This is what the Bomb Factory looks like now. It won't for long.(Courtesy Clint Barlow/Facebook)
A few days back they tore the roof off the sucker — The Bomb Factory, that is. Clint Barlow, who resurrected Trees five years ago, says a new one’s coming before the end of the month, and not a moment too soon. The massive space in Deep Ellum, long ago one of Dallas’ most essential live-music venues, is due to reopen in April — two months earlier than we’d been told as recently as August.
And that’s solid. Book it. Barlow has: Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx’s side project Sixx:A.M. is scheduled to play the Bomb Factory April 17, and tickets are selling well, says Barlow. “I am pleasantly surprised they’re this good this far out.” Ministry’s also lined up to play May 3. Says Barlow, “They weren’t even going to play Dallas till they realized it was the Bomb Factory.”
It was exactly one year ago that we found about the Bomb Factory’s impending resurrection, and back then he’d hoped to get it open by spring of this year — which has long come and gone. The delay shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s ever had to jump through hoops at Dallas City Hall, where every other one’s a ring of fire. There was also some structural issues to deal with, among them the removal of several poles fouling up the sightlines in the VIP section that’ll occupy some of the mezzanine. Long story short: Barlow didn’t think he’d have to gut the whole place … but he did.
But at least it was worth it: Three weeks ago, Barlow says, the city capped occupancy at 4,300 — far more than the 2,700 he’d hoped for one year ago. “I was shocked,” says Barlow. “But it had something to do with exits, and there are exits everywhere.”
That doesn’t mean every show will have to sell out. “We’ll be able to divide the room to 1,200 or less,” Barlow says. “We will have a curtain system if a show doesn’t sell like you thought it would. It won’t look like you’re playing a giant room with nobody in it.”
That shouldn’t be a problem early on, at least. Barlow’s still not sure who’s going to christen the new Bomb Factory when it opens in April. He’s hustling to lock down acts now: “It’s a lot of hurry up and wait.” But it’ll open in April. It has to. “I told the construction crew I don’t care what it takes,” he says. “You’d better be ready.”