The Lyric is the music venue on Van Buren Avenue, a block off the Square, in a building that began life as a livery stable in the early 1900s before becoming Oxford's first movie theatre in the 1920s. It hosted the world premiere of MGM's Intruder in the Dust — adapted from Faulkner's novel and shot largely in and around Oxford — in 1949, with Faulkner himself in attendance.
The Lyric is now an independent live music venue with a 1,000-capacity main room and a small concert calendar that punches well above what you would expect for a town this size. Touring indie acts and Americana headliners stop here regularly. The bar is small, the sightlines are good, and the building's original wooden interior survives.