Sound Check

Satellite lounge: Houston's Continental Club is a worthy heir to the Austinmusic scene

Located on Main Street in Midtown, The Continental Club has become a Houstonfixture over the past decade.
Inside: Lots of good music.

Few challenges in life are more daunting than trying to follow in the footsteps of a legend. Just ask the Houston Texans, who are in the eighth unsuccessful year of trying to make the city it represents forget about the good ol’ “Luv Ya Blue” days with the Houston Oilers. Or Minute Maid Park, which, despite all the quality-of-entertainment and technological upgrades, still makes some Houstonians long for summer days in the cavernous Astrodome.

The Continental Club in Houston had similar big shoes to fill when it became the first and only satellite of an Austin club that is a live music institution in one of the most influential music cities in the country.

Some might say that Austin has two capitol buildings on each end of Congress Avenue. To the north is the historic limestone and pink granite domed building where state officials legislate and ink lone star history. To the south is a one-story box dipped in red velvet and tasteful neon that has served as the workspace of the state’s musical statesmen for a half-century: Stevie Ray Vaughan, Joe Ely, Kinky Friedman, Alejandro Escovedo and many, many more.

Originally opened as a supper club in 1957, the Continental Club in Austin evolved into a burlesque club in the '60s before spearheading a '70s Texas music renaissance that lives on today. It's a must-see tourist attraction and a late-night musical destination for the natives.

Those were big boots to fill when co-owner and concept originator Steve Wertheimer, Houston co-owner Bob Schultz and managing partner Pete Gordon began volleying around the idea of opening a new location in Houston over a decade ago.

"Steve and I had known each other for a long time and I had talked to him about opening a Houston location for a while, but he was adamant that he wasn't going to do it until he could find somebody he could trust to do it," says Schultz. "One day he calls me and says, 'You're the luckiest the guy in the world because Pete Gordon is moving from Austin to Houston and he's the guy who can make this work in Houston.'"

So began the partnership that spawned not only The Continental Club but an artsy, independent scene on Main Street south of downtown. With each retail evolution the area is starting to feel more like Houston's own version of South Congress Avenue.

"We're trying to create a scene that's very art-oriented with businesses that are locally owned," says Schultz, a real estate developer who has recently bought more space around The Continental Club to expand the burgeoning scene. "It's a little like South Congress, but we're trying to create something that's uniquely Houston and is about what people are doing here."

The renovation began with the unique old building that now houses The Continental Club.

The design of the former drugstore and sandwich counter on the corner of Main and Winbern had to create the magic of the original. The pressed–tin roof and green diamond neon overhead lighting added a bonus touch to give the room individuality. The location on Main Street, just south of the business district’s skyscrapers, was also key to maintaining The Continental Club‘s original “on-the-fringe of downtown” mystique.

“In Austin, The Continental Club is off the beaten path, which made it a destination club—a place that people want to find,” Gordon said on the eve of the July 2000 grand opening. “We hope to capture that same feeling here in Houston."

Gordon had this quote read back to him recently and was asked if the feeling had, indeed, been captured.

"I think we accomplished that," Gordon says now. "Not only with the club, but we seem to be attracting good businesses around the club."

But it takes decades to build a music history. Chances are Gordon, Schultz and Wertheimer can’t duplicate what’s grown in Austin because of the luck of the artistic draw. To create a Texas country-and-roots scene that lives in music history, a city has to be blessed with the homegrown talent to develop it. These days Houston's music talents with a national following lie in the R&B, hip-hop and rock 'n’ roll scene.

Yet our local branch of The Continental Club might be doing something just as important: Keeping a once-flourishing alternative country, folks and roots scene alive for the thousands that pack the building each week.

“There’s a real synergy between the two clubs,” says Quinn Bishop, owner of Cactus Music & Record Ranch about The Continental Club's dual locations. “It’s great for a band to be able to play The Continental Club in Austin on a Friday and then bring (the show) to The Continental Club in Houston for a Saturday. I think both locations benefit from that.”

There has been no dearth of talent at The Continental Club-Houston over the last decade. Well known locals like Jesse Dayton and Rodney Crowell have previewed new albums there. Lone Star guitar royalty like Escovedo and Ely have rocked in front of the red curtain as have nationally-known buzz acts like Bobby "Blue" Bland and R.L. Burnside.

A memorable night at the club came on December 1, 2005, when, following a monster show at the Toyota Center with his regular band The Rolling Stones, guitarist Ron Wood dropped by to sit in with his old Faces bandmate, Ian McClagan. Just a couple of months ago, the club served as the after-party location for U2. Following their bigger-than-life show at Reliant Stadium, Bono and The Edge danced the night away in the club's cozy confines.

These are the type of stories that build a history and, to that end, The Continental Club has taken a respectable place alongside its older and better-known Austin sibling.

The three founders were always confident that The Continental Club in Houston would find a niche that would do right by the club's name. "Nobody ever worried about hurting the brand," says Schulz.

Yet Bishop at Cactus wonders if the Houston location will ever become an institution like the one in Austin. "That takes a long time to build," he says.

Keep this in mind, though: After a decade in Austin, The Continental Club was a peek-a-boo club for dancers with names like Candy Barr and Bubbles Cash. In that light I think the Houston location hasn’t fared poorly at all.

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Movie Review

New film Love Hurts serves as vehicle for Oscar-winner Ke Huy Quan

Photo by Allen Fraser/Universal Pictures

Ke Huy Quan in Love Hurts.

Career revivals like the one that has happened to Ke Huy Quan are extremely rare in Hollywood. As a child, he scored two big back-to-back roles in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Goonies. While he found occasional work after that, his career mostly went dormant starting in 2002 until he was cast in Everything Everywhere All at Once, a role that won him an Oscar.

Now, he’s the toast of the town, including his first-ever starring role as the lead in Love Hurts. Quan plays Marvin Gable, a relentlessly positive real estate agent who’s the top seller in his area. But from the beginning of the film, it’s clear that he has a hidden backstory, as he receives a veiled threat in a note from a woman named Rose (Ariana DeBose), who is seen early on defacing many of his advertisements around town.

When a heavy called The Raven (Mustafa Shakir) confronts Marvin at his office, he is pulled back into his old life, one where he was involved in the criminal enterprise of his brother, Knuckles (Daniel Wu). Soon he’s dodging attacks on multiple fronts, looking out for Rose, and all the while trying to keep up appearances at his day job.

Directed by Jonathan Eusebio (a stunt coordinator making his directorial debut) and written by Matthew Murray, Josh Stoddard, and Luke Passmore, the film is one big excuse to have Quan show off the martial arts skills he demonstrated in his Oscar-winning role. While there is some semblance of a story, it’s mostly to set up the various fight scenes; there’s little attempt to make the audience care about any of the stakes.

Instead, Eusebio and his team vacillate between moments of calmness and sequences with extreme violence. Quan and his fellow combatants (in addition to Shakir, he faces off against Marshawn Lynch, Cam Gigandet, and others) engage in a series of creative moves designed to inflict as much pain as possible. The juxtaposition of the seemingly mild-mannered Marvin with his abilities works relatively well, as does the variety of implements used as weapons (pencils, boba straws, feathers, and more come into play over the course of the film).

But the lack of a full story catches up with the film in the end, as instead of building to some kind of grand finale, there are diminishing returns with every scene. The filmmakers try to distract with a semi-amusing romantic connection between The Raven and Marvin’s assistant, Ashley (Lio Tipton), something that works much better than allusions to a bond between Marvin and Rose. There’s also a mini-Goonies reunion with Sean Astin as Marvin’s boss that’s kind of fun, but the antipathy between Marvin and his attackers never fully develops.

Quan is a joyful presence who does his level best to make himself into a lead actor, but he’s not served well in the film as a whole. DeBose, an Oscar winner herself, seems to be stuck in a rut of mediocre roles, ones that don’t allow her to show off her skills like West Side Story. Lynch shows again he’s reliable in comic sidekick roles, while Tipton and Shakir are the only other actors to make any kind of impact.

The Valentine’s theme of Love Hurts is not the only part of the film that feels tacked on. While the idea of letting Quan show off his skills is a good one in theory, very little thought appears to have been put into making that showcase effective. The result is a forgettable action comedy that puts more emphasis on ultraviolence than its story.

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Love Hurts opens in theaters on February 7.

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