705 Red River deserves its own chapter in the book of Austin music
Stevie Ray Vaughan's first gig in town was at Waterloo Social Club
No address in town has had a more interesting live music history than the current location of Elysium. John Wickham and Marcos Aviles opened that club in Nov. 2001, following the closing of Atomic Cafe, a favorite haunt that shuttered after the suicide of owner/DJ Randall Goodwin, 34. Elysium continued Godwin’s theme nights, including Tuesday’s “Fetish Night.”
Before Atomic Cafe, 705 Red River was a short-lived new version of the Split Rail owned by Paul Sessums of the Black Cat and music enthusiast Peter Turner. Before that came Kilimanjaro, Hip Hop City, and Sanitarium, none lasting more than a year.
It’s been believed that the club’s live music tradition started on Halloween 1986, with the opening of the Cave Club. Brad First took over the lease from the Oz gay bar, where the urine trough had a length-long mirror so you could check out dongs ‘a drainin’ without moving your head.
But the Cave opened at 705 fifteen years after Waterloo Social Club, where Stevie Ray Vaughan played his first paying gigs in Austin. It was owned by Ron Coleman of the New Orleans Club, who was forced to close that former home of the 13th Floor Elevators in late 1971 as part of the Brackenridge urban renewal project, but he just moved the action four blocks south, and took his biggest draw Krackerjack with him. Bill Triplett bought the joint in early ‘73 and switched formats to progressive country.
The club’s entrance was on East 7th St., with bands loading in on Red River, which is why the address was often shown as 600 E. 7th St. The stage was on the north wall.
When the N.O. gang moved in, the Bijuberti Players had to find a new place to present their nostalgic melodramas. The troupe began in 1965 at the Poker Alley Studios between 19th and 21st Streets and half a block east of Guadalupe. They’d spent time and money converting J.B. Branton’s garage (which had been a barn before automobiles became common, circa 1920), but were at 705 for only six months.
Stevie came down from Dallas with Blackbird, featuring African American singer Christian Plicque, bassist David Frame and guitarist Kim Davis, who traded solos with SRV. Though it’s believed Stevie first played guitar in Austin, right after turning 17 in October 1971, at the Rolling Hills Club (later Soap Creek), Waterloo Social was most likely the first paying gig. Blackbird played the WSC once a week, as did Jimmie Vaughan’s Storm, who also held a blues clinic every Monday at the One Knite from ‘71-’76. In the early ‘70s, that strip of Red River could rival any street in Chicago for live electric blues. Southern Feeling with W.C. Clark and Angela Strehli were also regulars.
The horn-spiced Blackbird, often compared to Blood, Sweat & Tears, broke up soon after relocating to Austin 'in ‘72. Stevie went on to play with Krackerjack for a spell, then had a band with Frame called Stump, which later became Too Smooth.
With new owner Bunch Brittain, Waterloo Social Club changed to Waterloo Country in Feb. ‘74, booking the likes of Mel Street, Buckdancers’ Choice, Asleep at the Wheel and Red Stegall. After just four months of live music and dead crowds, however, 705 became home to Austin Country. Former Capital Area Boy Scouts executive Brittain opened another gay bar, The Apartment (later Sally’s Apartment) at 2828 Rio Grande in 1973. It closed in ‘88 for the same reason as did the Rome Inn, right across 29th Street. “Dirty Sally’s” was zoned as a restaurant, but made its money selling booze.
In the late ‘70s, owners of competing gay bars remained friends. When musician/author Bob Bogarte of Pearl Street Warehouse didn’t show up for his second night’s performance in a Cole Porter revue (“Why Don’t We Try Staying Home?”) in 1978, Brittain and Marcy Fletcher of Friends and Lovers on Sixth Street went to his house in Northwest Austin and found the body, a suicide victim. He was just 27.
Tommy Taylor an Austin legend.
I have absolutely no recollection of playing this joint, though it has to have been very early on. The name misspelling and the very brief time we called it Skiffle Band tells it. I am sure we didn’t do multiple Sundays.