LOUD

Emo's, an all-ages venue at the heart of the long-thriving Austin, Texas, scene, has firmed up plans to open a Vegas location, Downtown at 601 Fremont St., a brick building previously used as a Metro police facility. Club owner Frank Hendrix expects the club to begin hosting touring and local bands early next year.

"It's for real, and it's for true, and it's gonna happen," says Hendrix, whose Austin club has showcased thousands of acts—from Johnny Cash to Fugazi, The White Stripes to Yo La Tengo—since it opened in 1992. "You'll be seeing a lot of bands that you had to go to LA to see before, bands that have been bypassing Vegas and going from LA to Phoenix. We're gonna come out with both guns blazing. I can see a point where we're there six days a week with live music."

Scott Adams, director of Las Vegas' office of business development, confirmed the news at a September 20 redevelopment agency meeting before the city council. "[It's] in the permit process," Adams said. "We're very excited about this."

Hendrix, who has partnered for the endeavor with a group of local and out-of-town investors—including Beauty Bar owner Paul Devitt—reveals that the Vegas location will be all-ages, with one indoor stage (the Austin site has three, including one outside), no gaming and a capacity of 1,200 to 1,300.

"I've looked at the plans, and they're looking at investing quite a bit of money in the build-out. It's gonna be a little nicer facility than we have here," Hendrix says. "We're retaining creative control, since we want to keep it true to the Emo's brand. We're all about the music."

Darcie Stevens, music writer for the weekly Austin Chronicle, calls Emo's "the cornerstone of the Austin live-music scene. Somebody who hasn't been here might think of Austin as a roots-rock, blues kind of place, but that's not really the case when it comes to Emo's. We're talking mainly indie rock, punk rock, a little metal, a little hip-hop now, too. At Emo's you get anything from 200 people coming to see a band to 1,000 people on the outside stage coming to see the latest trendy band Pitchfork gave an 8.6 to."

Margaret Dickerson, Emo's primary booker for five years in the mid-to-late 1990s, moved to Las Vegas two months ago to begin preparing for the venue's opening. "I've been told by a lot of people that there's a scene here, but that it needs help," she says. "The whole purpose of Emo's is live music. Here or in Austin, there's no reason for Emo's to be open when there's not a show going on."

Dickerson has already been in touch with bands, promoters and booking agents and sounds pleased with the response so far. "I think bands will be more apt to stop in Vegas now because they know the name Emo's, and because it's all-ages." Hendrix acknowledges the all-ages designation—a barrier will separate the bar area from the rest of the room—will be key to Emo's long-term success in a town with a dearth of options for younger music fans.

"With the kids in Austin, we've perpetuated our clientele," he explains. "They start coming to Emo's when they're in high school, and by the time they're in college and they're old enough to drink, they've been coming here for five to six years and this is their home. My booking agent started coming to shows at Emo's when he was 15, and he's 26 now."

The Pandas' ‘Doors Moment'

The Pandas have performed 50 shows over the last six months, and if you haven't stumbled into one of their raucous sets, you've been spending too much time at Celebrity. It's no secret that frontman Bobby Martinez got into a scuffle with a Celebrity sound engineer back in March 2006, and the Pandas have avoided the venue since. Regulars at the Beauty Bar, Bunkhouse and Divebar, the four-sometimes-six-piece has no shortage of places welcoming them to play. "We get asked to play all the time," Martinez laughs. "Sometimes, I think, maybe too much, but I can't help it, I always say yes."

Gearing up to begin recording the very first Pandas EP, original band members bassist Louise LeHir, guitarist Erik Smith and drummer Spencer Burton are initiating two newbies, keyboardist and effects assistant Skaughty Gibson and tambourine girl Jade Takushi, with a barrage of shows. Sharing the Beauty Bar bill with The Brian Jonestown Massacre (September 20) and The Like (September 23) only days apart, the new lineup concluded its chaotic September with a pair of shows at the Bunkhouse. "It's been a little crazy," concedes Martinez, "but playing with Asteroid No. 4 on Sunday was awesome. I love those guys."

Next, The Pandas will be in the studio recording an Intravenous Records EP due out mid-February. "It's just a small run, to release in Europe first," but Martinez promises, "if you show up to the record release you can buy one, or I might just give you one. That's the kind of guy I am."

The Pandas have been booked with a remarkable number of indie up-and-comers over the last year, but Martinez insists it isn't the result of politicking. "Like at the BJM show," he recounts, "people came up to me all, ‘You're so lucky to get to play with them,' and I set them straight—it isn't luck or kissing ass or whatever—I've been friends with those guys since I was in The Warlocks." Always assertive, characteristically demanding and an unabashed perfectionist, Martinez is the dominant Panda and makes no excuses for his abrasive behavior. "I have the unfortunate job of being a leader," he explains. "Sometimes Spencer doesn't hit those drums hard enough for me and I let him know it."

Some might say Martinez doesn't see himself through those same critical eyes, with a series of alcohol-fueled onstage antics that have made for some unpredictable late-night shows. Playfully referred to as "the Bobby," Martinez fills out the percussion by bonking his head to the beat on the microphone while still riffing on his harmonica, interjecting with equipment adjustments during the band's signature jam sessions and demanding that his bandmates start the set in various keys while he tunes his guitar and replaces the nine-volt in his wah-wah pedal. "I guess I'm just letting loose a little," Martinez admits. "I don't have to get trashed and act like a jackass, but ever since I started shaking my ass and acting out, people like us more. It's part of the show. We're in a Doors moment, and I'm Jim Morrison."

A gander at Vegoose's windup

Though ticket sales have dipped from a year ago, Vegoose organizers remain committed to staging an annual Halloween weekend music festival in Las Vegas, Ashley Capps, president of promotions firm AC Entertainment, told the Weekly. "Ticket sales are down a little bit from what they were, which has surprised us," Capps said. "Last year we did close to 35,000 [per day], and I think we'll be out there with 25,000 to 30,000 people [per day] this year. But we're committed to a long-term event in Vegas. We believe that the concept is really unbeatable—Las Vegas, Halloween and a great music festival. It has so many elements for fun, I see it as a project for many years to come."

Capps said festival planners have not entertained the idea of adding a big-name performer or two to try to boost ticket sales for the two-day festival, which will feature Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Widespread Panic, The Killers, Phil & Trey, The Mars Volta, The Roots, The Raconteurs, The Black Crowes and others on October 28 and 29. "Everything is pretty much set, aside from a possible surprise or two," he said.

Three scheduled acts—Mike Patton's Peeping Tom, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and The Zutons—have fallen off the bill in recent weeks. Toubab Krewe, an African-rock quintet based in North Carolina, is a recent addition.

Capps confirmed long-rumored reports that there will be no Vegoose-sponsored concert on October 31, a Tuesday, though Widespread Panic will perform its traditional Halloween show on October 30 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. "We were concerned about asking people to stay that long," Capps explained. "We spoke to the bands we traditionally work with, most notably Widespread Panic, and they said the Halloween show doesn't necessarily have to be on Halloween. And we've still got four great days of music."

Music hogs yearning for more can schlep their costumed torsos to the Aruba Hotel to check out the Las Vegas JamBand Society's just-announced October 31 show, headlined by hot Burlington, Vermont, four-piece RAQ. Local band Stretch doles out the first round of candy-coated tunes around 7 p.m., with sonic tricks and treats continuing through the early-morning hours.