If Stable Hall fulfills the vision of music promoter Brandt Wood, San Antonio will have a venue on the level of such vaunted institutions as the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, the Beacon Theatre in New York or Preservation Hall in New Orleans.
Such a goal is not unwarranted, Wood said. He described San Antonio as a “star city” with a growing music-savvy population that can attract the attention of booking agents and music acts that might otherwise pass over the city.
The adventure begins Saturday when the city’s newest music venue, located at the Pearl, opens to the public with a celebratory free admission show featuring Memphis singer-songwriter Rob Baird and opener Angel White, a Dallas-based singer-songwriter.
Vintage ambience
Wood’s staunch belief in Stable Hall’s potential is reflected in the care and attention to detail in revamping the 130-year-old building that most recently served as the Pearl’s events venue. One example is an 1890 church piano purchased in New Orleans, comfortably ensconced at stage right.
“We bought it because it’s the same vintage as the building,” Wood, who led the venue’s redesign, said.
A large framed painting of a majestic draft horse greeting attendees in the hall’s entrance lobby might look of a similar vintage but was created by San Antonio painter Lloyd Walsh. Walsh, who Wood described as Stable Hall’s “house artist,” also christened the stage with musicians from local band The In and Outlaws during a Tuesday private performance for the Stable Hall friends and family.
Another standout feature of the renovated hall is a large-scale, three-part mural by New York artist Dean Barger that bookends the stage and provides a graceful stage backdrop. The painting depicts a misty, wooded parkland with earth-tone hues matching the venue’s walls, painted in a deep green tone called “chimichurri” with green-black trim.
The restrained ambience of the space is meant to respect the character of the 1894 building, Wood said. “The room’s been built for versatility and personality, with an artful touch but still being austere.”
However, anyone who has visited Stable Hall in the past might not recognize the space once they get inside. The stage has been reoriented to face the main entrance and stretches expansively across the narrow part of the building’s distinctive oval shape. Balcony seating feels unusually close to the stage, and two box seating sections Wood calls the east and west “Hay Lofts” offer nearly overhead views of the stage.
Aesthetics was only one point of Wood’s close attention to the venue redesign. Recognizing that acoustics are crucial to how audiences receive music, Wood said he and his team “had an acoustician dial in the room sonically and mathematically,” down to the degree of balancing a 50-millisecond delay for music to travel from the stage speakers to the back of the room.
Elevated experience
Newly hired General Manager Libby Day was brought in to pay such close attention to all the other key details of venue operations, from offering affordable cocktails like the rum-based Panama and the gin-based Hounds of Winter to making sure touring and local acts have the comfort and resources they need in their respective green rooms, the industry term for musicians’ private backstage spaces.
“In my experience, doing this my whole life,” Wood said, “the band’s performance kind of gets elevated when they feel really taken care of.” An elevated performance can elevate the audience’s experience, and the combination of satisfied bands and fans can build the venue’s reputation, he said.
Day’s long experience in the San Antonio music scene — including her recent tenure as director of communications for the San Antonio Parks Foundation promoting park concerts and four years as marketing manager for the Aztec Theatre — have prepared her to advocate for including local groups in the Stable Hall schedule, both as featured acts and in support of touring acts.
“That’s a huge part of creating new and more opportunities for the artists that are here now and that have been here, and they’re hungry for those opportunities,” Day said.
The more the merrier
Wood and his compatriots at Dallas-based music promoters WoodHouse have been busily building a multi-genre schedule of musical acts, with a healthy dose of local bands mixed in with national touring acts.
The first two months alone feature such San Antonio acts as hip hop artists Brooklyn Michelle and Wes Denzel on Jan. 18, Mariachi Damas de Jalisco and Mariachi Las Coronelas on Jan. 19, Buttercup and Garrett T. Capps & NASA Country on Jan. 25, Los Texmaniacs with Flaco Jiménez and Augie Meyers on Jan. 27, Piñata Protest, Bombasta and Mexstep on Feb. 2, and Flaco’s younger brother Santiago Jiménez, Jr. on Feb. 22.
A VIP preview evening on Thursday featured Texas acts Rosie Flores, Emily Gimble, The Texases and The Charlie Watts.
Travis Buffkin, a longtime San Antonio musician who sings with The Charlie Watts and performs as “Travis Texas” for The Texases, said that as a working musician, he supports the addition of a new venue to San Antonio’s musical landscape.
“I’m all for as many things as we can get,” Buffkin said. “As long as we can sustain it and nobody goes out of business … the more the merrier.”
And as a local familiar with many hard-working local musicians, he echoed Day’s advocacy. “I just want to see more local acts getting on shows with big acts.”
Wood has vast experience booking bands in venues throughout Texas and said Woodhouse’s goal is to respect the history and reputations of venues such as the similarly sized Paper Tiger and Aztec Theatre, the Lonesome Rose and Sam’s Burger Joint, and longstanding John T. Floore’s Country Store in Helotes.
But, Wood said, if Stable Hall succeeds, it will help all of San Antonio. “We’re going to be respectful and humble but be aggressive in positioning this room as something that can drive more traffic to the market” overall.
He cited booking popular national acts Portugal. The Man (Feb. 9) and a two-night stint with Black Pumas (Feb. 16-17) as examples of Stable Hall’s potential.
But beyond the economics, honoring the Pearl’s historical context and the experience of musicians and audiences is primary, Day said.
“Ultimately, we talk a lot about being stewards of the building and stewards of the heritage,” Day said, “but really, we’re just stewards of a good time.”
