Best Use Of Ragga

Flamingo Cantina

In the early/mid-Eighties, you'd have thought Austin was as close to Jamaica as Cuba is to Miami, such was the pungent wave of chanka-chanka wafting through River City. A decade and a half later, Liberty Lunch is rubble and reggae's heyday just a memory - or so you'd have thought until Sixth Street's Flamingo Cantina, one of the last bastions of live original music on shot-bar row, started booking the likes of Boukman Eksperyans, Justin Hinds, Toots & the Maytals, and the king himself, Lee "Scratch" Perry. All of them, packed to rafters seemingly made for reggae - an upstairs balcony, lots of bleacher seats, and good stagefront space - were great. Praise Jah. Welcome home, brethren.

Flamingo Cantina
515 E. Sixth, 512/494-9336
www.flamingocantina.com