Today, each night is filled in some way with musical entertainment, bands squeezing onto the tiny stage most nights in addition to a weekly karaoke night on Sundays and open mic on Thursdays. The building’s exterior lives up to Giddy Ups honky tonk reputation, the silhouette one of a classic Old West saloon, the structures red paint topped with depictions of cowboys and cacti. String lights hang above the Giddy Ups porch below a corrugated metal roof.
Inside, the stage is certainly the center of attention but the floorplan is backed with short tables and chairs that make it clear that this is a sit-down-and-listen-to-music Austin dive bar rather than an invitation to mill around a cavernous space. A small dance floor has been carved out, of course, next to a fireplace and a disembodied pair of mannequin legs that serve as foundation for the band’s tip jar for the evening. The stage itself is slightly elevated and borders a wall signed by musicians of years and perhaps decades past, each commemorating their set.
The Giddy Ups walls are covered in further references to the bar’s live music heritage in the form of concert posters that almost completely engulf the Austin dive bar’s wall space. The occasional surprise like a drinking ledge here or a vintage, padded chair there add a little variety to the atmosphere. The bar is a small L-shaped structure in the corner opposite the stage, a modest selection of liquor bottles housed on floating, live edge-style shelves.
