Permit Unsustained: A Bad Day at Red Bluff

The permit that Sustainable Waves got – and then lost – wasn't for its own site but for the neighboring East First Garden Theater. (by Map Data Copyright 2010 Google)

On the surface, Sustainable Waves – a company that builds equipment for and promotes solar-powered concerts – is the sort of company Austin would be eager to retain, a perfect fit with the city's eco-conscious, "live music capital" image.

But proprietor Neal Turley says after a few pending gigs to be held during South by Southwest, he's ready to take his amps back to San Diego, where the company is co-headquartered. The announced retreat follows City Council's Feb. 25 decision to rescind Turley's one-year outdoor music venue permit, granted back in October. The appeal against the permit was spearheaded by several citizens in the adjacent River Bluff neighborhood, south of Cesar Chavez, along Red Bluff Road, and separated from Sustain­able Waves by a collection of industrial businesses (salvage yards and auto-body shops), parking lots, and the venerable Arkie's Grill. The neighbors, led by poet, performer, and community activist Daniel Llanes, claimed Turley's past performances – most infamously, unofficial SXSW afterparties sponsored by Red Bull in 2009 that bleated on until 5am – constituted a neighborhood nuisance. But lost in the confusion has been the fact that the permitted venue for those concerts in fact had nothing to do with SW's hipster shindigs and instead has hosted concerts since 1993.

Sustainable Waves (Photo by John Anderson)

In short, is Red Bluff's Red Bull beef a red herring?

Sustainable Waves, located in a compound along Cesar Chavez just east of Springdale, has been in business five years, outfitting local shows and nationally touring acts and producing concerts as well. Turley says he could carry on with temporary permitting, but it doesn't fit the sustainable ethos of his business. "I certainly could do all that stuff, and I could pay people temporary salaries, but what am I building?" he asks. "That's what my issue is – what am I building in the long term? ... I'm not here to make a quick buck in the solar industry and move on. I'm here to build the Whole Foods of the music industry." He says he's still committed but adds, "We need to be able to be in a place that is going to work for us." (After council rescinded his permit, Turley issued a press release saying, "Effective immediately all full time Sustainable Waves employees will be laid off and company assets will be liquidated." But the company still has a handful of upcoming SXSW events.)

The question of how many concerts Sustainable Waves planned to host hung over the permit appeal, and when Turley himself spoke to the council, he did himself no favors. Council, referencing a letter from Turley reading, "Our intentions are to produce community-based events at our space 3-4 times a year," said he was a prime candidate for either 24- or 92-hour permits, to which Turley conceded he really wanted "the option to be able to do events when we can." "Things all the sudden went south" after that, he says – meaning Council Member Randi Shade voiced her support for the neighbors' appeal. (While for 2010, he has only about four events planned, he adds, "I'm moving in this direction to do more.")

East First Garden Theater (Photo by John Anderson)

However, most of the neighbors' protest had focused on Turley's involvement in 2009's Red Bull Moon Tower party, a raucous four-day blowout fueled by dozens of buzzed-about indie rock and DJ acts and the sponsor's free, caffeinated vodka cocktails. Complaints collected by the neighborhood featured reactions like, "Red Bull party 2009 shook my windows 'til dawn." (How's that for viral marketing?) The event occurred on the grounds outside the Sustainable Waves building, with the main stage against a structure close to the compound entrance at Cesar Chavez. But Turley says whatever permitting allowed the party to rage until 5am most nights was handled by the corporate sponsor, Red Bull. "They're our client, so they tell us to turn it up or turn it down," Turley says. "We don't say how long the party's gonna go or how loud the music's going to be. We do whatever they tell us to do. We're just the production company."

While the merit of an all-night, outdoor, rave-style party with an open bar some 600 feet away from homes is debatable (even if the immediate neighbors are industrial buildings), largely obscured in the debate was the fact the permit under consideration by council last week wasn't for the Sustainable Waves site – it was for the adjacent East First Garden Theater, which had nothing to do with the infamous antics of 2009.

"It wasn't here," says John Corbin, who owns the theatre. "I wouldn't have them here. I don't want 'em here. I don't put that sorta thing on. Red Bull doesn't give a darn about the neighborhood. They're here to sell Red Bull."

By contrast to out-of-town promoters hosting fly-by-night parties in warehouse spaces, Corbin's venue has hosted some 35 concerts since the Nineties, including a performance of Grammy-winning Cajun musicians BeauSol­eil that was simulcast on KGSR, the Austin Zydeco Festival, and two benefits for Habitat for Humanity. And despite its industrial setting, the Garden Theater is an airy, outdoor venue, grass-sodded and housing several expensive infrastructure investments, such as a buried "snake" of audio cables from the stage to the soundboard and lighting. The stage placement was also OK'd by city staff as focusing the "main part of sound to a localized area." The one event Sustainable Waves held at the Garden Theater – the Halloween weekend Zombie Ball – ended at midnight. Corbin says being an outdoor venue poses special challenges – renting portable restrooms, for instance – that a temporary permit only exacerbates. "If you're renting $1,000 worth of restrooms, and you can only do one show a month, that really kinda kills it," he says.

The dual role of Sustainable Waves – producing events for other promoters and producing events itself – has made for a confusing debate. The fact it had received a permit for a neighboring venue has clouded the issue even more. (Corbin says he would've clarified the issue before council, but he was ill with swine flu at the time.) But while Sustainable Waves says it's going back to California, the issue isn't finished yet. "He applied for a permit on my property," Corbin says, summarizing the situation. "Since it's been turned down, I guess I'm going to go down and apply for a permit myself."