Where once horse hooves clomped, two-steppers will dance. Stable Hall at the Pearl has announced that it will open in January as San Antonio’s newest music venue, with a multi-genre lineup scheduled into May.
The historic oval building was constructed in 1894 to house the former brewery’s horse team, and most recently functioned as a private event venue. Newly installed reclaimed longleaf pine floors and a dedicated stage will help create a Texas dancehall feel in the 129-year-old building, said Brandt Wood, principal of Dallas-based WoodHouse music promoters in charge of operating the venue.
“I really wanted that vibe to permeate the place,” Wood said. But music presented at the 1,000-person-capacity Stable Hall will go far beyond country music to cover a range of genres, from mariachi to mopecore, the so-called “Cowboy Kraut” of local rockers Garrett T. Capps & NASA Country, psychedelic soul, contemporary bluegrass, indie rock, hip hop and rhythm and blues.
WoodHouse announced an initial schedule beginning with San Antonio hip hop artists Brooklyn Michelle and Wes Denzel on Jan. 18, followed by Grammy-nominated Los Angeles rockers The Record Company on Jan. 19.
Demonstrating WoodHouse’s commitment to mixing local groups of multiple genres with regional and national touring acts, San Antonio female mariachi groups Mariachi Damas de Jalisco and Mariachi Las Coronelas will perform on Jan. 22. Buttercup and Garrett T. Capps & NASA Country will take the stage Jan. 25, and on Jan. 27 local conjunto stars Los Texmaniacs will back up genre-crossing stalwarts Flaco Jiménez and Augie Meyers.
With 357 million views on YouTube for their Grammy-winning song “Feel It Still,” Portland band Portugal. The Man rides a wave of momentum into Stable Hall Feb. 9, giving a chance for fans to see the band in a smaller venue than it typically plays.
Other groups on the schedule include Black Pumas with a two-concert stint Feb. 16-17, Austin’s The Band of Heathens on March 1 and Grammy-winning singer-songwriter and contemporary-bluegrass prodigy Sarah Jarosz on May 25.
Stable Hall can be configured to host intimate shows of 100 to 200 audience members or expand to up to 1,000 standing-room-only audiences depending on the show, Wood said. Seating can be installed on the main floor, with room for a dance floor if appropriate, and fixed seating on the mezzanine level will overlook each concert. Two 20-person boxes will be positioned on either side of the nearly 2,000-square-foot stage for a close view of the bands.
Wood said he and his partners are well aware of the San Antonio music landscape, and have intentionally positioned Stable Hall to fill a gap of mid-sized venues while respecting existing venues such as 200- to 1,000-capacity Paper Tiger, the 1,500-seat Aztec Theater, the 2,200-seat Majestic Theater and the 2,800-capacity Boeing Center at Tech Port.
“Those are all legitimate, good rooms, well-run, with history,” Wood said. “We’re showing up to sit at the table, bringing a lot of experience.”
Tickets will be sold through California-based Tixr, which Wood described as a boutique ticketing agency.
“We handpicked them,” he said. “We like their service, we like their ownership. They give a … high-touch experience where you don’t feel like you’re lost in space with a corporate ticket behemoth.”
Tickets will go on sale Oct. 27, and the concert schedule will be updated continuously, Wood said, with an eventual schedule of four to five concerts per week. For current concert information, check the Stable Hall website.
