I've seen a few good shows there over the years, friends' bands, whatever. It always was a good place to hear a band and have a beverage. I would say my most memorable experience there would have to be one Halloween where a fight broke out between 'Frankenstein' and 'Alice Cooper.' Once Frank had the upper hand, three dudes wearing diapers dressed like babies jumped in to clean up. It was one of the most ridiculous things I have ever seen. I want to say 'Poor Dumb Bastards' were playing, but I don't -think- it was the show where he flashed everyone and then gave us the redeye. Probably why I was trying not to pay attention that night, as that had happened there before. Luckily the amateur alternate comedy was provided, whoever the band I was ignoring might have been.
Anthrax is playing there next month. Thought that was weird. Saw Turbonegro w/Danko Jones there last. Was great.
Interesting....from what I heard from someone well connected in the Austin music scene is that Emo's Red River is closing and moving it because of economic reasons. The Red River building is way too expensive for the crowd they bring in....a crowd which feasts on $2 Lonestars. The old Backroom will be the new Emo's and frankly I like the move since they will be able to draw bigger acts simply because of the increased capacity.
closure of big room makes sense, but im surprised they are shutting down the smaller room. they say they are going to open up a new 300 capacity club to fill that void - sounds like its going to be on red river. i wouldnt doubt that hendrix made some money on this deal, but i think he was being proactive w/ this move - the writing is on the wall - downtown is changing and its not going to get any cheaper to stay there. and it was a s***hole in need of a ton of renovations...the desire to not even try to get into that might have also been a factor in the closure. the last great show i saw there was a norwegian black metal band called 'WATAIN' they go all out - satanic altar, corpse paint, blood and rotting goats heads on pikes - there were candles all around and they were cooking the goats heads - the whole room stunk like dead, rotting flesh. it was disgustingly awesome! <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/JduGu6wJ2O0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
I just realized I went to opening night of all three (Houston, Austin, Riverside) Emo's locations. Holy crap... The Houston location was infamous for The Pool and the outside bathrooms/showers. The Red River location was infamous for its bathrooms and horrible sight-lines. Now the Riverside location is infamous for being just another giant box with a stage on one side (and only ONE set of bathrooms). See a trend here? Eric "Emo" Hartman must have some pretty mixed emotions watching all this from a distance (he sold it to Frank years ago). I saw him at the Butthole Surfers show at the Riverside grand opening, but didn't get a chance to talk to him. Gotta be weird...
