There is so much time and attention that is needed to put on the best live show possible. No matter who is performing or what kind of show they’re putting on, one single misstep can ruin the whole performance for the artists and the audience alike. When it’s done right, live performances become an immersive experience and create a feeling of home for droves of fans who rally around their favorite artist as they leave their all on the stage. That’s why the venues and the people who those venues play just as big a role as the artist you see performing, they can put their heart and soul into a performance but if the sound guy is falling asleep at the mixing board or the security won’t stop the drunk guy from yelling over everything, a great night can turn sour fast.
In Glide’s newest column These Walls, we are highlighting venues around the nation that pride themselves on putting on amazing live performances. The staff at these venues are tasked with making sure every detail of the night is perfect for the performers and the audience. On paper, the list goes on and on with possible mishaps that ruin the whole night, remember your favorite concert you’ve ever been to? Hours of preparation went into making sure you walk away saying “That was the best show ever”, and that’s thanks to the staff at these venues we’ve come to know and love.
In this edition of the column, we’re highlighting Antone’s Nightclub. A venue best known for its rich history in blues and has evolved into a multi-faceted safe space for fans across all genres located in the heart of Austin, Texas. Learn more about the history of Antone’s and how they make it look easy to run a wildly successful venue in our interview with some of the staff below;
Antone’s has played a vital part in the Texas blues scene for decades yet- how do you feel your venue has been instrumental in keeping blues alive across the country?
When Clifford Antone opened the original club in 1975, blues was out of fashion, and disco and progressive rock ruled the charts. By creating a place where legends could come set up shop for a week and intermingle with a younger generation of players, he created the perfect place for artists like Jimmie Vaughan and the Fabulous Thunderbirds and Stevie Ray Vaughan to learn from their heroes. They obviously went on to huge success, and so many young musicians were turned onto blues music by the Vaughan Brothers, Arc Angels, Storyville, and on and on. One of those musicians who studied Jimmie and Stevie was Gary Clark Jr., and now he is turning tons of young people onto the blues. It’s amazing how all these generations of big worldwide stars can be tied to one city and one club. We don’t take lightly the responsibility of keeping the club alive for this very purpose. – Zach Ernst, Talent Buyer
B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, Ray Charles, and James Brown have all taken the stage at Antone’s but also a lot of lesser-known acts that deserve to be recognized as well – can you tell us about some of the undercard legends?
One of the missions of the original club was to honor the musicians who played on all the great blues records but maybe weren’t household names. Sunnyland Slim, Bob Stroger, Calvin “Fuzz” Jones, Hubert Sumlin, S.P. Leary, Wayne Bennett, and Luther Tucker, to name just a few. Clifford was passionate about the notion that these artists were the greatest geniuses of American music, and were copied by the British invasion bands and never given their due. They had a home at Antone’s. At our current club, I have booked artists like Henry Gray, Billy Boy Arnold, Eddie Shaw, Lynn August, Warren Storm, Barbara Lynn, and so many others. – Zach Ernst
Describe a typical day at Antone’s during SXSW and not during SXSW.
A typical day at Antone’s is totally dependent on our calendar and show schedule, which consists of a dynamic oscillation of what we consider “club mode” (local artists, blues and soul acts) and “venue mode” (touring / outside promoted shows, and or private event buyouts). Club mode days usually look like a quick line check or throw-and-go show like our Blue Monday residency – one of the oldest residencies in Austin, where we host acts like Soul Man Sam and the SMS Band (think juke joint with a floor full of dancers), or Lindsay Beaver + Brad Stivers (a young husband and wife duo with a killer set list of original and blues covers). Doors at 7, show at 8, tables aplenty to purchase for an increased ticket price, and the feeling that Clifford Antone might walk in the door and order a Dr. Pepper at the bar and shed a tear while listening to covers of his favorites. The musicians usually play til 12 or 1 AM, and we slowly shut the bar down as the guest count starts to dwindle.
Venue mode days usually start with a mid-day load-in, heavy production builds, and oftentimes a small gathering of 18+ music lovers gathering outside the door to be the first in the venue and up against our small, intimate stage. Showtime typically starts around 7 or 8 with an opener or two and the headlining act wraps by 11 PM. Oftentimes the club clears out right after the show, but we try to flip the room into a comfy space with seating and music chosen by our staff that keeps the people entertained.
Regardless of whatever mode we are in for the day, our retail space, Big Henry’s Vinyl & Gifts is open from noon til late as a place to shop + listen to rare vinyl, pick up Antone’s merch, enjoy an Antone’s Famous Po’Boy and a Lone Star on your lunch break, and serves as a hub for Antone’s lovers before the club is officially open for live music in the evening.
SXSW is a whole other bag. Event load-ins may start the previous night before, anywhere from 12 AM-6 AM, and activation builds may take up to 18-72 hours, depending on if they are utilizing both floors and the time allotted to their rental agreement. We have an upstairs events space that lends to a very cool VIP lounge or breakout room at 200 cap (about half the size of our venue hall). The changing of the guards between managers, production assistants, sound engineers, bar staff, and security is a dance and strategy we’ve learned to master over the years with ever-changing client’s needs. We often run programming for large tech companies beginning with panels and chats during the day and flipping the space for live music and high-volume bar sales by night. The line management and crowd control never fail to be a challenge with our location and space limitations, and yet our crew manages to pull it off so seamlessly year after year. During SX, our #1 goal is to make clients happy, while maintaining the spirit of Antone’s for visitors to Austin and locals alike. – Mallory Bellinger, GM
Comedy – Do you guys plan to dive into that world anymore?
Antone’s has been a hosting venue for Moontower Comedy Fest for the past 6 years, and we do not have any plans of stopping! We love hosting comedy as a break from daily live music events. We host a monthly comedy show with live music following once a month, as well as promoted comedy acts sporadically throughout the year. – Mallory
Do you look for anything particular to fill the calendar on weekend nights?
During most of the year, touring bands play at the club on weekends. We look for bands who have done well at the club in the past, or have a big national profile, to hopefully bring in a big fun audience and have a good bar ring. In my experience, it’s very hard to get a patron to come to the club twice a month…so each weekend we are going after different audience segments (country, hip hop, indie, blues, etc) to not go to the same well too often. – Zach
Thoughts on DJ/dance nights and cover bands? Do they fill a void in your schedule and help bring in the bar revenue vs other nights?
Cover bands are always a great way to increase revenue; the crowds are lively, and their alcohol consumption often surpasses that of any other type of show. – Mallory
Can you give us a brief history of the venue?
Antone’s on Sixth Street opened on July 15, 1975, with a weekend stint from zydeco king Clifton Chenier & His Red Hot Louisiana Band. Devoted spirits like Angela Strehli and several Port Arthur comrades made sure things worked and that the music was presented with the respect it deserved. That weekend also served notice that a different universe had arrived in Austin, one that would change the city forever. Before long the large room, formerly a furniture store, also became a clubhouse for just-beginning Austin bands like the Fabulous Thunderbirds and Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Triple Threat Revue. Antone’s changed everything in Austin and pointed a way forward in spreading the blues. Before long, blues musicians all around the country were talking about the club, and hoping to find a way to play there. It ran on the premise that if Clifford Antone said something, you could believe it. There was never any doubt. With sisters Susan and Janelle and mother Georgette lending a hand, the bluesman, and his family made a stand.
As Sixth Street developed in the late 70s and rents got raised, Antone’s lit out for North Austin in the great migration to the far outposts above Burnet Road. Once it was ensconced in a big room there, icons like Ray Charles and James Brown came to town and dazzled sell-out crowds. Still, it was only a matter of time before a more welcoming location was found, and within a year a former pizza parlor on Guadalupe near the University of Texas campus welcomed any and all blues lovers to its extremely comfortable environs. It was like Sixth Street had been loaded onto a flatbed truck and transported 25 blocks north. The club’s first year there in 1981 gave notice that the blues was back in town.
What is your personal favorite show that has happened here?
Betty Harris
Dr. John
Booker T. Jones
Scarface
Jungle (SXSW show with Capital One House)
Chvrches (SXSW show with Capital One House)
As a fan, what venue from your past have you most admired and have tried to replicate some with pieces in this venue?
Of course, Steve Wertheimer set the bar really high for Austin clubs with the Continental Club and C-Boy’s. We also drew a lot of inspiration from the great New Orleans venues like Tipitina’s, d.b.a., and Howlin’ Wolf. – Zach
What do you dislike about other venues that you tried to make sure do not happen here? Is there really a bad concert experience you try and make sure your audience doesn’t have
Horrible sound/visibility in so many rooms; our design and audio system were put in place specifically to combat this
Unfriendly staff – we have a strict policy that our staff treats everyone like VIP – Mallory
Thoughts on Live Nation and AEG owning so many venues these days- is it a good or bad thing to have corporate involvement in presenting art?
Live Nation has a huge presence in Austin, and we co-present a lot of shows with C3. We are grateful to them for bringing more young audiences into the club than anyone else over the course of 70-80 shows a year, not to mention artists like Lizzo, Jack Harlow, Japanese Breakfast, and Lukas Nelson before they were huge stars. We are grateful that they trust us with these shows, and continue to innovate and bring us emerging artists – it would be easy for them to forget about clubs our size. – Zach
You’re probably tired of talking about the pandemic and the shutdown but how did you manage to survive that period?
Truthfully, our owner/operator, Will Bridges, had such a reasonably optimistic outlook throughout the months we were in lockdown (March – October 2020). There were moments of questioning, of course, but he kept such a cool composure while managing expectations of how to find a holding pattern until we were permitted to reopen: strategic conversations and financial decisions, incessant calls with workforce solutions and banking institutions to figure out the best options for our business and furloughed staff, and zoom calls with our management team to stay connected and maintain a degree of levity while we were all internally panicking about the uncertainty of the future. As a general manager, I made a point to reach out with wellness checks to everyone on our team that I could get a hold of through calls, text, and social media. – Mallory
Do you offer anything in terms of food or beverage that you are particularly fond of?
Antone’s proudly serves beer-steamed “Cliffy Dog” hotdogs and “Antone’s Famous Po’ Boys” in five classic varieties: Original, Turkey & Swiss, Premium Roast Beef, Tuna, and The Piggy. These iconic sandwiches, created by Clifford’s uncle Jalal in 1962, are available with Zapp’s New Orleans Kettle Style Potato Chips.
What else makes Antone’s a kick-ass venue?
Our staff, our regulars, our worldwide fans and music family; the generations of incredible people who have poured their hearts and souls into making Antone’s a home for musicians and music lovers alike, and a household name for the Blues (and all genres of music) in Austin, TX.
