College Station’s newest bar and live music venue, Southerns, will open its doors on Thursday to country music lovers all across Aggieland for its grand opening weekend.
Beginning at 8 p.m., Kevin Fowler and special guest Jarrod Morris will kick off the venue’s concert series on Thursday, with other artists such as Cory Morrow and Jake Worthington to follow throughout the weekend. Tickets to these shows and more can be found at southernstx.com.
Located in Post Oak Mall, the venue’s partial owner Rob Ridley said one of their main goals is to become a one-stop-shop for food and country music lovers alike.
“We want this to be a place where people feel comfortable coming to sit down, eat a great meal and listen to some really great music,” Ridley said.
With many live music venues already established in College Station, Director of Artist Relations and General Manager Bobby Lavigne said the focus behind Southerns is to be a place where younger crowds and older audiences can come to enjoy the same kind of music.
“This location is a great opportunity to get away from that whole Northgate area where the 30s, 40s and 50s aged crowds maybe won’t feel as comfortable,” Lavigne said. “We want to provide that place where college-aged kids and their families can come together, enjoy a good meal, listen to some really great artists and feel comfortable doing it.”
Lavigne said he plans on bringing both up and coming country artists and popular musicians from the 90s country scene to Southerns, where crowds can be exposed to the different time periods within the same genre.
“As we’ve been spoiled getting to hear these great artists all of the time, a lot of people are coming here never having heard of these guys before,” Lavigne said. “We want to hit all of the age groups while also giving the artists a chance to be exposed to these different kinds of crowds.”
After frequently visiting the country music capital, Lavigne said the Broadway-style bars of Nashville heavily influenced the setup and décor for the venue.
“Nashville is a tourist town that’s known for the live music,” Lavigne said. “We kind of based Southerns around a lot of that Nashville style of places because of how well they tie into the live country music theme, but obviously we’ve got a lot of Texas flare mixed in as well.”
Although the venue’s dance floor won’t compare to the square footage of other dance halls in Aggieland, Lavigne said the goal of Southerns is to provide more of an intimate space that he believes hasn’t been brought to the area just yet.
“We wanted to focus more on being an intimate setting where you can come to a show at our venue, you’re up-close and personal with the artist, and the stage is visible from all angles here,” Lavigne said. “Here, when we’re not doing live music, we’re a full running restaurant. Our kitchen is top-of-the-line. We’re providing that great restaurant experience and great live music. And I don’t think anyone else around here has done that yet.”