Cigarette smoke curls once decorated the Cactus Cafe, wrapping around audiences listening intently to late-night sets. Over four decades later, similar scenes persist as the listening room continues hosting intimate live music for the Austin community — albeit without a smoky smog.
To celebrate the cafe’s 45th anniversary, Andy Langer, the senior director of live music and entertainment, organized a nine-performance series taking place from Feb. 6-22. The lineup ranges from seasoned musicians like David Garza to local up-and-coming artists Audrey Price and West 22nd — showcasing the cafe’s commitment to sustaining live music.
Cactus Cafe manager Chris Lueck said sincerity has kept him working at the venue since he started as a bartender in the ‘80s.
“A lot of performers who play in otherwise rowdy situations find the audience is actually paying attention to what they’re doing,” Lueck said. “They derive satisfaction from the fact they’re being appreciated for their actual work, and not just being background music to some other activities.”
Langer said the Cactus acting as a listening room has always set it apart from other venues in Austin.
“It’s always been part of the connective tissue, (the) time, the culture of the campus and the culture of the city,” Langer said.
Producer and indie-rock artist David Garza helped form that connective tissue during his time at UT in a band called Twang Twang Shock-A-Boom. On Sept. 20, 1989, the trio walked from the music buildings to a tree in the West Mall, upright bass and bongos in hand, which started a weekly Thursday tradition and branded the Twang Tree.
“It would be hundreds of kids rocking and rolling with us,” Garza said. “No microphones, just a real cool phenomenon. Then before you knew it, we were playing Cactus Cafe.”
After earning a Grammy as a producer and gaining recognition alongside artists such as Fiona Apple, with whom he collaborated on Fetch The Bolt Cutters, Garza returns this Saturday to reconnect with the venue. Twang’s percussionist, Chris Searles, will join Garza on stage. Garza said they do not have anything planned for the set and that each gig is a lot like a first kiss.
“That’s what’s beautiful,” Garza said. “You can’t just say, ‘Well, I’m gonna put my hand here, and you put your tongue here, and I’ll put my arm around this.’ It just happens.”
Rhetoric and writing freshman Audrey Price will perform in the anniversary series on Feb. 13. Price, a UTalent artist, got her start at the Cactus like Garza did 35 years ago — through open mic nights.
Despite the bright lights and nerves of her first booked gig at the cafe, Price said the atmosphere calmed her quickly.
“I felt so alone and kind of vulnerable,” Price said. “Then I started playing, and I opened my eyes and started looking at the tables, and saw people (making) that face when you can tell they’re really listening. And it melted all my fear.”
As an alumnus and former Austin music journalist, Langer said he hopes this 16-day celebration revitalizes the magic of the cafe he once knew.
“This is an opportunity to re-engage the community at large,” Langer said. “The 45th anniversary presented a real, useful, easy-to-wrap-a-bow-around way to let it be known that the Cactus is still very much here — that it’s still the best listening room in all of Austin.”
