Punk shows, coveted burgers, good vibes: how Little Brother became Austin's best bar
Rainey Street's littlest bar defies logic and expectations in the best way.
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On an oppressively hot mid-May day in Austin, Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou is chugging out a riff for a mass of mostly aging hardcore punks awaiting drummer Ben Koller’s entrance into the song "Plagues." When he kicks the pedals and hits the cans, the mass throbs like a hammer-smashed toe.
A drummer for local thrash punk openers Expander crowdsurfs, grabbing onto a nearby awning and doing a few pull-ups before pumping his fist and screaming along to the lyrics. It’s a scene of ecstatic mayhem in broad daylight.
This isn’t the 900-capacity outdoor stage at the Mohawk. This isn’t a SXSW day party either. It’s a Monday afternoon on Rainey Street, the formerly residential district now famous for throngs of bachelors and bachelorettes tossing back espresso martinis and provocatively named shots by the gallon.
And Converge, after 30 years of being perhaps the world's most foundational metalcore band, is playing a microscopic patio adjacent to the unassuming Little Brother Bar.
That’s purely because this jewel of Rainey Street, the Sunday Funday capital of Austin, wedged between condos and kitty-corner from a controversial circus-themed bar, is, improbably, one of just a few remaining hubs of transgression left in the city.
Amid the Joe Rogans and Elon Musks and 74-foot towers, Matt Bolick, Little Brother’s co-owner and chief mischief-maker, still sees the magic in his adopted hometown, and he gets annoyed when people tell him that Austin is over.
“I don't think there's any shortage of really great stuff going on in Austin,” he says, looking up at the expanding skyline. “You just have to look a little harder because there's a lot more on top of it now.”
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