“We’re getting together for the first time since Reagan was president,” drummer Rusty Trapps joked about the Rhythm Rats reunion in deep South Austin at Giddy Ups. It’s part of the three-night celebration of the Outhouse, the fabled venue dear to Austin hearts because it was totally unpretentious.
The Austin Outhouse’s unprepossessing confines sat at 3510 Guadalupe, and it was little more than a hangout musicians loved to play. Most famously, it was an easy hop from Emmajoe’s location on Guadalupe, which sprang up after the Alamo Lounge closed down along with the Alamo Hotel. Emmajoe’s was home to Lyle Lovett, Lucinda Williams, Townes Van Zandt, and Nanci Griffith, folks who often drifted up the street to the Outhouse. Blaze Foley best immortalized it in Blaze Foley Live at the Austin Outhouse.
There’s lots going on at the Outhouse reunion, which runs kicks off today and ropes in some of the usual suspects, including Sarah Elizabeth Campbell, Ted Roddy, Mickey White, Mandy Mercier, Pat Mears, and a one-time reunion by the Rhythm Rats. Saturday artists include Outhouse alumni Calvin Russell, Patty Finney, Ponty Bone & the Squeezetones, and Quatropaw. More info here.
The Rats were never the coolest bar band, but they didn’t care. They plied their craft during in the 1980s with exactly the same devil-may-care attitude most 30ish musicians do now, only it was a different, more laid-back Austin. Along the way, Rusty Trapps, Will Indian, and company developed into veteran players who can smoke the chrome off trailer hitches with their soulful, bluesy favorites.
“The Urinal,” my then-boyfriend called the Outhouse, and indeed its closest kin today is Trophy’s. That comment reveals more about my youthful and therefore snobby attitude about what was and wasn’t cool, in contrast with my history of hanging out in dives like the One Knite. My long-dead friend Clyde Woodward subbed in the Rhythm Rats briefly. “We’re playing the Outhouse tomorrow!” he once crowed to me.
“Clyde, it’s a dump!”
“I know,” he grinned. “Isn’t it great?”
It was.
This article appears in April 9 • 2010.