The Side Bar

Hello Fellow Austinites! Have an old instrument no longer being used? With all the state and district public school funding cuts and closures, one of our very own middle school bands are in great need to supply budding musicians in town with more instruments! Gifting does a mind and heart good! And frankly, more good in this world is fuel to move forward. Thanks for donating!

Covington C**t Band Boosters When Bedichek middle school closed over the summer, many of the students were transferred to Covington. This doubled the size of the band program. As a Title 1 school, many families can't afford to buy or rent an instrument for their budding musicians, relying on school owned instruments. However, b...

Oh Man. We love you, Seth. 😭💔

It’s hard to write one’s own obituary, but in this rare case I have that opportunity.

As of yesterday afternoon, 710 Red River has sold. The new owners immediately informed us that they would be invoking their termination clause in our lease. 60 days and counting. As of now or last day will be October 26th. We’re hoping to maybe just get till Halloween, we’ll see. Fingers crossed.

We’d love to see all our friends with the 59 days we have left and I have some days left open for shows, so hit me up.

We started Valhalla in November of 2009, 17 years. Some amazing times. I’ve been in Austin since 1995 and by that fall I’d started working for Angela at Flamingo Cantina, she is amazing. Later I worked at Room 710 starting sometime in 2000 for my friends, Woody, Adriana, and Asher. Around 2006 I went to work for John at Elysium. While there I cooked up this idea to open Valhalla.

For the last 30 plus years I’ve had the best seat in Austin for local, national and international bands. This scene can be magical. The local talent is and has been some of the best and literally the soundtrack of most of my life. Countless locals bands I couldn’t take out of my CD player (yes I’m old) and now my turntable.
Lest we get sappy, we knew this was coming and it still feels sad but a band aid being ripped off is better than the slow peel.

So, 59 days, I’m sure I’ll shed my fair share of tears in the coming days as I see so many dear friends and regulars and reflect on past times but we’ve got 59 days to make a few more memories.

The stories that are in the walls of 710 red river are my stories and your stories. I’ll miss them.
Love
Seth

Shout out to one of our favorite neighbors in the Red River Cultural District! And we love you, John Elysium! We want to be Goth when we grow up 🖤 (Story originally published in 2025)

Proud goth man compares striking side-by-side photos of himself between ages of 18 and 48 A man on Reddit posted a photo of himself at 18 and then again 30 years later at 48. Proud of his goth look, he notes it wasn't "just a phase." Many support him with kind comments as they recount their journeys through goth, both musically and in fashion.

Hey 2025! You were kind of an as***le making many of us suffer some brutal losses (amongst all the many other upside-down world events). So, while we are very grateful to receive many joyful times with our bar fam (😭🙏), we also feel really ready to say goodbye to this year. What about you?

Our plan is to be “touching grass” more in 2026 & investing in authentic & more face-to-face interactions so we apologize in advance for less posting here. But please know we still love you humans so much!

“May your choices reflect your hopes & not your fears”—Nelson Mandela

(Photo: I-35 in Austin just last week 😱. Roads during the holidays. iykyk)

Happy Xmas Eve, Friends & Lovers! We will be open regular hours tonight & open later at 8PM tomorrow on Xmas Day. Please join Reese, Ivy & Elena tonight & Tios Louis, Alan y Doug tomorrow! Forever cheers to our loyal supporters through the years so far! We really love you! ❤️🙏

PS A Mega happy birthday to our Kristopher today! 🥳