It had to be a helluva way to go out. On Saturday night, the Gypsy Tea Room said its farewell with a show from the band the Plain White T's -- and, turned out, the T's didn't leave the joint as they'd found it. But contrary to reports sent to Unfair Park that the T's destroyed the place, they just left their mark on the dressing-room wall -- a few holes in the drywall courtesy a tossed chair. The showers and sink still work; the toilet didn't explode. Things just got a little...uh...messy.
"The mess they made was immediately cleaned up, with the exception of the drywall," says owner Whit Meyers, who's spending the next few days cleaning up the Best Live Music Venue in Town before turning over the keys to the landlord. As for the rumors that the band was kicked out the club before they were paid -- shit, someone's gotta cover the repairs -- Meyers says only, "Let's put it this way: In the end it all worked out." Nonetheless, the staff took it "personally," Meyers says, as well they should have; the last thing they wanted to do on their way out was put back together the place they were being asked to abandon.
Speaking of: Today's the House of Blues job fair, and Meyers figures half his folks are probably over there now auditioning for a gig in the Victory Park venue. They can only hope for a better reception than the one they got from Dallas Morning News music critic Thor Christensen, who yesterday penned a farewell in which he dismissed the venerable venue as "such a lousy concert hall." And why was it so lousy? "The stage was so low it was hard to see the musicians through the crowd... There was the constant haze of cigarette smoke, thick enough to make even chain-smokers gag... [And] the maddening amount of crowd noise." Uh, Thor? It ain't the Meyerson. It's a rock club. Sorry -- it was a rock club. Now it's just one more empty building in Deep Ellum. As for Meyers, he's cleaning up the club, then taking some time off and regrouping for "the next big adventure." --Robert Wilonsky