As far as good live music. Judging by the music on your blog. I would go with the Mohawk, beauty bar and club deville. They are all around 7th and red river.

I tend to go to the beauty bar. Mainly because they have a dj come on around 11 or so after the bands have finished. All 3 of these bars are where bands hangout.

I hope you brought your leather chaps. You are arriving in the middle of the second largest biker rally in the U.S. next to Sturgess. There are 40 thousand bikers downtown at the moment.

http://www.threadgills.com/
http://www.tacodeli.com/
http://www.chuys.com/

I can’t personally vouch for them, but they’re probably worth at least taking a look!

* Guero’s for Mexican (on S. Congress)
* Kerbey Lane for breakfast (they have a couple locations)
* Magnolia Cafe for … well, anything. And they’re open 24 hours! (near Guero’s on S. Congress)
* Iron Works for BBQ (though if you’re in town on a Sunday morning, don’t miss the Gospel Brunch at Stubb’s)
* Cafe Crepe (downtown, on San Jacinto between 2nd and 3rd) for the best crepes this side of the Atlantic

South Congress is also an awesome place to wander around and shop for cowboy boots and other funky stuff.

And this time of year you can see the bats at sundown, don’t miss that.

I’m not much of a bar-hopper, so I’ll leave that for others to recommend. But the people-watching on 6th Street on a Saturday night is pretty hilarious. Multiply what you see by 10 and make the whole street into a pedestrian zone, and you have the quietest night at SXSW.