Antone's Is Giving 60-Minute History Tours Today — Here's What You'll See

Antone's Nightclub is opening its own archive today. At 11 AM, the club that calls itself the Home of the Blues is running a 60-minute guided tour through all six of its addresses since 1975 — check-in at 10:45 AM, tickets through Ticketmaster, all ages welcome. According to ATX Things analysis of the club's own event page, it's a one-time Saturday-morning booking, not a standing weekly thing, so today is the day.

It also happens to land on a morning Austin needed an indoor plan anyway. Today's forecast has the city topping out near 104°F, and by 11 AM the sidewalk on East Fifth is already unpleasant. A 60-minute tour inside an air-conditioned room that used to be a furniture store, then a pizza parlor, then five other things, is a genuinely good way to spend the worst part of a Saturday in downtown Austin, Texas — in the same spirit as Umlauf Sculpture Garden's shaded grounds by Barton Springs, another indoor-adjacent way to dodge this stretch of heat.

What actually happens on the tour

Antone's calls it the Guided Full Venue History Tour, and per the venue's own listing it runs a deep dive into the club's history across its six locations — how a Port Arthur transplant's sandwich shop turned into the room that gave Austin its "Live Music Capital of the World" claim. Ticket holders also get what the venue describes as a behind-the-scenes screening of never-before-seen performance footage. Check-in is at Big Henry's, the vinyl-and-gifts shop that doubles as Antone's box office, with the walk beginning promptly at 11 AM. It's listed all ages, which is notable — most nights at Antone's are 21+.

Why six locations, not one

Clifford Antone opened the club on July 15, 1975, in a former furniture store on Sixth Street, with zydeco legend Clifton Chenier and His Red Hot Louisiana Band as the first act ever booked. Antone, a Port Arthur native who'd run a sandwich shop before guitars started showing up in the back room, told it plainly later: "Me and my friends wanted to hear blues before these musicians died."

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"Me and my friends wanted to hear blues before these [musicians] died." — Clifford Antone, founder, via the Texas State Historical Association's Handbook of Texas

That first Sixth Street room became a clubhouse for a then-unknown Fabulous Thunderbirds and Stevie Ray Vaughan's Triple Threat Revue. Rising rents pushed the club north in the early '80s, and by September 1982 it had landed in a former pizza parlor on Guadalupe near the University of Texas — the location most longtime Austinites actually picture when they hear the name. That room ran from 1982 to 1996, launched the Thunderbirds and SRV to national fame, and reportedly drew U2 in to see what the fuss was about.

The club then moved downtown to Fifth and Lavaca in 1997 with Jimmie Vaughan on the bill, weathered the 2013 economic downturn with a move to East Riverside, and went dark for a short stretch. It came back for good on December 31, 2015, at its current address — 305 E 5th Street, a few blocks from where it started — reopening with C.J. Chenier, son of the man who played opening night 40 years earlier. Clifford Antone died in 2006 and doesn't get to see this version of the room, but by most accounts of people who worked with him, it's the one he'd recognize.

Who's actually played here

Over 51 years and six rooms, Antone's has hosted B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, Otis Rush, Albert King, Ray Charles and James Brown, alongside the Austin-grown talent it's arguably more famous for producing: Stevie Ray Vaughan, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Doug Sahm, Bob Schneider and Gary Clark Jr. In 1987 Clifford Antone started Antone's Records, which put out live and studio recordings from Eddie Taylor, Mel Brown and James Cotton, whose album on the label earned a Grammy nomination. The current 5th Street incarnation, run by a new ownership group since 2015, still books blues most nights but has widened the calendar — the tour itself is proof the club now treats its own history as part of the draw, not just the music on tonight's marquee. It's a few blocks from ACL Live at the Moody Theater, another downtown room this desk has covered this week, in a stretch of East Austin that's had more live-music news than usual this month.

What locals should know

• Tour is 60 minutes, starts 11 AM sharp, check-in 10:45 AM at Big Henry's inside Antone's.
• All ages — unusual for the venue, where regular shows run 21+.
• Buy tickets in advance through Antone's own Ticketmaster link; the venue's site doesn't post a walk-up price and asks that all tickets be purchased ahead of time.
• Includes a screening of behind-the-scenes performance footage the venue says hasn't been shown publicly before.
• Address is 305 E 5th St, 78701 — the club's current, sixth home since 1975, a few blocks from where it originally opened on Sixth Street.

After the tour, Big Henry's — the same counter where you check in — sells Antone's Famous Po' Boys, a recipe the venue traces back to Clifford Antone's uncle Jalal in 1962, in five versions including a roast beef and a tuna. It's a reasonable lunch plan for a morning that's otherwise going to get hot fast outside.

FAQ

Is the Antone's history tour happening today? Yes — Saturday, August 22, 2026, at 11 AM, with check-in at 10:45 AM at Big Henry's inside the club. It's a single scheduled event, per the venue's own listing, not a recurring weekly tour.

How long is the tour and is it all ages? It runs 60 minutes and is listed all ages, unlike Antone's regular concert calendar, which runs 21+ most nights.

Where do I check in? At Big Henry's, the vinyl-and-gifts shop and box office attached to Antone's at 305 E 5th Street in downtown Austin.

How much are tickets? The venue's own site and event page don't post a price and direct buyers to purchase through Ticketmaster in advance — we couldn't independently confirm a dollar figure before publishing, so check the official link before you go.

Is there parking nearby? Antone's is offering a free 2-hour parking voucher for the 2nd Street Garage through the Downtown Austin Alliance while supplies last, plus paid options through SpotHero and metered street parking.

Antone's has closed and reopened three separate times since 1975 — a history laid out in more depth on the Texas State Historical Association's own entry on the club and the venue's own history page. A guided walk through all six versions of it, on a morning too hot to be anywhere without air conditioning, might be the most Austin way to spend a Saturday before noon. Looking for more ways to beat the heat this week? We checked which Round Rock Express game to catch before the sun does the damage, or browse what else is happening around Austin today. We're watching for whether the club runs the tour again — follow @austintexasthings for the update.