New, uh, Life in Deep Ellum

Salim Nourallah's got several gigs scheduled at the new ellum: ONSTAGE venue. So there's one reason to go, if nothing else.

Friend of Fair Park Cindy Chaffin points us to the latest all-ages venue to dip its toes into the murky waters of Deep Ellum: Life in Deep Ellum, which is the world's worst club name ever. OK, so it's actually more than just a club (the live-music side's actually called "ellum: ONSTAGE," hunh). It's also an art gallery, a coffee bar, a "student center" and...uh...something to do with "life development," fine.

The joint's located at 2803 Taylor Street and is scheduled to open January 20, with shows featuring the likes of Farewell Flight (catchy enough indie-pop outta Harrisburg, Pennslyvania), Gwen Stacy (not Spider-Man's dead girlfriend, but a kinda-awful hardcore band from Indianapolis) and, thank God, our own Salim Nourallah.

Here's how ellum: ONSTAGE is being pitched: as a 1,100-person capacity venue (with a "3000+ outdoor option") that is "part of a project called Life in Deep Ellum which also features Mokah Coffee, the Marie Green Student Center, ellum:ART and film/live recording studio. Its purpose is to provide a great sounding room that functions to suite the most demanding of mid size club tour support. ellum: ONSTAGE is destined to become as legendary as other icons in the Deep Ellum club scene, and is committed to producing great shows any night of the week."

Yup. I know. That's all Dallas needs, another mid-size venue. The Palladium, anyone? House of Blues, which is scheduled to open shortly in the White Swan Building? And them's just the brand-new ones.

Cindy also mentions that from March 10 through 13, the venue's also planing a Music and Arts Festival; wise move, taking advantage of bands heading in and outta town on their way to and from Austin for South by Southwest. Among the acts Cindy says are confirmed: Mates of State (nice), Rahim Quazi (swell), Atlanta's Snowden (cool, even if they do sound a little too much like Radiohead at times), Johnny Lloyd Rollins, Pleasant Grove, Comrade, Say Hi to Your Mom, Salim Nourallah, Birdmonster and others, with more to be announced in coming weeks.

Here's wishing Life in Deep Ellum well -- a long Life, as it were. With Clearview gone, Trees about to go all-ages and our own Jonanna Widner suggesting last week that, yeah, just mebbe "we need to get over Deep Ellum," the area could use all the life it can get. And, if nothing else I could totally use some life development. --Robert Wilonsky

Bonus MP3:

Salim Nourallah, "All Waste the Days" (from the 2005 release Beautiful Noise)