XL cover story

Search for another metal playground has a couple of options

Saturday will mark the day the metal died at the Back Room.

Even though the game-room side of the venue will remain open, manager Sean McCarthy says that Saturday will be the last heavy-metal night ever for the 600-capacity stage side that has hosted every rocker from Motörhead to the Ramones. After that (and one final hip-hop show Sunday), McCarthy says, "The stage is closed, and I am no longer paying for security for that side. Whatever sound equipment on that side that has been rented will be returned. My insurance has been lowered. It is over."

The game room at the club, in the Rivertowne Mall at East Riverside Drive and Burton Drive, will operate on a month-to-month basis, McCarthy says. "The property has been sold, but there are still some details to work out," McCarthy says.

The property has been owned for years by businessman Ronnie Roark. On July 26, the Travis Central Appraisal District still listed the owner as Roark, who did not return calls for comment.

Other Rivertowne Mall businesses seemed in the dark about the sale.

C.B. Severson, a salesman at the Knox Co., which sells reprographic systems, said Friday that he'd heard about a sale, but was unaware of long-term plans for the property.

Stephan Green at the Kings & Queens Cuts barber shop also was curious about the fate of the building in which his business rents space. "If you hear anything, could you tell us?" Green said.

While the fate of the Back Room's physical address is in question, the bigger question is this: What's next for Austin's metal scene? Which clubs will try to fill the void?

One important venue is Redrum. The 360-capacity, all-ages venue at at 401 Sabine St. is ideal for up-and-coming local bands as well as touring acts. The club recently hosted the Extreme Texas Metal Fest, which featured such Texas death-metal and black-metal acts as Vex, Deceased and Ruins of Honor.

Redrum manager Julian Martinez worked at the Back Room "13 years and 45 pounds ago," as he puts it. He's also done time at Liberty Lunch and 311 Club. "I really think we're going to focus more on metal," Martinez said. "There's an intimacy to our club that can really be a service to these bands. Over the past two months, the club really has gelled."

Martinez is hoping to start Friday and Saturday matinee shows featuring high-school metal bands. "Let 'em rock from 4 or 5 p.m. to 8," he says.

Other genres that found a home at the Back Room are doing well at Redrum. "We've also started an industrial night on Tuesdays," Martinez says. "We hooked up with Secret Oktober (the Goth-oriented store on South First Street) and their 2,800-person e-mail list. That's been packed."

Redrum is booked by Tammy Moore, who spent time booking the Back Room last year and has tried to build a scene in Austin. She's also the co-producer of the public access television show "Pure Metal Sickness."

"There are metal bands in Austin, but I don't think we've ever been known as a city with a real metal scene," Moore says. "I started relationships with Course of Ruin, Close Hand Promise, Shrapnel and Meyvn, and bands just started popping up out of the woodwork." Moore says she's been aided by loosely knit organizations such as the Texas Metal Coalition.

"The Back Room was built for metal," Moore says. "Great sound, great lights. But the scene seems to be amazingly healthy right now, and we want to keep it that way."

For years, Deb Gill brought road shows to the Back Room and says there are several clubs that would be ideal for midlevel touring acts.

"Cannibal Corpse and Blind Guardian are bands that would work at Emo's," Gill says. She's also expressed interest in La Zona Rosa and the Austin Music Hall, but says production expenses for outside promoters are a strong disincentive to use those rooms.

"But mostly we have to start educating fans in Killeen and San Marcos that the end of the Back Room doesn't mean the end of metal in Austin," she says.

Austin certainly isn't lacking for venues. Room 710, at 710 Red River St., is known for punk and heavy music. Sundays and Mondays at Headhunter's, down the street from 710, are booked by former Back Room employee and promoter Wendy WWAD. The punk club Emo's sounds happy to work more metal into its schedule.

"We are holding dates for a few shows that would be Back Room shows, and we're certainly open to doing more," said Phil Waldorf, the club's local booker. "We're totally open to the kind of music the Back Room booked."

This includes hip-hop, which had made powerful inroads at the Back Room with Houston acts such as Devin the Dude and Bun-B.

While Devin's next show is at Antone's, a venue that occasionally books hip-hop, Waldorf notes that the new Emo's Lounge location at the corner of Sixth and Red River streets has started hosting hip-hop gigs; there is a hip-hop open-mike night tonight, in fact.

Waldorf denies that this means a rivalry between Emo's and Redrum for shows. "I think Redrum fills a really nice void," Waldorf said. "I think they stand to really benefit from this more than almost anybody and do really good business."

jgross@statesman.com; 912-5926