April 2024 - PAO Productions Blog

Ghosts of DFW music history: West side haunts

Posted on April 30, 2024May 1, 2024 by PAO Productions

This is part of a continuing series of posts exploring locations of former DFW musical landmarks

During the latter 1980s, while the punk scene was maturing on the east side of the DFW Metroplex, a similarly loud, aggressive music scene was developing in parallel to it over on the west side. Dallas had its iconic, punk focused venues such as the Honest Place, the Hot Klub, Studio D, and the succession of venues to call 2111 Commerce Street home. Likewise, Fort Worth and environs had their own metal focused clubs such as Rascals, the Tombstone Factory, and Joe's Garage. These two scenes didn't exist in a vacuum, of course, and there was plenty of crossover between them (the Silver Dollar Rock Shop was located in Dallas, for example, and Fort Worth-based Rigor Mortis was famously managed and guided to a record deal by Jeff Liles, who once booked shows for the Theatre Gallery in Deep Ellum). But, musically and spiritually speaking, the early DFW metal scene was based mostly on the west side of town. The aforementioned Rascals, Tombstone Factory, and Joe's Garage will be subjects of future installments in this series, but sprinkled among these iconic venues were a number of smaller, less remembered haunts that also called the areas west of Dallas home. What were some of these, and what (if anything) remains of them today? In this installment of "Ghosts of DFW Music History," we'll take a look at four of them.

Ghosts of DFW music history: Deep Ellum Live

Posted on April 15, 2024April 16, 2024 by PAO Productions

This is part of a continuing series of posts exploring locations of former DFW musical landmarks

If it looks like it should be a barn from the outside, it's probably because it WAS... or it basically was, at one time. It was an urban barn whose inside was given over to western swing and dance and to a honky-tonk inspired atmosphere. Over a total of about seventeen years, 2727 Canton Street in Deep Ellum paraded through a whole series of different owners and target clientele, being known successively as Tommy's Heads Up Saloon, Tommy's Deep Ellum, The Institute, and The Venue, before finally settling in as Deep Ellum Live, the name it is most remembered by today. The list of acts to have taken the stage over its storied history reads like a "who's who" of the 1980s and 1990s local and national music scenes. But in 2004, Deep Ellum Live closed its doors for good and lay mostly dormant for over a decade, finally being resurrected from the dead by an entrepreneurial couple as part of their personal Deep Ellum reclamation project. What is the story behind this iconic fixture of the Dallas music scene? Continue reading

A view down Main Street in Dallas

Posted on April 7, 2024April 11, 2024 by PAO Productions

This adorable photo depicts two children standing on Main Street in Dallas, likely sometime in the 1930s. They appear to be standing behind an advertisement for the Special Electric Telegraph Company, attempting to convince passersby to use the telegraph to send a message to a loved one for Valentine's Day. The text on the display, just barely legible in the photo, reads "Tell it the modern way - by telegraph" with the words "Valentine's Day" printed at the very bottom. Pictured behind the children is the Standard Paint & Paper Co., located at 2022 Main Street (now a parking lot), and across the street in the distance is the office complex at 2121 Main, construction of which was completed in 1930 and which is still standing today. I believe the photo is from the 1930s based not only on the office building, but on an advertisement that appeared in the 1930 Dallas City Directory. I purchased this original photo from a vintage collector back in January.

A view down Main Street, circa 1930 — Looking east down Main Street, circa 1930

Today a parking lot sits at the former location of the Standard Paint & Paper Co., between the Masonic office building and the Municipal Court building. Buildup and traffic along the street makes it challenging to get the same shooting angle as in the original photo. Dallas has definitely changed in the past 90+ years.

A view down Main Street, March 31, 2024 — Looking east down Main Street, March 2024

Despite my best efforts, I haven't been able to dig up any information on the Special Electric Telegraph Company. If you can point to any resources detailing when they were in business or where they were located, feel free to post a comment below.