Tree Thoughts || November 16, 2006

Only one day after Fat Daddy's owner Kenny Brattain confirmed and clarified the Trees reopening, opinions are beginning to fly via e-mail, blog comments, and phone calls. Few of 'em are kind.

While it's hard to make a judgment call before the doors open and bands line up to play, enough facts are out there to start the assumption train. Fat Daddy's Sound Shack is a pop-punk leaning venue, certainly, and there's little reason to believe that the new Trees booking agents won't continue milking their longest-lasting relationships with bands and promoters. And the local roster that has frequented FD's is nowhere near my list of faves (and has a butt-rock scent to it). Having said all that, the new Trees lineups aren't set in stone; will the booking agents get their hands on bigger national acts and a more diverse local lineup (hip-hop, folk, electro) with the bigger size and better location?

Trees' potential biggest enemy?

That's up to both the bookers and the venue staff, but the former's payouts and the latter's kindness are only part of the issue. The Gypsy Tea Room may very well have a lock on Deep Ellum's biggest national touring acts, thanks to its alliance with booking giants Charles Attal Presents (the Austin-based agency that has assembled recent Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits lineups, among others). Obviously, other venues around town (Ridglea Theater, Will Rogers Auditorium, Hailey's) put on big shows without CAP's help, but they aren't blocks away from the agency's favorite Deep Ellum spot. Trees is a bit more spacious than the Tea Room's larger "ballroom," but those few hundred tickets might not be enough to break CAP agreements. Hell, that's the agency that snuck Beck into the GTR with barely 24 hours' notice last month. Don't count on Fat Daddy's getting shots like that so soon.

But will the deliberate push for an all-ages friendly spot help the new Trees stand out? If plans go forth as announced, alcohol will be banned in 2/3 of a venue that was known in its latter days for utter meatheadism. My personal bias isn't affected by this, since I don't care to drink at shows, but what's the total effect of this change for the huge percentage of showgoers who do? Typically, an all-ages focus relegates Dallas-area clubs into second-tier status (see The Door, less than a mile away in the outskirts of Deep Ellum), locking down fewer national acts and fewer diverse local bills; Brattain might be able to offset that with good bills, but if Dallas tradition continues, he's doomed from the start.

And if such a move bites into Trees' overall bar sales, then how's a room that big gonna make money? Certainly not by raising ticket prices--that's still a fraction of the cash that a fully stocked bar will bring in. Then again, Fat Daddy's has made money with an all-ages crowd in Lewisville, so they're not new to a lack of bar sales, and if the lineups are good enough, people will deal with a few extra steps up to the bar between sets.

The new Trees has its work cut out for itself. But if the club repairs the old Trees' reputation for underpaying local bands, puts more locals on the opening stage for national acts and forms bonds with local radio stations, who knows? The suburban kids who've avoided Dallas and/or Deep Ellum for the past five years, hiding at clubs just like Fat Daddy's, might come back. -SM