For a decade, a concert hall housed inside an old National Guard Armory ruled the city of Austin. Located on South First Street, the Armadillo World Headquarters welcomed hippies and cowboys alike, all of whom came for the Lone Star beer and the legendary shows. Inside, you could catch emerging stars and major acts like Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Frank Zappa, ZZ Top, AC/DC, and Bruce Springsteen. Though the physical location may be long gone — it was demolished in 1981 to make way for a high-rise office building — it’s now getting a second life.
At the South Congress Hotel, less than a mile away from the ‘Dillo’s original location, sits “Armadillo Forever,” an immersive pop-up experience that will run through the end of the year. Created in partnership with several of the venue’s founders, including Eddie Wilson and Jim Franklin (best-known for his armadillo illustrations and poster designs), Armadillo World is more than just a revival of the venue’s spirit, it’s a way to introduce a new generation of Austinites to the Armadillo, while supporting the city’s artists and musicians.
The brand first teased their return in February with their first collaboration: Austin FC’s “Armadillo Kit,” a secondary jersey that featured nods to the storied institution like its original address on the neckline and an armadillo illustration on the jock tag. “Armadillo Forever” is meant to be something more concrete — an immersive experience that can bring together people who remember the Armadillo and those who have never heard of it.
Inside the two-story space, vintage-inspired T-shirts, tote bags, hats, and posters line the walls. Above the lounge area, a TV screen plays rotating footage from shows at the Armadillo, and near the spiral staircase, there’s a photobooth for guests to capture their visit to the shop. For the next few months, the space will also play host to live musicians, listening parties, film screenings, and art installations.
“The Armadillo was one of the reasons that Austin became known as the ‘Live Music Capital of the World,’” brand spokesperson Nick Shuley told The Barbed Wire. “It set the stage for so much of what we have now, from South by Southwest to the Austin City Limits Festival.”
An Austin native, Shuley grew up going to shows downtown at Liberty Lunch and hearing from his parents, whom he calls “classic Austin hippies,” about their days at the Armadillo. For the last ten years, he’s worked with philanthropist Gary Keller, the co-founder, chairman and CEO of Keller Williams, as the president of Austin Music Movement, an advocacy group dedicated to supporting and growing the city’s music industry.
When he got involved with Armadillo World, Shuley didn’t want it to be a “nostalgia play,” something that would reduce the venue’s history to a name slapped onto a building with no context or meaning. “That’s what happens all the time,” he said. “You see people take these legacy institutions and try to recreate them, and it never works, because you can’t just recreate a cultural moment again. It just doesn’t happen.” Instead, the idea was to imagine what the Armadillo might look like today.
Back in 1970, the Austinites behind the Armadillo didn’t have a long-term plan for the venue, and the location they’d chosen might’ve been convenient and cheap, but it was far from suited to host concerts. Still, the place became a cultural hub in the heart of the city, helping to incubate a class of rising talent in Austin. In today’s landscape, Shuley said South Congress felt like the perfect place to recapture a bit of that energy. While the pop-up is open, 100% of their gross merchandise proceeds will go toward the music education nonprofit All ATX. “We’re taking over a space in a major area that most musicians and artists wouldn’t be able to take over themselves,” Shuley says. “That felt like the best way to draw people’s attention back to the music and give back.”
As visitors have entered the space, old memories have come flooding back. While working at the store, Mage Buse told The Barbed Wire she has heard from a number of guests about their experiences at the Armadillo. “People have told me about how they used to waitress there, or that their parents met there,” she said. “When Eddie Wilson was here, he told me people always tell him they were conceived there.”
For Shuley, the goal is to share the Armadillo with a younger audience, and through that, help reinvigorate the culture around Austin’s much-touted-but-also-much-corporatized music scene. “Now that we have all of these amazing venues and festivals like ACL and the Moody Center, which are great, I think people forget about places like the Continental Club, Saxon Pub, or C-Boys,” he said. “Those were the places where you can develop as an artist. Those are the places that are going to keep us a music town.”
Already, they’ve hosted a watch party for Austin City Limits’ 50th anniversary, and hosted their first few “South Congress Sessions,” welcoming musicians like Alexi 8Bit, Forever Redbud, The Irons, and Motenko. “If you actually spend time going to local shows, the depth of the scene is still here,” Shuley said. “The musicians are still here. You can go out and you can still stumble upon something phenomenal.”
This is just step one. Shuley is hoping the pop-up will lay the groundwork for a documentary, more merch collaborations, and vinyl releases.
“We’re not going to be in this space forever, but I think if we do things right, we’ll make it to where if you go out and see an armadillo logo somewhere, you’ll know that’s a place that cares about supporting music,” he said. “This doesn’t need to be a sedentary brand. This can be so many things, like an Armadillo night at the Moody Center. Who knows? In the end, it’s all about bringing people together, which is exactly what the original did.”