Farewell Fest
A single tear for the closing of the North Loop Parlor
By Audra Schroeder, 2:48PM, Wed. Jun. 8, 2011
When I moved here in late 2004, the North Loop Parlor was the first club I ever went to. I stepped inside its narrow black and red confines, Nick Cave staring at me from one wall, Tom Waits from another, and thought, "Yes. I'm home."
In this current open-close-open clubland cycle, the news of its closing really did make me sad. I saw so many weird, loud, great shows there, probably on a Wednesday night with a dozen other people. Houston's B L A C K I E comes to mind. I discovered acts there I would go on to write about, acts that would go on to be "big," whatever that means these days.
The way you had no choice but to walk by the band when you entered the club was the perfect equalizer. I encourage more venues to do this. Many of my Austin memories are hazy, but Parlor memories are not. Standing in front of that industrial oven, getting blasted over and over with pizza heat, does something delicious to the brain.
My profile of the Parlor fam two years ago caught the club on the verge. The Hyde Park Parlor had just opened, and North Loop was just starting to have growing pains. Now, the landscape looks a little different, but there will be a big black hole where this Austin outpost used to be.
Starting tonight, and running through June 21, you'll have a chance to say goodbye every night. Some highlights include this weekend's bizarro Bermuda Triangle of Rubble/Shit & Shine (Thursday), Shitty Beach Boys, Come & Take It, Literature, etc. (Friday), and a reformed Foot Foot (Sunday) with the always entertaining Jherri Zeignfeldt's Atropheed Saq. See below for full schedule.
June 8: Loves It! 10pm, Ugly Horse 9pm
June 9: Rubble 11pm, Shit & Shine 10pm, Expensive Shit 9pm
June 10: Shitty Beach Boys, Come & Take It, Literature, Quin Galavis, Hollywood Blondes 8pm
June 11: Academy Black 12am, the Dickens 11pm, tba 10, tba 9, tba 8, tba 7, Blank Generation 6pm, Sketch Tards 5pm, Spastic Shakes 4pm
June 12: J.S.A.S. 10pm, Favored Demise 9pm, Destroyed for Comfort 8pm, Foot Foot 7pm
June 13: Giant Steps Productions presents Jesse Moore (of East Cameron Folkcore), Guns of Navarone & more 7pm
June 14: Mole People 10pm, Bike Problems 9pm & Contact HIV 8pm
June 15: Planets 11pm, Wife 10pm, Out of It 9pm, & Dead Swaggers 8pm
June 16: Ghost Knife 11pm, the Fleshlights 10pm, Broken Gold 9pm, Dead Space 8pm
June 17: Horse + Donkey 11pm, Bitter Birds 10pm, Sad Accordions 9pm, Field Dress 8pm
June 18: People vs. De La Rosa 11:30pm, the Now and Nevers 10:30pm, Really Old Airplanes 9:30pm, Man Factory 8:30pm, & Sailors Wife 7:30pm, Extravaganza 6:30, Los Bones 5:30pm
June 19: Wino Vino, Vana Mazi, & Izzy Cox 8pm
June 20: Rhett & Dean, Bottle Service, Crisis Hotlines, & We Know Where You Live 8pm
June 21: Very "Special Guests" 11pm, Shit Creek 10pm, Brickfight 9pm & Wide Angles (Chicago) 8pm
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