Theatre Gallery profile picture

Theatre Gallery

Carter Albrecht RIP

About Me

The Theatre Gallery was one of the first of many influential live music venues in the Deep Ellum neighborhood just east of downtown Dallas. Besides helping to establish a thriving original music scene, the building also served as an important art gallery space which regularily exposed subversive painters from all over the world. Theatre Gallery was a theatre space as well, and hosted shows by comic Sandra Bernhard, performance artist Karen Finley, spoken word artist Henry Rollins, and a number of original theatre productions. Some of the visual artists who showed their work at Theatre Gallery: Bill Haveron, Ron English, Jeff Robinson, John Pomara, Matt Miller, Richard Hoefle, Denise Prince and many others.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 3/28/2006
Band Website: none
Band Members: Russell Hobbs was the owner and operator. Jeffrey Liles booked the bands and was the house DJ. Jim "Rev. Horton Heat" was the house sound man. Tracy "Beak" Smith was the carpenter and electrician. Ray Watkowski was the light man. Trey was the bartender. Perla Doherty, "Big Steve" Shein, Cyndi Cook, Tracy Smith, Denise Prince and Beth Searcy were the door people. Laurie Watson lived upstairs and made beaded leather belts. "The Buckwheats" - Kris Wheat, Brian and Dave Dude - lived in front, kept the place clean, poured free beer and ran the record store. Tom Mooney and Little A did security. Creighton Curlee was the house soundman after Jim started doing Rev. Horton Heat full time. Leroy Shakespeare lived upstairs above the backstage area, and Russell lived in the loft above the bar.
Influences: Andy Warhol's Factory (NYC), Caravan of Dreams (Fort Worth), Roxy Theatre (LA), Whisky A Go-Go (LA), Club Foot (Austin), The End of Cole (Dallas), Knitting Factory (NYC), the Venice Beach boardwalk (LA), St. Marks Place (NYC), Tango (Dallas), Liberty Lunch (Austin), Scream (LA), Powertools (Houston), Viper Room (LA), Fenix Underground (Seattle), 9:30 Club (DC), Seventh Street Entry (Minn./St.Paul), Iguana's (Tijuana), Maxwell's (Hoboken), Limelight (NYC), Trees (Dallas), Mystic Garage (Pensacola), House of Blues
Sounds Like: Buck Pets, Jane's Addiction, Bad Brains, Scratch Acid, Flaming Lips, Butthole Surfers, Henry Rollins, Meat Puppets, Sandra Bernhard, Husker Du, Karen Finley, The Replacements, Screaming Blue Messiahs, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Green On Red, Thin White Rope, Dead Milkmen, Del Fuegos, My Sin, Naked Prey, 10,000 Maniacs, Janis 18, T-4-2, Poison 13, 7 Seconds, Three On A Hill, Ten Hands, Decadent Dub Team, End Over End, Rev. Horton Heat, Rigor Mortis, Da Nu Man, Howling Dervishes, Shoulders, Lithium X-Mas, Peyote Cowboys, Loco Gringos, Course of Empire, Rhett Miller, Shitty Beatles, The Trees, Spam, DRI, True Believers, Bodeans, Pontiac Brothers, Buena Vistas, Dino Lee's White Trash Revue, Zeitgeist, Glass Eye, Doctor's Mob, Wild Seeds
Record Label: Deep Ellum Records
Type of Label: None

My Blog

Commit to Experience

Many of us who lived and worked at Theatre Gallery basically sacrificed whatever "straight" life we might have had at the time to do so. TG was a 24/7 experience. Most of us either lived on the prem...
Posted by Theatre Gallery on Tue, 03 Apr 2007 01:08:00 PST

Letter from out of town...

I read your post on another page about the reopening of Trees. As one of the people who originally opened Trees in 1990 (as well a few other other clubs in Deep Ellum over the years), I wanted to writ...
Posted by Theatre Gallery on Fri, 12 Jan 2007 08:41:00 PST

Dallas, We Hardly Knew Ya...

Living in Los Angeles you get used to change. This city reinvents itself every week. I've been here on and off for the last ten years and I still get lost on a daily basis.But living in Dallas used ...
Posted by Theatre Gallery on Tue, 04 Jul 2006 01:50:00 PST

The Contrary World of Russell Hobbs

THE CONTRARY WORLD OF RUSSELL HOBBS By Dusty Rhodes Published 01-18-1987 When Russell David Hobbs moved into a Deep Ellum warehouse in August 1984, he was looking for a place where he could paint a...
Posted by Theatre Gallery on Wed, 29 Mar 2006 10:33:00 PST

Russell Hobbs Now

BORN-AGAIN DEEP ELLUM CLUB OWNER OPENS THE DOOR Date Wednesday, January 26, 2000 In the early '80s, Russell Hobbs moved from his suburban home in Richardson and took up residence in Deep Ellum, back ...
Posted by Theatre Gallery on Wed, 29 Mar 2006 10:12:00 PST

The Preacher and the Prophet

The Preacher and the Prophet by Robert Wilonsky He said, he said -- it seems everyone wants, if not deserves, credit for the rise of Deep Ellum from the dust of old warehouses long ago abandoned. Time...
Posted by Theatre Gallery on Wed, 29 Mar 2006 04:10:00 PST

Owner Russ Hobbs on Deep Ellum in 1999

Zac Crain   Still prophesying Russell Hobbs is born-again as a club owner By Zac Crain Article Published Dec 23, 1999 .. language=javascript> var ci...
Posted by Theatre Gallery on Wed, 29 Mar 2006 04:02:00 PST