Why, look! The NYT has swept in to take notice of the Cactus Cafe controversy!
Reference to “Live Music Capital”?
AUSTIN, Tex. — The closing of storied music sites, often accompanied by protest, fund-raising and other exercises in futility, has become a recurring spectacle in this growing city, where the official stationery carries the legend “Live Music Capital of the World.”
Check.
Reference to the Californication of Austin?
People tend to blame the latest influx of Californians, reliably traced to the latest technology boom associated with the University of Texas. The dropout who started Dell Computer in his dorm room did not personally tear down the Liberty Lunch club, but the general implication abides.
Check. (And the people who tore down Liberty Lunch were the Austin City Council.)
Reference to the Armadillo World Headquarters?
Any respectable accounting of lost and lamented music sites opens with the Armadillo World Headquarters, the onetime armory that hosted concerts by The Clash, Willie Nelson and the Vans — Halen and Morrison — in the 1970s. Since the Armadillo closed in 1980, the Austin metropolitan area has grown to a projected population this year of 1.7 million, from about 846,000, gaining plenty of new clubs while losing such beloved haunts as the Black Cat Lounge, the Electric Lounge, The Back Room, Steamboat and (temporarily) the Hole in the Wall.
Check. And bingo!