Bourbon Sucks

So last night I planned on hanging out most of the night, if not all, at Bourbon Rocks on Sixth Street for my SXSW evening. But we got over there to hear Lil' Cap'n Travis and went up to what appeared to be a well-stocked bar – just about every hard liquor you could want – but then I was horrified to see their beer selection (and I use the term "selection" lightly). Their entire beer list was: Miller Lite, Bud Light, Miller High Life, or Heineken Light. Oh, excuse me … they also had Coors Light out back.

As soon as LCT was done, I was outta there! Bret accused me of being a whiny little pussy – and he's right, I was. And I don't care, because you know what? During SXSW – and really, just about any night in Austin – there are about five bazillion nightclubs where I can get great music and great beer, so I why should I settle for only half of the equation? C'mon, Bourbon Rocks – if you're going to run a bar in this town you at least need to throw me a bone with some Shiner Bock, at a minimum.

We moved a block away over to Orchid (on Seventh between Neches and Trinity) and caught a fantastic unofficial showcase with some awesome bands (Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash, Hello Stranger, an Oslo band called Big Bang, and a southern rock guy named Leroy Powell; see the poster) and awesome beer (Fireman's Four, Live Oak Big Bark, and Guinness). Except I think we were actually buying our beer from the club next door named Black & Tan. The clubs are all connected; they must either have the same owners or some sort of arrangement, because they appear to all be one place.

I asked Bret about halfway through if he wanted to leave and go catch Geno Delafose – which would have been great – but he imparted some wisdom upon me, borrowed from the poker world: "I'm staying here. I never leave a table when it's hot." He was right. It all kicked ass.

Oh, and as always: God bless the nice folks at Capital Metro for driving my drunk butt home. Them are some good people. Don't drink and drive kids, leave the driving to the sober professionals. If you're partying downtown late at night, the Night Owl routes are the best thing ever.