{"id":150949,"date":"2026-02-04T19:07:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T19:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/150949\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T19:07:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T19:07:10","slug":"reenergizing-stable-hall-can-a-new-partner-zap-more-life-into-the-san-antonio-concert-venue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/150949\/","title":{"rendered":"Reenergizing Stable Hall: Can a new partner zap more life into the San Antonio concert venue?\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PearlPearl Stable opened in spring 2023, joining San Antonio\u2019s crowded live-music market. Credit: Courtesy Photo \/ Shore Fire Media<\/p>\n

When Stable Hall launched in January 2024, the 1,000-capacity venue located inside historic structure at the Pearl promised to raise the bar for live music in San Antonio.<\/p>\n

However, it didn\u2019t take long for cracks to appear. Stable Hall parted ways with original general manager Libby Day, a longtime music-scene veteran, in early 2025. A few months later, Dallas-based Wood Hall LLC \u2014\u00a0originally hired to run day-to-day operations\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0sued the venue for breach of contract, and the owners countersued.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Late last year, Stable Hall took steps to right the ship, first hiring music-venue vet Garrett Zimmerman as GM, then retaining Dayglo Presents \u2014\u00a0owned by longtime concert promoter Peter Shapiro \u2014\u00a0to oversee booking and other operations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

An operator of storied venues include the Capitol Theatre in New York, Dayglo brought in high-profile talent buyer Hannah Gold, whose resume includes Willie Nelson\u2019s Luck Reunion festival and the Newport Festivals, to oversee its San Antonio partnership.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Current caught up with Gold by phone to discuss Dayglo\u2019s plans to rejuvenate Stable Hall and get a better understanding of how it fits into the Alamo City music ecosystem. Although she took a pass on discussing the Wood Hall legal fight and the venue\u2019s past failures, she spoke openly about her ambition to raise its profile.<\/p>\n

The following conversation is edited for space and clarity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As impressive as Stable Hall is, it launched in an already crowded and competitive music market in San Antonio, which some people attributed to its problems gaining traction. How do you make it stand out?<\/p>\n

One of the most important things in the music industry is your relationships with people, and what else you\u2019re working on that people you can use to leverage and get things done. I talked to a couple of people who\u2019d worked in the room before. Nobody really had super-negative things to say. It just seemed like they didn\u2019t have the right person in the room. \u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n

But when I found the room, actually walked in and started looking at their calendar \u2014\u00a0 what was upcoming \u2014\u00a0I saw there\u2019s a lot of challenges in that market. There\u2019s a lot of bigger promoters that already work in [similar-sized venues]. It\u2019s a beautiful room. The size is flexible, but it can also be limiting, depending on what you\u2019re going after.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I specifically came from a room in New York, City Winery, where I grew into a buyer and where I booked 350 shows a year. So, I\u2019m used to volume booking. It\u2019s a very different beast when you\u2019re in a city like San Antonio, just because what does this market support?\u00a0<\/p>\n

I think the question for me when I walked in was like, \u201cWhat\u2019s the marketing team in place?\u201d Which now, of course, Dayglo is helping supplement marketing, and Surefire\u2019s our PR team, and these are both really good, strong teams.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It just seems like having a couple of people \u2014\u00a0Pete [Shapiro] and myself \u2014\u00a0behind the venue, who have a lot of relationships with agents and managers [is vital]. We can go to people and say, \u201cHey, we really need to get this venue off the ground. We really want to provide it with some world-class entertainment. Guys, we need you to help us get some shows in here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s how starting a venue works, because there\u2019s always competition in every market. I\u2019ve worked in markets all over the country at this point.<\/p>\n

\"NewNew Stable Hall talent buyer Hannah Gold\u2019s resume includes Willie Nelson\u2019s Luck Reunion festival and the Newport Festivals. Credit: Courtesy Photo \/ Shore Fire Media<\/p>\n

So, you\u2019re saying that you\u2019re tasked with hitting \u201cRestart.\u201d You\u2019re not just coming in to do a slightly better version of business-as-usual.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One-hundred percent. \u2026 When you\u2019re a music booker, you\u2019re looking for agents to be hitting you up about shows, in addition to the proactive outreach you do. There needs to be that flow. And whether I\u2019ve worked in Rochester or Buffalo, or California or wherever, you hope that there\u2019s more of that kind of natural flow.<\/p>\n

And I think that the room was in more of its infancy stage than I realized when I came on board, but that\u2019s OK. That just means that you take the first six months to a year to really hammer on it, give it attention. \u2026 Artists are on the road so much these days, that if it\u2019s a good room and you take care of people when they come through, and it sounds good and the green rooms are nice, they\u2019re going to want to come back.<\/p>\n

How soon are people going to see changes at Stable Hall?<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s going to take six months to really get things up and running. \u2026 When you book a show, you\u2019re booking it like four or five, six, maybe seven months out most of the time. \u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n

When it comes to establishing a venue, City Winery, the first year it opened, they had, I think, 60 or 70 shows, which is pretty good, but also, it\u2019s New York City \u2014\u00a0everybody plays here on every tour. By the time I left in 2021, it was closer to 400 [shows a year] between the upstairs room and the downstairs room.<\/p>\n

\"AA band performs during the 2023 opening of Stable Hall. The venue debuted with a splash, but faced early hurdles including a legal dispute with its initial partners. Credit: Jaime Monzon<\/p>\n

Is that the volume you\u2019d like to be doing here?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m still learning the market. San Antonio is a much larger city than I think most people expect, but it depends on the appetite for music in the city. And obviously, we don\u2019t want to book shows that aren\u2019t going to sell. So, I have to figure out, over the course of the next few months, which nights do people want to go out in San Antonio? Will people go out on a Tuesday if it\u2019s the right show? Hopefully. \u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, ideally, I\u2019d love to have three to five shows a week. That would be awesome. If the market can support it, we\u2019re going to do it. And if not, we\u2019re just going to put the best shows in possible and keep the volume as high as we can.<\/p>\n

I have heard some music fans complain they never fully grasped Stable Hall\u2019s identity. Is that something you think is important to address?<\/p>\n

Before I take on any job, I call people in my network and I say, \u201cHey, man, do you know about this? What are your thoughts on the room? Have any of your artists played it?\u201d \u2026 And every piece of feedback I got about the space was that it was really a nice place to play. Agents that have been there have really enjoyed it. Managers, they\u2019ve just said, \u201cWe\u2019d love to continue bringing business to the room.\u201d Which to me means it\u2019s got all the right bones and it just needs the right people running the ship, and hopefully we are those people.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We\u2019re definitely going to give it our best shot. And I think Pete and I don\u2019t do anything half-assed. \u2026 Pete and I take everything we do seriously, and we want to bring our best game face to the table and see what we can bring to the venue. So, I think it\u2019s a great space. And again, I just think San Antonio is such an interesting city with a lot of culture. I feel like we\u2019ve just got so much to work with there.<\/p>\n

And I looked at the room originally and I thought, \u201cOh, the programming they\u2019ve already gotten here makes a lot of sense, the Dave and Gillians and the Shakey Graves and that kind of thing, but I think they could probably do a lot more.<\/p>\n

So, in addition to doing a lot of Americana, country, alt-rock, whatever, I want to see what else works in the space \u2014\u00a0through experimentation of booking shows and seeing how they do \u2026 . And hopefully also, the added element of Dayglo\u2019s marketing team helping with the in-house marketing. Dayglo are complete pros, and they\u2019ve been in the business for a long time.<\/p>\n

\"AudienceAudience members wait a Stable Hall show to begin. The 1,000-capacity venue can be configured multiple ways. Credit: Jaime Monzon<\/p>\n

When the venue opened, the original team promised local acts would be part of this mix, but as you know, that\u2019s not always easy for venues of this size to pull off. Can you make local musicians part of the mix in a way that makes sense?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot of different ways to do it. And again, that\u2019s something you face in every market. \u2026<\/p>\n

One thing [we] talked about was figuring out if we wanted to do some residencies or showcases and book multi-artist events \u2014\u00a0especially if there are any other events we can build around \u2026 . And maybe it\u2019s a really low ticket price, maybe there are some organizations we can work with that can help underwrite some shows for us to support local artists, any kind of cultural boards or things like that.<\/p>\n

I used to go to the Canadian consulate in New York and see if they would help partner on a show with me to bring in a musician from Montreal or Toronto. \u2026<\/p>\n

You also have opportunities when you book national touring act and they\u2019re not touring with a support act \u2026 . So, I have a whole list of local artists in any market I\u2019ve booked that we can call and say, \u201cHey man, would you be willing to come in and do a 30-to-40 minute opening set for Alejandro Escovedo or something?\u201d And that\u2019s a really great way to help developing artists have exposure, or people who have been around for a long time who just want to play. \u2026<\/p>\n

When you work for a small promoter, one of the good things is there\u2019s not a lot of red tape or bureaucracy to work through. You sort of have an idea, and if it\u2019s so smart or it will work, then you give it a shot and see what happens.<\/p>\n

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