Photos by Adrian Gandara

Poster by Jesus Acosta

In the time since we were last out at Swan Dive, the landscape of the Red River Cultural District has seen considerable upheaval. Along with the already fallen Beerland and Sidewinder, the district lost Barracuda, Scratchouse and Swan Dive’s next door neighbor Plush to the economic fallout of the pandemic, as well as the not-quite-Red-River venue North Door. But at Swan Dive’s official reopening party on Friday June 4th, it was almost like nothing really changed. 

With a packed house of eager young music goers and Red River veterans, Swan Dive’s new team– including manager Billie Patterson, who represents Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol when she isn’t keeping the fort down at Swan Dive– offered up as a fun a return to form as one could hope for. The night kicked off with Drummer Audition, more of a Mr Show-esque comedic stunt than a band, per se, delivering on their name in a literal fashion, as they brought up “drummers” to audition for the group, then switched them over to other instruments until the stage was full of people jamming out to improvised songs about which day of the week it was and the importance of aerobics. The rest of the night was a who’s who of the incoming wave of Austin indie, from the jagged garage punk of Animals on TV to the flighty dream pop of Hey Cowboy! and beyond. Adrian Gandara was there to document most of the festivities, take a look…

Animals on TV

Hey Cowboy!

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