Backstage Live

Whomever it is — Twin Productions, maybe?? — that does the bookings for Backstage Live is a freakin *genius*, I tell you!
I’d LOVE to just avoid the place altogether — the space itself is sticky and grubby (but, ironically enough, there’s always one of those «concierge» type attendants in the restrooms, just waiting for a tip for turning the faucet on or squirting a dude with nasty Polo or something… tacky!), the staff seem gruff and hostile, sound quality is meh at best or often just downright atrocious, and the beers are WAY understocked and WAY overpriced (They ran out of Guinness — the international beverage of Celtic punk — at a recent Dropkick Murphys show before even the opening bands were finished.. Poor planning, people!)
But…
They do manage, somehow, to get in bands like Bad Religion, Social Distortion, and Dropkicks. As much as I’d love to withhold all of my dollars from such a shit place, there’s no way I can say no to seeing bands like those in such a small venue.

Only have been here once to to see a band called Ra Ra Riot, not the typical band that plays here. This is your basic warehouse type venue, simply nothing unique about it. The knock I have is the sound was bad, I can put up with just about anything else at a show as long as the music isn’t muddled and it was here. I wouldn’t return here unless under very special circumstances like Free tickets to see a good band and somebody was driving.

Backstage live is a great place to check out some live music. I went to check out a bank called Palms with Chino Moreno as there lead singer. There was not a bad place to stand and enjoy the tunes. This place have a cooling AC system, and inside rest rooms in the back of venue. They have about four bartenders to serve up some cold drinks. The only sad thing about the night is there beer selection. They one have like 5 beers too choice from. This venue can hold a good amount of people but on this given night it was not a sellout, but guess what happened. The bar ran out of Beer, straws, limes, and I’m sure other things. Not a good thing if all you drink is beer. i would recommend stocking up on the drinks I’m sure they would have made more money on that night. Oh well let’s hope on my next visit they will have more drinks for me to buy.

We went to see Eluvitie, Tyr, and Metsatoll last night. Metsatoll and Tyr are European Folk Metal with lots of interesting instruments (Metsatoll) and vocal harmonies (Tyr). We believed that Tyr, at least, would be allowed to adjust the sound system as they had done so at other drum-​centric venues like Whiskey a’ GoGo in Los Angeles. We were wrong.
The good: The prices were reasonable. The parking lot (across the street) was $ 10, seemed well run, and we were warned about the likelihood of towing.
The bad: Total lack of information. Doors opened at 8:00 but we were told that they’d open at 7:00; that was fun, second hand smoke and extra standing, Concert started at 9:00. MUST BRING CASH. The will call line was longer than the ticket line. It was raining, which meant it was cooler than usual, so no A/​C problems, but leaky roof meant one of the two toilet stalls was closed.
The really really bad: They don’t read their Unilocal reviews. The sound system is calibrated for bands with 20 guitars and one drummer, and they welded the drummer’s volume at 11. The sound volume was painfully loud, even with earplugs (which kind of defeats the purpose of folk instruments or vocal harmonies) whenever the drummer was playing. I would have given them two stars overall but the sound system was so overwhelmingly loud (a couple of feedback screeches before the first set almost staggered me with pain) that unless you just want to get drunk and mosh out, there is not point to coming. It looked like they could have fit in about four times as many folks as actually came, and bodies absorb sound, so turning the volume down to, say, 5, from the estimated full crank, would have been appropriate. I tried removing my earplugs several times throughout the concert, and popped them back in. It’s not just us: total strangers were commenting between sets on how bad the sound system was. And Unilocal reviewers.
The ugly: I hate to think that they are telling people doors open at 7:00 so you’d show up early to get a good spot to see the bands, then stand for two hours before the first set, and finally break down and pay $ 20 to get to use a stool off to the side and far from the band. But I do so think. If you wanted to see the headliners, you’d already have been standing four hours if you showed up when they told you the doors opened, three hours otherwise. People were sitting on the floor. And the only way I knew it was $ 20 for the stools? I read Unilocal reviews. If they had been chairs instead of stools, I’d have paid, if I’d known they were $ 20.
I will not return unless they fix the sound problems. And that, I guess, is why one star instead of two. With sound just at appropriate volume and drummer’s sound proportional, I’d have given them probably 3 – 4 stars, but their sound guy clearly has gone deaf and needs maximum volume to hear anything.

This place is horrible. Why? Here are some highlights.
1. Getting in is a bit of a pain if you’re paying with anything but cash. Will call? Debit card? Credit card? Good luck.
2. While it’s lovely to have a bathroom attendant for those times when you need a nice back scratch after a satisfying trip to the stall or to break up fisticuffs over the last roll of toilet paper, those times are rare and far between. Not carrying cash to tip a dollar whenever you spend a penny? Awkward.
3. There is no place to sit. There are also no ins/​outs. Yeah, I’m an old fart who has been going to shows for a good 25 years now and my feet and back aren’t what they used to be, but there is no way in heck I could handle standing still without any break for a minimum of three solid hours even in my prime. Heck, you can’t even go hide in the toilet stall to rest your feet for a second here (see highlight #2).
4. I don’t drink, so I have nothing to report on the quality of the alcohol. I usually send someone else up to get water since it’s not like you can go drink from the faucet in the bathroom without feeling like a moron (see highlight #2). Usually whoever I send comes back grumbling and missing an extra dollar or two.
5. There is no air to breathe. Not being able to breathe is really annoying.
6. The lighting seems to be done by someone who hates music.
7. The sound. Holy hell is the sound here horrible! If you stand in a certain part of the venue about yay far back from the stage at such and such an angle, it’s not awful. Here, it’s about the level of standing in one of the worse places at a venue with good sound. If you aren’t standing in that little sweet spot, good luck. The bass is strong enough to make your entire body itch with the vibrations with the occasional blast of the higher notes makes your eyes water. Despite this, you can’t hear the vocals or most of the guitar parts. Whoever designed this place clearly hates music.
My suggestions:
1. Just tell people outright to bring cash on your website. I don’t mind bringing cash, I just usually don’t think to do it.
2. Get rid of the bathroom attendant, or at least dress her in a security guard’s uniform and pay her as such so you can police the toilets without making the patrons pay for it.
3. Remove that cute little VIP area with the seating and put in some bleachers so people can rest their feet. Don’t worry about people hiding in the bleachers and not dancing or drinking. You can’t hear anything from over there, anyway, so no one will be there for much longer than it takes for the pain from standing on cement to wear off.
4. Put in a water fountain or a soft drink machine so your teeny bar isn’t so buried?
5. Turn on the AC. As hard as it tries, that fan just isn’t the tool for the job.
6. Break that strobe light and have someone who likes music do the rest of the lighting.
7. Get someone in there who understands acoustics to fix the place. While I get that it’s prohibitively expensive to reconfigure a huge cement shoebox like this into a venue of concert hall quality, there are little things that can be done to make it tolerable to the average music fan. Between drapes, bits of baffling, panels, maybe scootch an amplifier over a a wee bit, there’s got to be something you can do.

I went to see Third Eye Blind last night. The band was great, but the venue was miserable. The evening started out with a warm, overpriced beer shortly after the doors opened later than announced at 7:30. It only got worse from there. If you don’t know, this is an old warehouse with no ventilation located in a very warm climate. The 90 degree day had barely cooled off when people started packing the house. Not only was there no air conditioning, but they didn’t even have the courtesy to turn on the few fans until sometime around 9:30. Here’s an idea for next time you’re expecting a very large crowd: turn on and test the air conditioner in advance. But I wouldn’t count on them doing that, so stick to shows in January if you must go.

Went here to see Third Eye Blind last night… Love the band hated the venue. The «will-​call» line was wrapped around the building, they were only taking cash for anything, they wouldn’t turn on the air conditioning, it took 30 minutes to get a drink from a bartender who said she was there to work the door. Don’t go here, even if it’s your favorite band, not worth it. Wish I could give it NO star. Ugh… I feel horrible for anyone who goes there in the future.

this place is run by idiots.
«welcome to backstage live, where we have air conditioning but won’t use it, and we have fans but won’t turn them on. in texas. in may. at sellout capacity.»
«also, our bar staff is fumbling, untrained and luxuriously slow. we hope you brought cash… and a flask!»
«you want more, you say? how about this: despite the fact that we’re a ‘concert venue’ our sound system is terrible, as is our lighting. they’re both, literally, terrible.»
macgyver could jimmy rig a better p.a. using bubblegum, two baseball cards and some d batteries.
i know the bar is low in san antone, but this place would be inappropriately awful if located in boerne. or baghdad.

Came here for Third Eye Blind. Terrible venue. Takes 30 min to get 1 drink. No air conditioning. Bad sound. San Antonio needs better music venues.

We saw Crosses (Deftones Chino Moreno’s «side» band) at Backstage Live last night…
I like the location a lot… almost at the intersection of Houston & Cherry Street… across from Tucker’s Kozy Korner! The building looks like a huge warehouse with giant rusted rebar sticking out & next to the train tracks. There are a few lots for concert parking… we paid $ 10 & parked a few blocks away. We arrived at 7:15pm (door were supposed to open at 7pm) and saw two HUGE lines. We needed will call so I asked one person in one of the lines what it was for… will call, whew! The lines moved quickly… I had bought two tickets online, but they only had one ticket indicated by my name. I had to pull up my email to show them that I did in fact purchase two tickets, then I was good to go. Pretty disorganized, though… what if I had lost or permanently deleted the email?
Backstage Live is a huge dive… it can probably accommodate at least 500 people. On the right is a big seating area, a bar, & merchandise; the stage is in the center with all standing room from front to back; on the left is another big bar & the restrooms. I don’t mind this type of venue whatsoever. I find it charming, actually. It’s what followed that I didn’t like (besides the ticket snafu)…
We immediately headed to the bar for a few drinks. I got a Dos XX (16oz can) and my friend got a whiskey & coke (teeny tiny size): $ 10. I pay, squeeze in my lime, and we stroll over to look at merchandise. I take a swig of my beer: WARM. The outside of the can felt only slight cool, like they’d just thrown it on ice a few minutes prior. I head back to the bar, tell the guy my beer was warm, he takes it & hands me a new one. I tell him I hate to waste a good [warm] beer… he gives me both, yay! I pour my beer on ice (weird, I know, but WAY better than warm beer).
A few hours later, my friend & I decide to go sit in the plentiful seating area as our feet are hurting from standing… we head over to aforementioned seating area & grab a bar stool to watch the headliner. «Stool Nazi» walks up to us & demands $ 20 per seat (he’s really rude about it, too). Uh, seriously?! You want people to pay almost as much to sit down as the concert ticket cost (a mere $ 2 more)?! We’re shocked… there are maybe 5 people sitting in this huge area with probably about 40 – 50 stools empty. So, off to stand we go again. Later, (there were 2 songs remaining) we look over… don’t see Stool Nazi… so we go sit down for the last few minutes of the show thinking why would they charge now/​who would pay $ 20 at this point anyway? Nope! Stool Nazi appears out of nowhere and says «These seats are STILL $ 20 each. I know there are a lot empty, but it doesn’t matter.» We ignore him & sit there a few minutes. He comes over «I need to collect your $ 20». OMG.
Otherwise, the music sounded good. Not sure I can credit Backstage Live with any of that, though… the band’s techs appeared to be very thorough & professional and the musicians/​performers were excellent in general.
Shape up, Backstage Live: serve cold beer & put Stool Nazi to better use by not charging your patrons for seats. Most people in this kinda crowd prefer to cram as close to the stage as they can anyway… it’s just a shatty move!

I HATE THIS VENUE! How the hell are you gonna throw people out of a Snoop Dogg concert for smoking!!! There is nothing great or that even stands out about the
service sucks and the whole place looks dirty. It seems like the whole time your there you are being looked at as either a bother or a suspect. And i constantly hear from local artists how awful the venue treats their acts. If backstage is hosting it, then I wont support it. F’em. i don’t care who they bring

I was seriously excited to attend my first show in SA at Backstage Live; I felt like it was a rite of passage the way most people discussed it and its show history, therefore I waited to kick things off right with the recent Girl in a Coma show. The band themselves? Great performers. I just wish the venue had been able to do them justice.
The Pros are few– laid back employees, nice patio outside, fairly inexpensive ticketing, spacious interior.
The Cons– Horrible sound system with excessive feedback the entire show. I was very disappointed in the sound quality– later that night we went to the Mix (a small local bar) and their sound for the cover band playing was far superior.
Need more restrooms. If I have to wait in line for anything longer than it would take me to drive home, pee and come back, it’s taking too long.
The bar– BLEAK. Standing in line for over thirty minutes, my lovely and tall redhaired friend should not have been hard to miss. However once she finally made it to the bar she could not catch one of the many bartenders there to save her life. Thirty minutes later and she was still drink free. I didn’t even bother to stand in line. Now we had a group of ladies with money to burn so this only hurts their business in the long run. I don’t foresee any of my group wanting to go back any time soon.
I would definitely give this place another shot if they addressed any of these issues.

Friend and I drive from Austin to SA at least three times per year for concerts. We have seen many live shows. We went to see Saxon a month ago at BSL. We will not be back. The place is dirty, bar is cash only and the location is in a real bad area of town. Parking was even bad. If its not Sunken Garden /​ATT Center /​Majestic Theatre or like Booze Hounds where Jack Russell played, not going again. BSL was a huge disappointment and we will not go there again.
Edit — went and saw to concerts INSIDE and it was a much better experience that being outside with all of the homeless people.

I recently went to Backstage Live for the Alkaline Trio concert. I’m going to list the Pro’s and Con’s of this venue. PRO: The concert was outside, and the stage set-​up was great. PRO: The bar inside took credit/​debit cards. The bar serves beer and some liquor, but mixers/​garnishes were limited. CON: The restrooms need work. When people waiting in line/​washing their hands can see inside the stall you are in, it’s not good. CON: Backstage serves those thick aluminum bottles of beer. During the concert, the rowdies started throwing them up in the air and the bottles were hitting people. Suggestion: Serve only beer in cans. This will be safer for the concert goers. The sound was good, the location of the venue is great. I was able to snag free street parking on Houston street, so look out for that!

We went here on March 9, 2013 for the volbeat concert.
The concert was rocking!
But, it felt like a heat wave in there… with really no A/​C, people sweating all over, not enough chairs in the place, and too crowded.
But it was a decent concert venue.

This place has some major issues but dose house some great shows. It is an appropriate size for bands like Social Distortion and Mutemath and is the only venue of its size in San Antonio that dose a decent job at bringing those bands in.
Sound: It’s always a hit or miss. I have talked with some of the staff who told me that they have in house sound engineers and some of the touring acts bring in their own. So the hit or miss sound issues are to be expected with that being the case. Not every sound engineer can handle the size of the room.
Drinks: Expensive! I don’t go to shows to get drunk but I do like to have a nice beer. This place dose not have a very good selection but what they have is overpriced.
Parking: Lot’s of it. You can park under I-​37/​281 bridge or park across the street. It should cost you no more the $ 10
Overall relax enjoy the show and take a flask if you have to have a drink to save a few bucks.

You know, music clubs aren’t meant to be classy, especially rock venues. So toughen up peeps! Don’t think you’re in LA over here with the red carpet treatment. Rare acts sell out, there will be long lines, it happens!
I’ve been here before not realizing the name of it until I came to the streetlight/​RBF show on 7÷7÷11. The name IS lame. Who came up with that? It reminds me of a rip off of the scout bars (RIP) and hooligans in town.
The set up is decent. Its a large warehouse with two bars. One large bar as you enter and another side cash only bar in the back right corner. We frequented the side bar because there was no wait and the bartender was adorable and did a great job!
The bathrooms had all the necessaties: tp, paper towel and soap.
The stage was high enough to have a good view even with a group of tall dudes at the front of the stage. The space is huge! I have no complaints catching a rare act here. It gets packed but that’s the fun of a show.
My star deduction is for the «stage staff». I was in front next to the singer and was literally within arms reach of passing a request (it was a good one too! Only OGs would’ve appreciated it and I know he would’ve obliged). But the lame stage staff asked for money in order to allow the pass. That was bullspit! I’ve never met an uncool stage staff in my years of concert experience. So boo to you sir.
Aside from that, know the main bar requires a $ 25 minimum on all credit card transactions. A friend bought 2 beers and was charged $ 25. That is some bullspit fraudulent business practices IMO. I know businesses can do what they see fit, but again, this is a rock bar, don’t they people are struggling?!
End rant.

Definitely in what seemed to be to be the middle of nowhere, but as long as this place has good enough music you really won’t need to go anywhere else!
There is a huge dance floor area here and some tables and whatnot too. I guess they have full on bands come and play here but when we went as a conference dance party we just had a DJ but there wasn’t definitely room to dance which is always a good thing!
And drinks weren’t too pricey either, especially once this place got busy they definitely forgot to charge me for a few of my drinks which is always the best surprise ever when you go up and finally get your tab at the end of the night!
I mean this place isn’t glamorous but I definitely think that many a people have come here and had a decent time, hence the average three star bar. And the biggest plus, there was actually a person outside to help people call and get cabs! Now that doesn’t happen every day :-)

***************BOTTOM LINE — THE BAR SERVICE HERE SUCKS — STAY AWAY AT ALL COSTS!!!****************************
TERRIBLE bar service — DO NOT GO, no matter what band is playing there!!!
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PROS
It’s really not a bad venue for a small concert. It’s basically an old warehouse converted into a club — plenty of room, convenient parking and easy to get to.
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CONS
We went to a concert in September 2010 and the show was really good — HOWEVER…
My beer was warm so I went back to the bar to return it — it was a bottle and I had taken two drinks out of it mind you. The bartender put it back in the fridge to be served again — even though it had already been opened! The guy in line behind me was also returning his beer because it was warm — I warned him of their return policy.
My wife is not a regular drinker — she can usually handle two drinks when we go out and then she has to quit. However, even she mentioned how weak their mixed drinks were. She said *if* we went again, she would get water so she knew what she was getting what she paid for.
One of my friends got a beer that was either all water or mixed with water. As soon as he tasted it, he knew what was up. When he returned it, they disputed it. He had to pour it into a glass to show them that it was water.
I opened a tab with my AMEX card. After I ordered the second round, I was told that they only accepted Visa and MasterCard. No problem since I have a MasterCard, but you would think they would tell you this before you ordered the first round of drinks for your friends.
After I ordered my SECOND round of drinks, and the credit card issue was straightened out, I was told that that there was a $ 20 minimum for credit card purchases. Again, not really a big issue for me since I planned on spending more than $ 20, but you should tell people this BEFORE they open a tab!!! I also think it is against credit card policies to charge a minimum like this — I have heard this second hand so I am not positive.
***************BOTTOM LINE — THE BAR SERVICE HERE ***SUCKS*** — STAY AWAY AT ALL COSTS!!!****************************

Beware of water in your beer bottle!!! The venue rocks, but the staff be it bartender or manager needs to realize you can’t server water in a beer bottle to your customers!!! I had high hopes for this venue, but water REALLY!!! I walked to the bar, asked for a glass, poured my beer into the glass, and no bubbles and very light in color. I did get a fresh beer in exchange, but the initial shock of water in a beer bottle was not cool!
So upon many visits, it’s turned out to be a great venue. The bartenders are better now, and I’ve had fun each time I’ve returned. Guess my first visit was just a culmination of fail. I’m glad I returned to see the potential of this place.