The venue's managing partner, Alex Mendonsa, confirmed that Friday's show with the metal group Exciter will be the last for Amplified Live after a year and a half at the former location of the Gas Monkey Grill & Bar.
"We're looking for a new location," Mendonsa says. "We have an idea of what we're wanting to do, and we really don't have the timeline right now." Mendonsa says another owner bought the property in February with plans to turn it into a different business. He doesn't know what the Technology Boulevard property will become, but he's pretty sure it won't be a new music venue.
"It was more of a situational thing with the property going away," Mendonsa says. "It just was time to hit the ground running and figure out where to go."
Amplified Live opened in October 2021, a little over a year after Gas Monkey Grill & Bar went under due to the coronavirus pandemic. Amplified moved away from the car-branding inspiration of its former owner, hot rod maker Richard Rawlings. Instead, it focused on the venue's live food and music offerings, bringing in Bad Religion, GWAR, Suicidal Tendencies and Cannibal Corpse in its opening months.
When it was Gas Monkey, the Dallas venue also hosted a variety of heavy metal shows.
Courtesy Gas Monkey
"We had an awesome March, a very successful March," Mendonsa says. "We had lots of sold-out shows. It was nice to end the run on a high note."
Mendonsa says he and his crew are actively looking for a new space to carry the Amplified brand and offer live music shows once again.
"We've been looking all over," Mendonsa says. "We've even entertained downtown. We've looked at a couple of the 'burbs like Richardson and Addison. We're just looking for the right fit and not trying to rush a bad decision. We want to make sure the space is what we need and what we want."
All but one of the remaining shows scheduled through September have been relocated to the Granada Theater on Greenville Avenue. The exception is the Murder Junkies show on Friday, June 2, which is set for Cheapsteaks in Deep Ellum.
It may be a challenge to find a new space in the current real estate climate when prices only seem to skyrocket, but Mendonsa says they have some promising leads.
"The difficulty is just finding something that is in a great location," he says. "Obviously, we need a pretty big footprint so there aren't a lot of spaces in existence that have a lot of foot traffic or is neighborhood-adjacent. The hunt is interesting, for sure, but I would [not] say it's any more difficult than it would've been in the past. We're just making sure it's a square peg that goes in a square hole type of thing."
Mendonsa says he's been helping to run music venues at the Technology Boulevard space for the last decade and he's excited to find a new place to bring music to the people of Dallas.
"It's a mixed bag," Mendonsa says. "We've been doing our thing there for 10 years, basically, and there's mixed emotions. It's always exciting for new opportunities and things to happen. All in all, I think we're in a pretty positive head space and don't think this is a major hit. We're ready to keep going and do what we do."
