic bucket for the band money. I typically dropped in a $5 for those guys. They deserved it.

After we lost Joe's there was no place on 6th for the real blues. But along came Nuno's. They opened up in 2005 shortly after the fire at Joe's. Nuno's is the same style, no cover charge, just cheap cold beer and that wonderful sound. They pass the plastic bucket for the band there also. So last Saturday when we got back to Red River we cruised on over to Nuno's for the real blues. I just can't get enough of that sound. There are 2 or 3 bands that play there and it is for real. These guys have been playing the blues for 30 years or so and they know their stuff. I love that place.

About 1:30 we returned to Club DeVille and had one more cold beer. They have that Negro Modelo which I love to consume - responsibly. Then we drove on home, about 20 minutes away in North Austin, and went to bed. What a night, can't wait for next weekend.