Weekly open mic night for original music at the Cactus Cafe, a dedicated listening room for local songwriters.
Cactus Cafe hosts its Songwriters' Open Mic every Tuesday night, a long-running tradition in the Austin scene. It's a dedicated listening room, and it's billed as the best one in the city, so it's the kind of spot where you go to actually hear the songs rather than talk over them.
The format is strictly original music only—no covers allowed. That's the whole point of the night: it's a space for local songwriters to bring their own work and present it to an audience. Because it's an open mic, you'll hear a range of styles and stages, from polished songs ready for a record to newer things still being worked out in front of a room.
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It runs from 7:30 to 9:30 PM, with doors opening at 6:30 PM, so there's plenty of time to get in and settle in before the first act takes the stage. Admission is free, and since it's a weekly thing, it's an easy one to drop into on a Tuesday night without much planning. If you're a songwriter yourself, it's a chance to get your original material out there; if you're just coming to listen, it's a good way to catch a cross-section of what's being written around town.
