The Lowbrow Palace on a Border Night

111 East Robinson Avenue in Kern Place. Small room — maybe 200 — dark walls, sticky floors, sound system treating punk, indie, and metal with equal respect. El Paso's underground, literally feeling underground in a city built on desert.

Touring bands that play SXSW drive eight hours through West Texas because the Lowbrow's reputation reaches further than the city's population suggests. Local acts play with the urgency of musicians whose audience shows up because there's nowhere else and that's not a limitation but a loyalty. The crowd is bilingual, young, tattooed, and enthusiastic in the full-body way small rooms demand.

After the show, Cincinnati Avenue in the Kern Place bar strip — patio bars, strong margaritas, night air carrying creosote and mesquite and the distant glow of Juarez across the river. Check the Lowbrow for cumbia and norteño nights. The fusion of border music with punk energy is a sound that exists nowhere else in the US.