As time goes on, the list of venue casualties in Denton grows. Really: The places where one can go expecting to hear live music in the city have dwindled to a handful, and the Abbey Inn Underground, although by no means free of live music, has similarly been forced to reduce the amount of live fare it can offer.
The updated version of the newly redesigned Boiler Room, the Abbey Inn Underground has a few things going for it. For starters, it looks a hell of a lot nicer. Then there's the fact that the bar now boasts a sizable selection of beers on tap—more than 100, to be specific.
"All we did was streamline our live music nights," co-owner Jeremy Brand says. "We made it a place where people can come in and hear the music, but still feel comfortable, sit down and enjoy."
The word "streamline" is important here—it indicates economic factors. In other words, having so many live music nights was no longer financially viable for the venue's operation. Brand blames the economic downturn.
"Things hit a high-water mark in March of 2009," he says. "After that, we were doing everything we possibly could, but just couldn't get the same crowds."
Brand says the decline in audiences was clearly perceptible after March, and despite low ticket prices, the same advertising techniques and a mixture of local and national acts, things were not improving. And, after having to pay the sound people, bartenders, security and all other overhead, Brand says the old formula has simply become unsustainable.
"It was like pulling teeth," he says. "We had to go with something a little bit more accessible."
The venue, which is now a pub that serves restaurant food, will still be a venue for live music on Friday nights. And, by opting to keep their Tuesday "college-type night" and Wednesday dubstep night, that makes three nights of the week in which one can go to hear music, albeit only one involving live performers.
"We're trying to put together an acoustic Thursday, where we would have different rotating musicians coming in," Brand says. "Hopefully, we'll have that up and running within the next month."
If the acoustic Thursday night pans out, that would increase the total to two nights a week in which the former Boiler Room could be used as a venue for live performance—not terrible, but definitely down from the previous four.
One of the upsides to the new changes, however, is that the Abbey Inn Underground will no longer charge a cover to any of its shows, Brand says.
