Bloody and Bruised - The Untold Srory Of The Backroom (Austin)

[Turner Coates]

“Bloody & Bruised: The Untold Story of the Back Room”
(Podcast)
The Back Room in Austin, TX, spent 33 years as a cultural hub for long hair, short skirts, cheap drinks and rock’n’roll mayhem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyxfwgz63XA

(Documentary Trailer)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OM7WlRJAg0

[Charles Bukaki]

Jason McMaster and his sidekick Metal Dave did a pretty in depth interview with the filmmakers on their podcast Talk Louder. Jason isn't great as an interviewer or conversationalist but it was still a pretty interesting interview.

[Turner Coates]

They describe it as a really stinky place in a horrible part of town, but I never thought of it like that. It was clean. In fact, the dressing room behind the stage was full of cleaning products.
I lived in the neighborhood, worked there many times, and it had a lot of different offerings besides hard rock. For example, I ran lights for Leon Redbone one night. I would take out of towner visitors there to see local blues and pop acts. One locally well known female blues singer had a reputation for drinking too much. I took some friends to see her. Her band came out and did two tunes on their own. Then she came out. She lasted about 3/4 of one song before she grabbed the mic stand with both hands and slid to the deck...face down.

I didn't hear it mentioned, But Darrell Abbott knocked the headstock off a guitar on the stupid pole that was onstage.

Here's a re-creation of the stage. Actually, it's from what would have been a drummer's POV, so the guy and monitors world be facing the other way.

[woblinweebles]

I played there with a couple of different bands in the mid 90s and usually had a good time there. One of the bands was on their shortlist for cancellations, so we got a fair amount of last minute gigs there. What was kind of annoying was that we went from getting paid with two pitchers of beer to $25 and once we had a little following, we got paid $50 - but almost every time we got a last minute call, they were always very thankful, but then they would pay us $25.

[Playboyliquor59]

Was there with fall out boy in 2004 I think. I remember buying a vhs of gg allin from there at a swapmeet as a kid and telling them about it. Cool room. Blink guys also told me they played there way before my time