“With a name like HiFi Dallas, we’d better have great acoustics,” pledges Ben Weeden, chief operating officer of the clubs and theater divisions of Live Nation. The live performance venue business he runs — which includes Dallas’ House of Blues and about 100 other spaces across the U.S. — is a volume business… and he’s not talking decibels. It’s about pairing the right bands with the right venue and the right market at the right price. “We will do a drag show one day and heavy metal bands the next,” Weeden says of his egalitarian approach to reaching customers.
But none of that matters if people don’t like to go there.
Which is why he has high hopes for HiFi, scheduled to open May 15 with a blowout party and lineup of bands that deliver a spectacular experience… if all goes well.
About three months before opening night, the venue is still deeply under construction — or really, renovation. Situated along Stemmons next to the Mavericks building, on the fringe of the Design District, the location is a former furniture warehouse that has been largely gutted and reconfigured for performance needs. The general admission floor has been swapped out for an all-new one designed to support bouncing fans; a stage has been built and elevated; the upper level, with reserved mezzanine seating and a VIP lounge (and V-VIP lounge for uber-celebs) awaits finish-out. But the promise of extravagance is present.
As with HOB, there will be food, but not a sit-down service; rather, it will feature “the kind that tastes good, not good for you,” Weeden jokes — i.e., high-end pub-grub like burgers, popcorn shrimp, chicken strips and flatbreads… plus, of course, many beverage selections. This is a party space first and foremost.
The size, Weeden believes, will serve a niche in Dallas, which he calls the fourth-largest market in the country: An 1,100-capacity live music venue (about 800 main floor, 250 on the tier). That’s a size in short supply in Dallas: Trees is 600; HOB about 1700; South Side Ballroom and Bomb Factory on either side of 4,000; and Toyota Music Factory twice that. HiFi aims for more intimacy, but also some luxury (as the renderings suggest).
You’ll get to see for yourself in May, with opening acts in the first week being Blue October (May 15), Bowling for Soup (May 16), Wallows (May 17) and The Revivalists (May 20), followed by The Struts, Robert Earl Keen and more.
— Arnold Wayne Jones