Emo's East, Austin, Texas
Austin-based concert promoter C3 Presents has purchased the 1,700-capacity Emo’s East, adding an iconic name and new room to its portfolio of venues and festivals. News of the long-rumored deal was announced Monday, with C3 taking over the nine years remaining on the $2-million club’s lease from former owner Frank Hendrix. Terms of the purchase were not announced.
The deal fills an important capacity spot in C3’s Austin footprint, giving it a venue for acts that have outgrown the small club inside the Stubb’s barbecue restaurant, but haven’t grown into headliners for the 2,200-capacity outdoor theater at Stubb’s. Already a strong booking presence at Emo’s East before its move from downtown Austin to the city’s emerging east side, C3 will now have complete control over a calendar that has struggled to stay busy and a room that has had mixed results.
C3 representatives did not respond to interview requests but company partner Charles Attal told the Austin Chronicle, “Emo’s is one of the most famous rock clubs in the United States, period. They’ve spent years developing the brand. It’s morphed a little bit with the new building and they do a few more mainstream shows over there, but anyone that’s been in the music scene anywhere in the country knows of Emo’s. That’s important.”
In addition to its club business, C3 is the company behind Austin City Limits Festival and the Chicago-based Lollapalooza festival which has expanded to Chile, Brazil and had planned a fest in Israel but canceled that event last month. The company is also a partner in festivals all over the world including Australia’s Big Day Out and the Metallica-curated Orion Festival.
Opened in 1992 at the corner of Austin’s famed Red River and Sixth Street live music corridor, Emo’s earned its reputation as a sort of southern CBGB’s dive club thanks to high-profile events during the annual South by Southwest music festival, which brings industry insiders and music fans from all over the country to Austin each spring. For much of its history, Emo’s was a small, 200-capacity room and a covered outdoor space that could pack in around 1,000 customers. Hendrix purchased the club in 2000 from founder Eric “Emo” Hartman and worked with a host of promoters and bookers including C3 to keep both rooms busy.
Looking to get in early on Austin’s fast-growing east side and escape electrical and various structural limitations at the club’s original home, Hendrix opened Emo’s East in fall 2011 in a large, modern concrete and steel building owned by an outside developer. The downtown Emo’s locations closed soon after and remains vacant.
While a host of planned apartment buildings and other development in the Riverside area of Austin hold promise for the area's longterm vitality, its six lanes of traffic and lack of other cultural destinations have made music fans slow to congregate there. The Emo’s East calendar has averaged around two events per week since opening and its monthly liquor sales reported to the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission have been far less than those of clubs half its size.
While most agree that the acquisition of Emo’s East is a sensible move for C3 Presents, and that the company will be able to realize certain efficiencies there, there are concerns about the club’s brand since its move and whether it can attract a loyal fanbase like the downtown location that benefited from standing out in a cluster of independent music venues.
“(C3) had almost carte blanche over the calendar there already so not much will change, but now it’s theirs entirely and they can probably increase (event days) by maybe 15 or 20 percent,” said James Moody, owner of Austin’s Transmission Events, which operates the 1,000-capacity Mohawk club and promotes the fast-growing Fun Fun Fun Fest. “The problem is with the very word Riverside. For a live music corridor to thrive you need clusters of places to go to on bikes and foot traffic, and if you ride your bike by the new Emo’s you’re in so much car traffic it feels like you’re in real danger."
“The real question is, are the numbers there to prove momentum or growth for that area? This is a double down moment for C3.”
While Emo’s East is the only regularly operating mid-1,000 capacity room in Austin, C3 won’t have that segment to itself for long. Moody’s company is in the design phase for a similar sized venue – currently known as 1100 Warehouse – east of the city’s main expressway and within walking distance of a relatively new cluster of streetside bars and clubs. That space is expected to open sometime in the fall.
One concern for promoters in Austin is the expectation that C3 will be less open to outside shows than Hendrix and his staff had been. While C3 had the largest share of dates on the Emo’s East calendar, the club also booked shows with a wide variety of independent companies or directly with headlining acts like Houston’s Geto Boys.
“It’s a conversation I want to have as soon as I can,” said Aaron Berkowitz with Austin’s Knuckle Rumbler promotion and marketing firm, who is co-booking a concert with rapper Hoodie Allen at Emo’s East on March 29. “It’s not in their main interest to bring in outside promoters now that they own Emo’s. It’ll be interesting to see how things change now.”
Interviewed or this story: James Moody, (512) 480-5900; Aaron Berkowitz, (314) 809-2502