Hot Real Estate Listings: Emo's Lounge

Nothing is going on. Emo's Jr. has been listed as for sale for apparently months or years now at a price the owners don't expect to get so while it's for sale it ain't going anywhere.

what's going on and when?

i have shows booked there.

I'm sorry but Emo's has sucked since Dave Thompson left years ago. Graham has done a shitty job of booking since and who-ever is doing booking now isn't much better. And while I think Charles Atal is the biggest douche in the universe, he has provided crowds with what they want : popular bands from all genres (except rap music, and please don't give me that "common is a rapper" crap). If a douchebag like Charles Attal can take control of the Austin Music Scene like Bob Woody took control of 6th street, then he deserves it because the competition never put up a fight.

And while I give Emo's credit for doing the unfathomable and booking decent hip-hop groups, they've still done it with the worst sound system and the shittiest atmosphere... any change can only be for the better.

R.I.P. Emo's. Say hello to the eastside.

I think they are going to turn the whole building into a wal mart.

I used to love going to Hurt's Hunting Grounds to look at all the junk. I'd completely forgotten about it.

Great history from 710. I hope something shakes out by 2010, but until then -- let's enjoy the next 2.5 years!

Here is some Red River history, via the Room 710 perspective:

Room 710 sits in what used to be two storefronts which made up the Hurt's Hunting Grounds. The building value of HHG in 1999 (the year before development) was considerably less than $100,000. Over the course of the next 5 years, property value increased to $287,000. In 2006, the value of this plot nearly doubled to $507,000.

Red River St has a long history in debauchery, slum living, and heroin and crack distribution. Beerland and Elysium, for example, used to be one large brothel. The corner of 7th St and the Sally Alley is still today the most profitable crack dealership corner in town. The storefront in between Bull McCabe's and Headhunters (now owned by the Sally) has never been anything but a shutdown adult bookstore.

The Sally and ARCH, quite frankly, were placed where the homeless, depraved, and deprived have always been in Austin. Was it stupid to do this? Well, there wasn't any foresight. In fact, all the foresight the City had offered Room 710 was to make sure that the water meter we were told to install was big enough to accomodate a business with 3 times the capacity we were given. In other words, the City never expected Room 710 to last, either.

Between the sky high property taxes and the absolute lack of concern the City has for the safety of the customers of our businesses (i.e. the "parking valets" have been reported to the police to, obviously, no avail), Room 710 has made a conscious decision to NOT renew our lease. We would love to buy the building if we were to make it to 2010, but otherwise, this Club will follow other Clubs that have been priced out of the City by the developers and the land assessors and those wonderfully greedly landlords who have been milking the businesses all built by folks who care more about the ideas behind the biz rather than the monetary fortunes of trying to run a rock establishment in the heart of a slum.

People have told me that once Room 710 goes, then everyone else will go. Those people may be right. Cities run in cycles. 10 years ago, places like Club Foot and Liberty Lunch ran the live entertainment for this town. Those places live only in memories.

The lesson? Don't take anything for granted. That being said, tomorrow night Room 710 hosts another eclectic night of independent, mostly local music, with Lick Lick, the Invincible Czars, and the Company Corvette (headed by the roadie to Stinking Lizaveta, from PA). Adi has said that he will preview the show. This will be the first Room 710 show preview on the Austinist. What happens next is up to the reader.

Apparently this property has been on sale for quite a while (like two years). We heard about it because of a tip from a reader who saw it on craigslist. I don't think it is on the MLS, so I never noticed it was for sale before.

i remember reading comments on here about the emo's/c3 alliance, and how that would cause the demise of a downtown staple. what was it - like a month before the property went on sale?

Wow, imagine that, residential near a shelter. yeah, they don't have that in other real cities.

Hmmm...condos across from ARC. That's funny. Maybe the upper decks should be turned into a housing project. Northbound=eastside, Southbound...

I think Emo's Lounge should be bought by Spyro's. That, or Paradox could move in. You know, to dress up the Red River scene a little bit.

man, ya'll are whiney people...I'd say maybe 3 or 4 comments on here had anything to do with the article above. keep on point people.

guest: email me. truecraig[at]gmail Seriously. If you're sincere, then email me. If you aren't sincere, and you're just backpedaling to save some weird anonymous internet-face after trolling the crap out of our site for over month, then you'll just be proving all the sarcastically sorta-nasty things I said prior: completely and wholly true. What would be the point in allowing that to happen?

And I wasn't kidding about me buying the first round.

Oh, I didn't mean to fuel the hate fire there.

I actually did think that the comment was funny, and even if a "guest" had posted it I would have said it was funny. Just like I think your use of the word dillweed is funny. Come on, "shit parade?" How can you not laugh at that.

I'm cool with you posting as a guest, but feel free to email me with future grievances about our self-congratulatory jackassedness if you so desire. My non-anonymous email address can be found on the staff page.

Last thing I hope - if you don't like that it sometimes takes 10 posts to clear my head about a subject, then make it so that we can edit our posts or disable multiple postings. But right now you're faulting me for a ball that's in your court.

Not only is your type of miserable trollism sad, it makes me very angry because you are a person with authority at this site and you are saying, "If you want to pick on someone, that's not cool but if I want to be a dick, I can." which is exactly what you're doing at number 26. If you want your ideas and writing to be open to criticism, publish them on the internet. If you don't, publish them in your journal. But don't hate me because we disagree or because I am pessimistic. Ignore me and go play with your friends, pretending that you're the coolest kids in the high school we call Austin.

Oooh, NICE ONE! How sharp is your key-typing voice!

Quick adjustment to my previous comment:

"...dragging their sad asses around in pools of BITTER angsty tears..."

So I guess I'll have to retract my previous statement that we were in all likelihood: similar. I may be cynical, but unlike your misplaced-angered self, I'm still enjoying it.

Your turn! Isn't this fun! I'm so professional!

And if you dillweeds don't like people posting as "guest" then make it inactive. Jesus H. It's not like anyone signed in as "guest" is any more hidden or anonymous than someone signed in as "truecraig".

I'm just saying, you can boo-hoo with the best of them. And if you can't see the "miserable troll"ism in this:

"there's always going to be a couple of miserable trolls looking to vent, dragging their sad asses around in pools of angsty tears, kicking puppies and crying about something, begging others to join in some pointless shit parade out here on the anonynets."

then that's just sad.

But at least oh steph thinks you're funny. And at least you have your army of self-congratulatory jackasses at the austinist to love you and pound your back and tell you that "NO! Your comment was FUNNY! Really it WAS!" when you make a dick of yourself.

Me? Full of hypocritical dissatisfaction? Yes, you're goddamn right. Your formidable skills in deductive reasoning, along with an obviously deft grasp on rhetorical analysis are impressive. But, I choose to shit all over everything honestly, with my own name, and all by myself. Unlike yourself: repeatedly commenting on your own comments, desperately trying to make it look as if there's an army of crybabies out there.

But for all your drumming and tantrums, it's still just you.

And me, of course.

So let's go cry together. Email me and let's go get trashed and WAH-wah about all the unfairness of the world. I've got the first round. It'll be much more fun than pseudo-jousting in the comments section of a website you obviously hate (all day long).

Craig's official new name: Little Sally Sunshine. There will be no more "Truesday." Instead we will have "little sally sunshineday."

And no #24, not hypocrisy, humor. Try saying "miserable trolls and their sad assed angsty teared shit parade" in a sentence without causing yourself and others around you to piss your collective pants. But I do appreciate your used of uppercase letters to get your point across, you stylistically savvy stud!

HYPOCRACY IN ACTION!!!

Geeze, not like you at all truecraig, huh? You're just Little Sally Sunshine aren't ya?

Most of the 'guest' commentary here is alright, actually. Pretty high quality. Decent discussions and whatnot.

But for every 4 good 'guest' commenters, there's always going to be a couple of miserable trolls looking to vent, dragging their sad asses around in pools of angsty tears, kicking puppies and crying about something, begging others to join in some pointless shit parade out here on the anonynets.

WAH-wah.

You say that like anyone gives a shit what you think, Ryan.

#17, I could care less who you are, but I've noticed guests usually post lame comments. See how that works?

Actually, I'm pretty sure my discourse suggests that people should share their "hatin" (for whoever) through reasonable criticism thats backed with a sense of conviction.

But thanks for letting me know what I meant?

My favorite gentrification comic, just for you Joel:

http://catandgirl.com/view.php?loc=474

Justin Cox, you can say you could care less all you want but your discourse suggests otherwise, sweetie.

Holy smokes, batman! 1st Emos booking changes, then the building is for sale...future of Austin is changing for sure. And for only 4.5 mil...hmmm, I wonder who would pay that much for a club?:

condo developers. More condos and less clubs.

Yeah, I saw those Stubbs plans a while back too. Who knows if that'll happen.

I have a few thoughts about the effects on Red River clubs:

1. there ARE a lot of people who go to those clubs who can afford to live downtown. people are growing up and getting jobs. its not completely unreasonable to expect some portion of those condos to be inhabited by young professionals (lawyers, techies, etc) who already frequent the red river strip.

2. If #1 is completely wrong (and it might be), the people buying those condos are going to know it overlooks a live music hotspot. that's probably going to be a selling point. the selling point of the nokonah is that you're close to the lamar/central arteries. the selling point of the new caswell lofts is you're close to the park and campus. no one buying a condo across from the mohawk and stubbs is going to be unaware of what they're buying -- and there are a lot of music fans, even if they are only kgsr loving folks who want to be close to stubbs for willie's shows, that can afford condos. so even if they don't already go to those clubs, they might explore and like it. or they might hate it. but hopefully the clubs will be open minded enough to accept their money and patronage.

3. If #1 and #2 are completely wrong (and they might be), places like Deville might be making a tactical mistake by branding themselves as music venues. Maybe older professionals wouldn't mind being near Stubbs and Beerland, but they'd still love to go have a cocktail at Deville. Now that option might not exist, because there will be bands blaring there too.

In the end, I think it'll all shake out fine.

Stubbs has plans to completely flip their ampitheatre (from what little birds tell me) so as to hopefully avoid getting ticketed for noise violations once the two giant condo complexes go up on that end of the street. One will be across from Club Deville and the other will be perched right above Deville. I feel sorry for them...sort of...

Really my worry lies with clubs like Beerland, 710 and Headhunters. The smaller, seedier, and clearly more "charming" places.

Randall from Beerland was already "hedging his bets" by opening Rio Rita over on the east side.

My solution for downtown revitalization: We all need to go downtown, panhandle, smoke some crack and start shanking people.

Without those crackheads, who would direct us to obviously open parking spots and make sure other crackheads didn't break into our cars for a paltry $2?

The way I understand it is that the Salvation Army is on land that was donated to the Salvation Army.

I guess eventually the property value would be high enough that NOT moving to another location would be foolish.

In the meantime, all of your favorite crackheads will continue to be a presence.

Joel, I bet the downtown planners are kicking themselves for planning and zoning and building that homeless shelter on 7th street years and year ago.

I wonder how long the Salvation Army, Jaimie's, and/or that empty parking lot on 7th (next to the homeless shelter) will remain. All of those seem like more likely teardowns before the Red river clubs (which probably generate more rent/revenue in smaller plots) go away.

Though, I bet the Mohawk/Deville (and Stubbs to a lesser degree) will have their hands full when that condo building where the old Reddy Ice used to be opens up.

Oh yeah, that's right. I remember the tattoo parlor up above. So I'm guessing right now there's nothing up there?

Damn, I was wrong.

It is probably still two or three years down the road, but eventually the "redriver entertainment district" will probably be priced out of downtown. There are expensive condos being built in the area and a lot of other high-rent high density plans in the pipeline.

We need to go gentrify a new part of town. "Crack alley", as I foundly remember calling Redriver about 10 years ago, is now a clean(ish) and attractive plot of land.

River City Tats. It's sad they're gone. They added a lot of class to 6th Street. Now they're on Congress. Makes you wonder where all the money is coming from.

What's up above the Lounge? I've always wondered that, even before it was Emo's Lounge.

Also: Justin, good points. Constructive criticism about constructive criticism.

Haha.

I could care less if you hate the music editor, but trying to call her out on this matter is just laughable.

Yes, this may affect the future of Emo's Lounge. But guess what? I'm pretty sure Paige doesn't troll the commercial office listings on Craigslist, nor did she receive the tip from one of our readers. Shawn did. You know why? Because the person who spotted the ad thought it was just as relevant (if not more) to his urban development section.

If you have a problem with someone on staff, let them know why. Seriously. If you really care enough, voice your grievances in a critical manner and make it worth everyone's time to do the same. Set an example for everyone who comments, whether a staffer or reader. You don't do yourself (or any of your thoughts) justice by sitting around trolling for an opportunity to take shots via passive aggressive one-liners. Write an email. Leave a comment. Just start a discussion...because I believe that given enough thought and organization, the ideas swirling around in your head are something worth listening to. Something we should want to consider. And when I say "we" I don't mean it in this us against you way. I mean it in a "everyone who reads this site" way. Anyway, you should believe you're worth listening to too.

No worries. C3 will bail them out. And Oprah will buy everyone new Pontiacs on Red River.

$4,782,720!!! Does that include a free revamp of the bathrooms?

nothing's happening to emo's

It would be nice if the music editor could report on the future of a major music venue, eh?