Legendary Rock Club Shutting Down

"I'm going to research this, but I'm almost positive this event was held for many many weeks after the smoking ban went into effect"

I started researching it, but had to quit because of the smoking ban.

Incidentally, in my humble opinion, the Back Room is closing because a) no one (besides its small devoted clientele) wants to party on Riverside and b) with new condos going up in place of the scummy apartments, the rent is way too high for any club to maintain. I doubt that the Back Room could have done much more to ensure its own survival. It did, as you point out, pull a major Hail Mary move by trying to make itself over as a breeding ground for hip-hop, and even that wasn't enough to save it.

For Sean:

I'm in no way arguing that mediocre bands should be culled from the booking pool. I am arguing that if a club continuously books bands that draw significantly less than the capacity of the club and does nothing to suplement their income, they have no one to blame but oneself.

This may not be the case for the Backroom exactly, because (if I remember correctly) when Mike B. left the booking role at the B-room, he left partially because the club wanted to move away from the type of music he was most into (punk/metal/metalcore stuff that centered around Austinpunkrock.com and what would become the bread and butter of Redrum) and more towards mainstream rock that WOULD fill the room better. In recent months, the club HAS made an attempt to move towards a new niche with hiphop shows, probably because the local metal bands do not draw particularly well in that large a venue.

Nonetheless, if a club is ONLY booking bands that do not help make ends meet and they do NOT make an attempt to find other ways to generate revenue via food, event nights, DJs, drink specials, whatever.. closing of clubs is inevitable. If the smoking ban did truly cut down on the population of rock fans who attend shows significantly, then clubs can sit on their hands, whine and complain, and go out of business. Or they can try to survive in the new environment with the new rules. I definitely feel that too many clubs do too little to ensure their own survival, probably because they ARE living month to month on their revenue stream. Some very simple upgrades to facilities (like a toilet bowl that works in many cases), tweaks to the drink selections, or simply booking 2 bands earlier in the evening followed by a good DJ who spins old school punk records on a week night could generate new fans of an establishment.

Look at Whisky Bar as an example. That place is anything but "cool" in the sense of what most Red River goers enjoy. But, it THRIVES on Thursday nights by putting a decent punk or dance rock band on the stage, charges no cover, pays the band $75-100 out of the drink tips, and has a pretty good DJ before/after the band plays. They make a bar thats normally filled with young professionals in khakis and striped shirts into a lot of fun for a crowd that more into Lonestar tallboys and picnic benches. Once a week, they draw in a totally different crowd that supplements their normal draw.

There are a lot of bars and a lot of bands. Maybe the places downtown with higher rents shouldn't be the breeding grounds for so many new bands at this point. It's unfortunate, but if your band only draws 10 people, maybe you need to build your fanbase at house parties or clubs off the downtown strips where the owners can afford to take the risks and not miss the income as much.

Regarding Stoz's comment:

"I agree that Matt Bearden's "Game Show" was amazingly entertaining. Too bad they had to end it because of the smoking ban."

I'm going to research this, but I'm almost positive this event was held for many many weeks after the smoking ban went into effect... and the times I was there, with no smoking, featured a rather large crowd. The event itself seemed to just fizzle out because, like most things, it became the same group of 75 people showing up who then became 60, 50, and eventually 25 people.

I think doing it every single week might have burnt the crowd out as the idea and material wasn't fresh enough to generate excitement that often.

See how much clearer your point of view comes across when you're not making nasty, sweeping generalizations? If you took the time to explain it like this in the first place we wouldn't even be here.

I wasn't the one arguing that the smoking ban was responsible for the Back Room's demise; that was someone else's assertion. Mostly I took umbrage with your statement that all of our live music venues, Back Room included, were uniformly "booking mediocre rock bands." That's the asinine, cutesy-clever statement that got me here. (As for the smoking ban, I voted against it, but that's a moot point, and I'm just as tired as you of arguing about its ramifications.)

Anyhoo, as always it's a matter of taste as to who is worth seeing, and who deserves to be booked or not. And after all, it's not like you can consistently book the most talented acts in town week after week, even if there were some way to measure talent like that. As for discovering the next Spoon, when I first started attending Spoon shows they could barely get 15 people to see them at Hole in the Wall, and this was when they were on Matador. As a booking guy you can only dip repeatedly into the same shallow local pool and hope for the best--or better yet, book acts that you yourself appreciate and who seem to have a draw, any kind of draw at all, even if it is only their small group of fans time and again. If your argument is that that talent pool should be culled to eliminate the mediocre bands altogether, which some of your statements have led me to believe, then this is what makes you a stuck-up asshole.

Surely you recognize that the same 20 local bands consistently play the big rooms (Emo's, the Parish, Antone's) while everyone else is forced to find their place elsewhere, and that while this variety of bands and places to play may not produce a wealth of rock stars, it nonetheless makes it a genuine music "scene." Even if you or I will never go see these bands, and these clubs may never enjoy the success of larger clubs because the top 20 bands don't want to play their stage, it's the very existence of these go-nowhere bands and dead end clubs that make Austin a breeding ground for acts like Spoon in the first place. Saying that because their profit margins aren't on par with the larger market clubs that they should rethink their strategies--eliminating live music in favor of special event nights, for example--isn't just "realistic" thinking, it's also pessimistic and counter to what this city at least pretends to be about. Which is, I believe, what Stozzell was saying in the first place before you got up on your high horse about the smoking ban comment.

The Back Room can't be blamed for sticking with their niche, even if you (or I) didn't like their product. To a certain group of people it was their home and I just don't see the reason for you to come by and shit on their grave with a "Ha ha, serves you right for not being as good as I deserve. Maybe you should have had a Law and Order watching party every Wednesday and served free buffalo wings and then you'd still be here." If you truly do support local music and local clubs (as you obviously do, otherwise you wouldn't have the details to back it up), then I'd encourage you to take a less cynical viewpoint, even towards clubs and bands you may dislike.

"Flamingo Cantina added their Tuesday night game show thing which was awesome while it was going on a few months ago."

I agree that Matt Bearden's "Game Show" was amazingly entertaining. Too bad they had to end it because of the smoking ban.

The people have voted with their wallets and the Backroom isn't staying in business. The (pseudo) free market is more democratic than our political system.

I don't think I was complaining about all of Austin's entertainment options (bands, venues, or otherwise). I wasn't even complaining about the Backroom's selection of entertainment options. Pointing out that the vast majority of live music venues have remained in business (and a number of new options have opened) highlights the fact that the Backroom was making poor business decisions which included catering to a crowd of belligerent assholes and booking bands that could not consistently fill their huge room.

Like I said previously, when Mike was booking the Backroom, bands like Dynamite Boy, Riddlin Kids, and Rubberhed made it their home and that room was packed on weekends. If those bands (and Mike) have moved on and the new booking guy can't find bands who draw more than 50 people, then the club is booking the wrong bands and/or destined to go out of business smokers or not.

Once again, the other clubs have adapted to this changing environment. Jackalope's food selection is fucking great and its always doing good business from a casual observes viewpoint. Side Bar always seems to have a good crowd. Red Eyed Fly was pretty crowded the last 3 shows I saw there (Lions, Lemurs, and some third bill I can't remember right now). Beerland has had a good number of people there on Sundays (Adult Swim night) and Mondays the last few times I was there-- I don't necessarily agree with a lot of their booking choices, but instead of being "too punk rock" for those kinds of activities, they've changed Sundays and Mondays into a night worth attending at their little bar (that's a good business decision). Flamingo Cantina added their Tuesday night game show thing which was awesome while it was going on a few months ago.

Local bands, at least 95% of them, ARE mediocre to 95% of the population. To their friends and small groups of fans, they're awesome -- which is great and, in many cases, I enjoy them for that reason. I've spent upwards of $50 this week on booze and cover attending shows and the weekend hasn't even begun yet. But, if your booking guy isn't booking bands that draw enough people (and more importantly people who drink), you're going to go out of business because of the mediocrity. Unless one of those bands becomes the next Spoon on your watch, it's impossible to continue to support it indefinitely.

You can think that being realistic like this makes me a stuck up asshole and that's fine with me. I want to see as many clubs and bands succeed as possible, but only within the confines of what the market will support. Huffing and puffing about the smoking ban isn't going to help a bar not go out of business.

Right, that's relevant.

Oh wait, except that finding a reason to complain about the government is a natural part of the democratic process. Complaining incessantly about a town's entertainment options, however, its selection of "mediocre" bands and clubs and so on, as well as the other people who call it home--well, that just makes you sound like a stuck-up asshole. I'm not sure what it is you think you're doing: "being real," standing up for a silent majority of people who think like you do, or even making an attempt to be entertaining in some sort of Dennis Miller/Lewis Black/Vice magazine "I don't want to get off on a rant here" kind of way, but all you're really doing is coming off as a dick. You're not a beloved anti-hero or "the man we love to hate," so just give it a rest already.

i very much like to smoke. also i am happy to be here in america, where it is allowable to smoke, even if outside of bar. in my home country, you could not smoke without permit from communist party office.

speak more of this "chain drive" place. there are bears? i very much like bears.

Oooooh, I heard the similar comment the other day about how if I didn't like George W Bush, maybe I should move to Canada!

Declan-

Is there anything that you actually like about the Austin nightlife and its music scene, or is everyone involved in it mediocre, shitty fuckwits? If you're this bitter about the town you live in, why don't you do us all a favor and fuck off to Dallas?

I'm certainly glad the smoking ordinance passed so that people like you--whose contribution to the public dialogue is a lot of hate-filled invective about how everyone else is full of shit--can stand comfortably in a club and be so disgusted with everything. Keep spitting the smarmy hatred; it makes you sound "edgy."

Hey Stozznozzle-

What's done is done when it comes to the smoking ordinance. If I remember correctly, there was a 2 year window before the ordinance could be changed, removed, etc which puts all the bars at about 14-15 months to go. Like I said, if you think the ordinance is the reason your favorite shithole riverside drive bar is closing its doors -- and not because of the fuckwits who run a business into the ground -- you should have been doubling your efforts to support it. When I like something a lot and it looks like it might go away, I try my damnedest to prevent it from going away. You, on the other hand, seem to want to just sulk and talk about shit in the past. Unless you've got a goddamned time machine, debating why the ordinance should never have happened is a moot point.

I can't seem to figure out which of the other live music venues have closed their doors due to this ordinance, but enlighten me. Last I checked, Emos, Flamingo Cantina, Red Eyed Fly, Elysium, Beerland, and Room 710 were all in business and booking mediocre rock bands. Beauty Bar and Red 7 have both opened (and maybe closed in the case of Red 7?) since the ordinance, so investors obviously thought that area of town could handle another bar/venue or two. The Chain Drive, a gay bear bar, has been hosting punk rock nights for a while now. Woody's South -- run by former owner of Room 710 -- is booking bands and serving food. The Parlor is doing well enough that they opened another one pretty damned close to the original.

You can continue to be a delusional nitwit, but the Backroom didn't go out of business because of the smoking ban. When business sucks and you have a shitty product, the solution isn't to continue selling the shitty product or to make it shittier.

looks like declan has returned from vacation, but apparently he had quite a few daquiris with battery acid floaters. wow! beware folks: the tools have been sharpened.

"Since you'll be drinking a little bit less as you step outside to smoke, tip $2 extra over the course of the night and help prevent what you think is inevitable.

Or, just keep smoking and kill yourself."

Uh, who says i smoke? With the exception of a puff or two in the 8th grade, followed by an uproarious coughing fit, I don't touch tobacco. But if somebody wants to do so, it's no business of mine or yours. You are free to patronize places that allow it or don't, as are smokers, why legislate away the property rights of our venue owners/operators?

Or, just keep being self righteous and foisting your beliefs on others and kill your liberty.

Oh come on Stoz, how do you know it was the smoking ban?

Since 2003, that place was routinely goddamned empty on nights not including:

1. larger touring metal acts

2. rubberhed/dynamite boy/austinpunkrock.com related bands when Mike was booking there

3. NFL playoff games

The reality is, most local Austin bands:

1. don't need a stage the size of Kansas

2. don't want to play in East Austin

3. don't draw well

Smoking or not, if you're unable to book bands who draw more than 50 people for a room that could hold 500 (or more, depending if you count the non-music side of the place), you're not going to stay in business as a music venue.

Every time I was there as a non-music patron, I thought the other patrons were shitty assholes who just got off their construction jobs. They'd spend most of their time learing at my female friends and thinking they were tough guys... while tipping 25 cents for a pitcher of beer. If you're catering to that crowd, how the fuck do you expect to stay in business? By selling those $2 hot dogs?

Finally, if the smoking ban is truly the reason and you truly give such a big fuck about supporting live music, local bars, or whomever -- why don't you rally your defeatist friends off yoru defeatist couch, stop being a defeatist douchebag, and go support the bar/band/venue/stripper/backroomgarbagedump/etc of your choice? Since you'll be drinking a little bit less as you step outside to smoke, tip $2 extra over the course of the night and help prevent what you think is inevitable.

Or, just keep smoking and kill yourself.

Yet another casualty of the smoking ban. "Live Music Capital of the World" my ass.

After the smoking ban and downtown noise ordinance finish taking their tolls, austin will have about as much significance on the regional music scene as Waco.

The Back Room is still in business? Shoot, I thought that place closed like 10 years ago.

Well, that sucks, but I'm amazed they've stayed open as long as they have.

I saw many a hard rock band there including Pantera, Tool, Rollins Band, Soundgarden, Faith No More, King's X, Prong, Primus, Mr. Bungle and a ton of others I've probably forgotten. A few of my own bands have played there as well.

That being said, I went to a Henry Rollins spoken word show there a few years ago and ended up missing part of the show because the manager or owner (short guy with big, dark, curly hair) had it in his head that my tickets and those of several others were counterfeit. It took someone from the ticket agency coming down in his off time to prove to the jackass that the tickets were legit. The Backroom guy was a real asshole about it and I pretty much never went back after that.