A Final Word on 715 Panhandle (By Daniel Zeigler and Payton Green)

DANIEL ZEIGLER (Teenage Cool Kids/Hoop Dreamz/Big Blow/715 Founding Resident):

Jesus. Three years of this shit? I had no idea that our little house would turn into what it is. I never expected more than 20 people to ever come to a show, and I NEVER thought it would evolve into one of the longer running, more consistent show houses in Denton. We started this just to have a place to have our friends play, and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger. I guess we keep making more friends, haha.

The first show I realized that we were doing something really unique was the Daniel Striped Tiger show a couple of summers ago. It was the first time a band I REALLY liked played the house. I didn't know how it would turn out, but it ended up being extremely positive. Everyone there was pumped and DST said it was one of the best shows they'd played on tour. It was awesome.

Once we had the Meneguar/Nouns Group/TCK show, I sort of realized that this place was so much more than we had ever hoped. It still blows my mind that every show we have here is positive, the bands always have a good time, touring bands always get fed and paid, and nothing really bad has happened. It's such a positive place to have shows. I would love to play a place like this every night of tour.

I really hope the Denton DIY scene stays as strong as it has been for the last couple of years. It consistently surprises me how almost all the people that come to shows actually give a shit about the music, regardless of genre or band. The DIY community is growing so much that people are trying to bastardize it, commercialize off of it, but it seems that everyone in this scene has their heads in the right place and is really coming together to do something beautiful.

I'm really going to miss this place, but just like any other house that has had awesome shows in the past, something new will sprout up, and it will probably end up being even better than 715 was. The momentum all the bands in Denton has created is pretty incredible, and I have no doubt that something huge is going to come out of it. Every band in Denton that tours is doing extremely well. Bands are having much better shows here than in Austin, people are starting to notice.

To anyone that is thinking of starting a venue out of their house: Fucking do it! Sure it's occasionally hard, and sometimes it's a hassle, but the payoff is so rewarding. Helping this entity grow is like watching your kid grow up. From seeing 12 of my friends at a show, to seeing 100 people I don't know in my yard is such an amazing feeling. We need this, RGRS just doesn't cut it. We need another 715. We need another Secret Headquarters. Someone has to want to do this, but even more than that, someone HAS to do this. Let's go.

-Daniel Z

PAYTON GREEN (Wax Museums/Wiccans/Back Stabbath):

What do I say about a place where I’ve seen Human Eye, Sex/Vid, Thomas Function, Psychedelic Horseshit, Abe Vigoda, Lover!, Total Abuse, the Marked Men, Holy Shit!, Chronic Seizure and countless others? I'm not sure what I'm supposed to say about a place that has very possibly been the most important locale of my adult life thus far. I guess I can start from the beginning.
When 715 Panhandle first started doing shows I was living at Xtreme Dudes Manor, and I remember being pretty excited that there was another house venue in town. I guess that was during the house show boom in 2006/2007 when there were a ton of places to play, so I probably took it more for granted than I should have. I definitely didn’t forsee the importance of the place.

I missed a lot of the early period so I unfortunately can’t offer a lot of commentary there, but the first show I actually made it out to I was very late for, and I missed most of it. I was there to catch Teenage Cool Kids for the first time and just barely made it. The set was I think Kyle’s first and one of Bill’s last. Andrew Savage has been one of my best friends for years and I’d known Daniel Zeigler for about the same amount of time but less well (at that point). They were as different a band from what they are now as the house is different from what it was then. This was back when shows were so small and tame that there was still furniture in the room and it didn’t get destroyed at all! It’s kind of crazy to think about now.

I definitely had a number of fun times there that summer. I didn’t actually play a show there until October of 2007. We (Wax Museums) had booked a series of shows for touring bands at J&J’s. The day of the first of these shows, the bands showed up to what was then my favorite place for shows in Denton, only to be told that there would be no more ‘loud’ or ‘punk’ shows allowed. We talked our way into having that show and moved the others to Secret Headquarters. That, as we all know, didn’t last too long. After having booked a fairly big show with three touring bands for late October we had NOWHERE to host it. I called Andrew and he talked it over with the guys and our asses were saved.

That show was, I think, the first completely out of control happening at the house. Wax Museums played to what was then our best hometown reception ever, followed by Party Garbage. People got pretty warmed up during their set. Then Chronic Seizure played and things went INSANE. A totally full room of people running around, chanting about and chugging on boxes of wine. It was the first time I’d seen anything like that in a house in Denton without any serious damage happening. Teenage Cool Kids played next and their set that night was the first time I’d ever seen a ton of people just totally eat it up. Kids singing along, crowd-surfing, the whole bit that’s the standard for their home-turf sets now. I remember standing at the back of the room and looking over at Josh from Thomas Function, one of the leading figures of the “BOX OF WINE!” sensation earlier in the night, and realizing their set was going to be a mess. They tried their hardest to play but Josh was definitely way too far gone to hold it together. At one point Jason from Wax Museums was so drunk that he requested a song they’d already played, and Josh was so drunk that he didn’t realized they’d already played it. It was still definitely one of my favorite disastrous sets of all time.

After that things just kept going strong. I’ve seen so many of my favorite shows of the last couple of years there. I crashed there for a couple of weeks when I had nowhere else to live. I’ve spent countless hours drinking beers and playing video games, or just sitting around and talking. There are very few things that I ever do in life that I haven’t done there at least once.
People can detract from the place while it exists and probably will continue to detract from the memory when it’s gone in a couple of weeks. The fact of the matter is that four of the most incredible guys I’ve ever known have consistenly given up their living space and peace of mind for years to let their friends and a lot of total strangers have the time of their lives. Maybe some people just don’t get it, and that’s fine. All I know is that myself and those who DO get it are going to have a very hard time leaving Saturday night with a dry eye.








Photo by Sally Glass