One of the reasons I love living in Austin is the live music in and around the city.
In the next two months, I have tickets to see Tom Petty, Gnarls Barkley, Willie Nelson, Guy Clark, Van Morrison, and others at the Austin City Limits music festival in Zilker Park, then I get to see the Rolling Stones come through Austin for the first time in October and the music tour starts tonight when my brother and I travel south to see Robert Earl Keen at Gruene Hall. 
Gruene Hall lays claim to being the oldest dancehall in Texas. It looks like it might be true as the venue is just a long rectangular room with old wooden floors that have been worn down smooth through years of concerts. 
It's an intimate venue with a good sound system, which are two things that I look for in a concert.
I also have my typical shirt ready for the concert as I always wear this to Gruene Hall or other places of similar ilk:
I have never worn this shirt, and not had at least 3 strangers come up to me and tell me how much they love it. One night at a Jerry Jeff Walker concert in the Broken Spoke, this one couple started a bidding war for the shirt which ended at $42.
They were saddened and chagrined when I told them it wasn't for sale for a couple of reasons:
1) I happen to like the damn shirt quite a bit
2) It was a gift from my best friend who found this little treasure in the window of thrift store in Dublin, Ireland.
Besides, this shirt is like Spanish Fly to older people and hipsters who like the retro feel of it.
Who knew that there were that many people who liked the cheap, smooth and satisfying taste of Pabst Blue Ribbon?
We'll see if the streak continues tonight, but regardless, it will be a good way to start the Labor Day Weekend and I also plan to suspend the no alcohol consumption clause in my diet for about 4 hours because it would be morally reprehensible to listen to "The Road Goes On Forever" without a Shiner Boch in hand.
-BDS
Sounds like you have a plan! Enjoy the Labor Day Weekend!!!
I love Tom Petty. That's a great shirt. Great tan too! Have a great labour (or as you Americans spell it "labor") day weekend!
Have fun!!!
And props for still remaining on the intense diet. I thought it would be a thing of the past by now. :-)
1-what are you doing in those pics, peeing?
2-do you really want old folks REACTING to Spanish Fly when you're wearing the shirt??
yeesh, man.
i used to like PBR -
until it started giving me hangovers worse than drinking champange....and that's pretty bad!
thrift store in dublin? NO WAY you're selling it! what a history!!!
i find I always lose at least 3 or 4 pounds the morning after I polish off a 24 of smirnoff and my stomach looks way more defined. I think its probably because vodka is imbued by the gods with all sorts of magical properties. Its either that or because I spend half the night throwing up and dry heaving.
Symplyamused - I hope everyone enjoys it because I plan to.
Carmel - I appreciate the sentiment, and I've never seen Petty in concert so it should be pretty good. And you can't avoid having a tan in Austin during the summer.
Luce - I wish it were a thing of the past, and I plan to post an update when I've been on it for a month which is about a week away.
Nancy Drew - It does look that way, but I'll take that over the other alternative that is also looks like. And I am many things, but discriminatory against older people is not among them as they are just way more experienced.
Cassie D - I'm not selling it, and PBR is pretty nasty stuff, but it's almost so bad that it's good.
Idig - It is a funny thing when you drink hard and then wake up the next day feeling like shit, but looking good. It's too bad that only lasts until you replenish your fluids because it's the dehydration that causes you to look more cut.
I haven't been to Gruene Hall in years. The ACL festival is always excellent. Have you done SXSW? A buddy of mine was a stage manager there one year and I got all sorts of back stage passes.
You are so Texas... Reading this was like hitting Spring Break all over again. Thank you.
Unfortunately, it's been too long since my last spring break, however, I can't argue the Texas angle as there's no place I'd rather be right now than in Austin.
That could always change, but for now, it works just fine.
I agree completely as that is a bullshit policy, and only rarely have I found a bar to allow Shiner to be substituted into those kind of deals.
It's a disgrace.