19 OctOber 19 - 25, 2023 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents mixed together. Legacy Hall continues that aesthetic, but goes a little more American. The Box Garden is named for one of its ar- chitectural features, the use of shipping containers as part of the design. On the first floor of the hall surrounding the stage are small food vendors, designed to give you that food truck experience but with better hygiene. Stacked on the second and third floors are a bar and Unlawful Assembly craft brewers. It’s an increasingly common design dia- lectic — something new with a dash of funky and just a hint of nostalgia. The real ques- tion for us is how it works as a live music venue. We have an answer to that. Or maybe answers, since the explanation is multifac- eted. Broadly speaking, we can apply some of these answers to the other venues along Highway 121 (The Hub, Lava Cantina, Grandscape, and, to a certain extent, the Toyota Music Complex). Some of our city’s most beloved music venues were started by folks who focused on the actual performance of live music. But there isn’t a music venue in the world that can survive just on ticket sales. You can have a wedding at the Kessler Theater, a fashion show at the Granada or a spelling bee at Three Links. Counting up the bar re- ceipts at the end of the night is a key mea- sure of success. We don’t think anyone would claim that the Box Garden was created from an altruis- tic love of live music. It is part of a big, ex- pensive development in a high-cost part of the city, and it needs constant foot traffic though the bar and restaurants to make the math work. That doesn’t mean the place can’t put on a good show, though. Music at the venue goes through two main channels: free and ticketed. The Grays have done both, playing background music for day drinkers in the afternoon but also presenting their Disney show one evening in September. Free music is part of the mix along with sports-watching parties and sea- sonal events. Anything to keep you there for one more drink or ice cream cones for the whole family. Paid events take a different shape. Out- door patios on the second and third floors are for ticketholders only, even as the rest of the food hall is open for business. The effect is pretty cool, as looking back from the stage into three floor levels of fans creates a sort of Thunderdome experience. The sound is good, the stage is well-lit and backed by a huge video screen. If you have never been this far north and are afraid you won’t know anyone, you can relax. On any given night at least half of the crew running things will have “Granada Theater” on their resumes. For the grand opening half a dozen years ago, Sarah Jaffe sold the place out (around 1,500 tickets) and even had a signature beer brewed and canned for the show. The Toadies have played both here and at Lava Cantina just down the road in the last year. The Old 97’s and Bastards of Soul were here as well. Put aside all the nods and winks and smart-ass remarks, and it’s obvious that many Dallas musicians have played here. What’s surprising is how many more have not even been to the venue. Really, do they not like gourmet doughnuts? The last time the Toadies played here, about a month ago, Here Holy Spain opened the show and none of the band would admit to ever having been to the Box Garden. And they impressed us as people would appreci- ate a good gourmet doughnut. The type of music booked at Legacy Hall may have something to do with it as well, as cover bands and tribute acts are well-repre- sented on the event calendars of all these venues. Even when the Toadies or the Old 97’s roll through, they are offering music that is established, well- known and well- loved. My perception or perhaps miscon- ception about what to expect from the Box Garden changed during the summer of 2018 when I walked through the gates at random and found 1,000 young fans rocking out to East Coast indie band Beach Fossils. My first thought was that there must have been some sort of booking error, but looking back on it, this show exposed the real potential of the northern suburban venue. Many of the kids at the show ap- peared to be in the “just got my driver’s li- cense” age group. How much easier is it to talk your parents into letting you go to a show just around the corner, as opposed to taking Mommy’s car into Dallas? Heck, Mom and Dad could have been in the bar enjoying a cocktail the whole time. I asked around during the Toadies set. No surprise, but many of the people lived in the northern suburbs. Would they have gone to a Toadies show downtown? Yeah, maybe. But everyone was happy to see their favorite band closer to home. It’s a part of the experience that can’t be discounted. And being close to the highway means all of these venues have easy free- way access and plenty of free parking. Go- ing to Deep Ellum or downtown may help you keep it real, but if you live in the sub- urbs, going to a show in Plano may help keep it simple. Singer Quentin Dyer Moore has played shows on the outdoor stage at the Toyota Music Factory in Las Colinas and has set up a COVID-era show in conjunction with Nosh and Bottle in the same complex. He points to the easy access of the more popu- lar venues as a plus for getting fans out to the show: “I can get hardcore Quentin Moore lovers and core fans to come to Deep Ellum,” he says. But for “more fa- mous venues [like the Toyota complex] people already know the drill for parking and stuff.” Garland is another city trying to make over its image into a fun-loving town, like a party girl trying to stumble in her Loubou- tins onto Page Six. On Oct. 14, Garland unveiled its new Downtown Square, weeks after announc- ing its new designation as an official cul- tural district by the Texas Commission on the Arts. The suburb has become a destina- tion for hipster parents retiring from the big city who want a bar or two nearby for when the mood strikes, but without any drunk drivers. It has a decently picturesque old theater and the one Ricardo Paniagua sculpture. On the Saturday evening of the new square’s debut, it had the autumn air cozi- ness of a Gilmore Girls’ town jubilee celebra- tion: Vendors selling funnel cake and fried Oreos, drones lighting up the sky by forming into the shapes of cowboy hats. Thousands of families showed up to hear the evening’s entertainment: Garland’s most famous resi- dent, LeAnn Rimes. The singer howled the yodeled chorus in “Blue” under her hometown moon, sharing stories of her move from Mississippi to Gar- land at age 6. The same night, as thousands ran out of the State Fair of Texas in Dallas because of a shooting, the Garland square is peaceful, even as restaurants ran out of food. So, yeah. Things can get a little gritty south of the wall. But depending on how you define the boundaries, there are be- tween 6 million and 9 million people in the greater Dallas area, with more people flocking to the northern suburbs every day. They’re as hungry for entertainment after a hard weekend day of yard maintenance as any Dallas hipster, so it’s only natural that growing communities like Van Alstyne and Frisco and Garland would want to tap into that hunger and tap into live music to build a sense of community — and keep their res- idents spending their entertainment dol- lars closer to home. But their growth doesn’t necessarily cut into the bottom line of Dallas venues. More venues mean more chances to expand the population of live music fans, as well as more jobs for sound techs and lighting techs and promoters and bartenders and all manner of support staff. And that’s a good thing. And we’ll just come out and say it: Foghat rocks. We’re especially fond of their hit “Fool for the City.” Mike Brooks Old 97’s at the Topo Chico Hard Seltzer Stage & Lawntime at Grandscape in the Colony. THERE ARE BETWEEN 6 MILLION AND 9 MILLION PEOPLE FLOCKING TO THE NORTHERN SUBURBS EVERY DAY.
