CACTUS CAFE

The Cactus Cafe has been an intimate listening room on the UT campus since 1979, and in that time it has built a national reputation as one of the most important small venues in the country for singer-songwriters and acoustic music. Billboard magazine listed it among fifteen clubs nationwide from which careers can be launched. The list of artists who have played the Cactus reads like a who's who of American roots music: Lyle Lovett, Robert Earl Keen, Lucinda Williams, Nanci Griffith, Alison Krauss, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Townes Van Zandt, Bill Monroe, and the Chicks, among many others. The room is small, probably under two hundred seats, with a bar in the back and a stage that puts the performer close enough to make eye contact with the audience. The Cactus almost closed in 2010 when UT threatened to shut it down, but a community outcry saved it, which tells you something about how much this room means to people. The booking continues to mix established names with emerging artists, maintaining the venue's role as both a proving ground and a destination. If you care about songwriting, acoustic music, and the kind of performance that depends on a quiet room and an attentive audience, the Cactus Cafe is one of the most important rooms in the country, not just in Austin.