Heavy Riffs and Lake Trails: 4 Austin Stops
Come and Take It Live brings heavy music, multiple bars and a balcony setting into this Austin collection. Cheer Up Charlies adds drag and live performance, Lady Bird Lake offers waterside recreation, and Boats and Bats supplies guided sunset paddles. Compare these four contrasting experiences, booking tours as required and treating bat emergence as a wildlife possibility rather than a certainty.
Come and Take It Live puts live metal at the center of a two-story venue on East Riverside Drive. A balcony overlook and multiple bars shape the room, with billiards and televisions alongside the music. Art shows, films, and other gatherings also appear on its schedule, giving the space more than one use beyond concerts.
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Cheer Up Charlies brings live music and regular drag shows to a queer bar with a lodgelike indoor room and an outdoor amphitheater-style rock stage cut into the hill. Rainbow art and unicorns color the setting. The vegan-friendly drink menu includes local beers, organic teas, kombucha on tap, and cocktails such as the kale lime gingerita.
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Lady Bird Lake turns a stretch of the Colorado River into a non-motorized recreation hub, with kayaks, canoes, paddleboards, and rowing regattas on the water. Along shore, the Ann and Roy Butler Hike-and-Bike Trail offers wide paved and gravel paths for two-way traffic from runners, cyclists, and dog walkers.
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Boats and Bats runs guided kayak and paddleboard trips from a south shore dock on Lady Bird Lake. Sunset, glow-paddle, skyline, and springs outings use a fairly self-paced format, with views of 1.5 million bats emerging beneath the bridge. Tours last 2.5 hours, require advance online reservations, and admit guests ages 3 and up.
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