TCB
Music news
By Christopher Gray, Fri., June 30, 2006
FADE TO BLACK
Management announced last week that the Back Room, one of Austin's longest-running live-music venues, will go dark July 29, four months shy of its 33rd anniversary. The property, including the adjacent Rivertowne Mall, has been sold to an unnamed developer, general manager Sean McCarthy said Tuesday. "I'm sure something this big has been in the works for a couple of years," added McCarthy, a 16-year employee of the club who said he learned the news last Thursday.
The Back Room opened in November 1973 in what is now the ThunderCloud Subs at 2021 E. Riverside, and moved into its current location, 2015 E. Riverside, in the late Seventies. A SXSW venue every year since the conference's inception, it originally featured local folk and blues acts and began doing so again when its outdoor beer garden opened last fall. In the Eighties, it hosted an eclectic array of roadshows including Iggy Pop, Jane's Addiction, Steve Earle, and Warren Zevon.
Shortly thereafter, the success of major-label Austin bands Dangerous Toys and Pariah helped the club become best-known as the city's heavy-metal headquarters, a reputation it has more or less maintained ever since. Most recently, the Back Room found success with local and regional hip-hop shows, but according to McCarthy, clubs that confine themselves to one or two genres are rapidly becoming obsolete.
"If you're not mixing it up in your bar, you're not going to make it right now," he said. "You've really got to get out and search for everything."
Nevertheless, McCarthy said business at the Back Room had been "fantastic," and even after Austin's smoking ban took effect last September, the club had increased its sales every month until April, when increased gas prices and TABC scrutiny, among other factors, caused an industrywide downturn.
"The bottom dropped out for everybody," he said. "You're talking restaurants and everything. Entertainment dollars aren't being spent anymore. It's come back a little [since then], but not full force."
McCarthy said he hoped the Back Room's bands would land at the Red Eyed Fly; his son James Dean, who has been booking the weekly hip-hop shows, wasn't sure where those would end up. The Back Room's closing marks the end of a chapter not only in Austin's musical history, but also for its largely Hispanic, working-class neighborhood, now the focal point of the Eastside's ongoing gentrification. McCarthy said he thought it would be unrecognizable in a few years' time.
"With Town Lake sitting right there, it's one of the prettiest spots in town," he said. "My understanding is that everything is coming down around here."
FAMILY AFFAIR
It's shaping up to be a busy summer for the SIMS Foundation, which recently created a MySpace page and is auctioning off several Gibson Les Paul guitars, custom-decorated by various Lone Star celebrities, on eBay from July 11-20. (The Mike Judge model, shown here, is probably the most awesome thing TCB has ever seen. Huh-huh.) But SIMS' main course is Harmony in the Home: Parenting in the Musician's Family, a six-week program – hurry, it started last Thursday – of forums to discuss such issues as chronic illness, relationships, and coping with change. "Everything we talk about with folks, we also try and help give them some tools and resources," says SIMS' Betty LeMaster. The 90-minute forums meet 2pm Thursdays at the Gibson Guitar showroom in the Penn Field complex at 3601 S. Congress. Seating is limited, so to register call 494-1007 or e-mail sims-betty@austin.rr.com.
BACK ON THE CHAIN GANG
Tucked away between Cesar Chavez Street and Town Lake, near the mouth of Waller Creek, Chain Drive at 504 Willow St. has been Austin's main leather bar for more than 20 years. (For the hopelessly obtuse, "leather" means it's popular among motorcycle-riding gay men.) It has one of the nicest patios in town, and for the past year, at least on Wednesday nights, it's also been the city's most unlikely venue for indie, punk, and experimental rock. "I always used to joke that gay bars are our McDonald's – it's the same shit on the menu no matter where you go," says Terry Sawyer, who books the first and third Wednesdays of every month; his next show is Baby Robots, Faceless Werewolves, and Xcella July 5. "I think there's a huge pocket within the gay community of people who don't listen to [techno] and really like live music," says Sawyer, who also serves as DJ between sets. So far he's met only minimal resistance, both from bands who beg off with "that's not our scene" and Chain Drive regulars concerned that the shows could lead to the bar's being overrun by hipsters. "Honestly, the kind of people that have been showing up for the shows aren't hardcore scenesters of any kind," Sawyer says. "They're people that just want to drink cheap beer and see a good free show."
WHERE IT'S AT
Dubbing themselves Ima Robot and semidisguised in "Sabotage"-like wigs and shades, Beck's backing band played a surprise set of slippery space-funk at the Continental Club last Tuesday following their sold-out Backyard date (which, by all accounts, featured a killer puppet show). Although the diminutive Guero left the packed house wondering where he's at – the answer was upstairs in the recently opened Continental Club Gallery, reportedly sidelined by a groin injury – Brit Backyard opener Jamie Lidell (above right) filled in admirably with a pristine falsetto and rubber-legged dance moves that should have Beck watching his back.
PENALTY KICKS
• Husky-voiced Austin rocker Patrice Pike could be CBS's next Rock Star, but first she must vanquish, among others, exotically monikered contestants "Storm Large," "Ryan Star," and an Icelandic ringer named "Magni." First prize, such as it is, is recording and touring with hard-rock cast-offs Dave Navarro, Jason Newsted, and Tommy Lee, who have optimistically dubbed themselves Supernova. The surprisingly watchable reality series' second season premieres 7pm Wednesday. http://rockstar.msn.com.
• Austin indie-pop royalty Voxtrot have signed with PlayLouder, part of the Beggars Group of labels that also includes Matador, 4AD, XL, and Too Pure. The band has licensed this year's Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives EP to Beggars for international release this fall, when they will also release a new single and tour overseas. No local shows are currently on the docket, but Voxtrot plays a free show in Brooklyn's Prospect Park Friday with TV on the Radio, and the Pitchfork Festival's opening-night party July 28 in Chicago.
• Festival Beach Road, which runs alongside the Town Lake hike & bike trail just east of I-35, was renamed Nash Hernandez Sr. Road, in honor of the late Austin big-band leader, Monday evening. Hernandez, who died in 1994, led his namesake orchestra for 45 years and lived on nearby Holly Street; now under the baton of son Ruben, the NHO plays Donn's Depot Saturday.
• Local bands I Kill Cars, Vacation Gold, and Tia Carrera salute Hollywood's nuttiest Scientologist, Tom Cruise, on his 44th – in Earth years, anyway – birthday Monday at Red's Scoot Inn. Further attractions include screenings of unspecified Cruise movies (TCB votes for Losin' It), copies of Dianetics as door prizes, and a couch-jumping contest. Cover is $5, and everyone must complete a personality test upon entry.
