EMO'S AUSTIN

Emo's has been part of Austin's musical DNA since 1992, when it first opened on Red River as a grungy punk club with a tin roof and a wooden pillar awkwardly planted in the middle of the stage. That original room hosted a generation of bands and became synonymous with the city's punk, alternative, and indie scenes. The current incarnation lives at 2015 East Riverside Drive, on the site of the old Back Room, another legendary Austin venue that was known as the city's metal headquarters. So when you walk into Emo's today, you are standing in a space with two venue legacies running through its walls. The room holds about 1,700 people and features a proper stage, state-of-the-art sound and lighting, and enough floor space to actually move around during a show. C3 Presents, the outfit behind Austin City Limits Festival and Lollapalooza, took over operations in 2013, which means the booking pulls bigger touring acts than the old Red River spot ever could. The calendar still skews toward rock, punk, and alternative, but you will also find rap, electronic, and comedy nights mixed in. There is a small section of stadium-style seating against one wall if you need to sit, plus a patio out back and multiple bars inside. Parking in the area is notoriously annoying, so do yourself a favor and rideshare. Emo's is not the scrappy dive it once was, but the rock and roll spirit that made people care about the name in the first place is still very much alive.