The Live Oak Music Hall & Lounge's owner, Bill Smith, confirmed it to me this week: Spune Productions, owned by Lance Yocom, is officially in charge of handling talent buying and booking for the 4-month-old Near Southside venue.
"It's what I wanted to do in the first place, but other things came up," Smith says.
He says Spune's shows have yet to hit the Live Oak stage but will soon, as the calendar was filled with concerts booked by previous talent buyers Clint Simpson and Jamie Kinser of Blackbox Presents. "[Spune] is officially very involved in talent buying and booking for the Live Oak," says Smith, who adds that he's "excited" about what's to come. (A message left with Yocom was not returned.)
One of Spune's first big events at the Live Oak will be Tex-Toberfest, an event focused on Texas craft brews (from local breweries like Fort Worth's Rahr and Granbury's Revolver), German grub prepared by chef Mikel Steen and live music, which kicks off Thursday. On the schedule are performances from Ginny Mac, Fish Fry Bingo, Brave Combo and " Big Mike" Richardson. It's a four-day happening in the spirit of Spune's recent, successful Untapped Festival in Dallas. You can find tickets and more info about Tex-Toberfest at theliveoak.com.
The Live Oak has also discontinued lunch and adjusted its daily operating hours to 4 p.m.-2 a.m., and is keeping its kitchen open until 1 a.m. every night. Additionally, every Tuesday, the Live Oak will offer free live music on its main stage.
Speaking of moves at local music venues: This week, two more shows scheduled to take place at the Ridglea Theater were unceremoniously moved from Fort Worth to Dallas, according to AEG Live, which initially booked the concerts.
Each show -- Thursday's Temper Trap concert and Oct. 27's Say Anything gig -- has been placed at Trees (as was Sept. 18's Down concert, also relocated from the Ridglea). Ridglea owner Jerry Shults said he was told AEG Live cited "low ticket sales" as the reason for the move, while AEG Live reps had no comment when asked for the reasons behind relocating the shows.
For now, there remains just one more AEG Live-booked concert on the Ridglea Theater's calendar: The Expendables on Nov. 2. The show is still scheduled to take place at the Ridglea as of press time. The theater will open to the public Saturday with a Historic Fort Worth Inc. event; you can find more info about the inaugural Retro Ball at historicfortworth.org.
Preston Jones is the Star-Telegram pop music critic, 817-390-7713
Twitter: @prestonjones
