As the 2000s came around, a dramatic shift began in the local scene. Talent buyers, the in-house promoters who helped pack the clubs, vanished as clubs started renting out their venues to freelance promoters to help pay the bills. Local bands’ flyers also started disappearing due, in part, to Dallas City Council passing an ordinance to ban them. Bands instead switched to MySpace and eventually Facebook to promote their live shows.
“I always just wanted to break even on the shows and give the bands an opportunity to play for bigger crowds,” he says. When Rios told him that he could bring in national touring acts, Ostrander says at first he was leery because it required about $5,000 or $6,000, which he says Rios would also help cover.The next thing Ostrander knew, he had rock heroes from his youth, George Lynch from Dokken, Faster Pussycat and LA Guns, playing his club. Rios also booked the Iron Maidens, a female tribute band, which Ostrander says brought about 450 people to his 300-capacity club.
The Rail Club Live's former owner Chris Polone knew Rios from their talent buying days in Dallas. Polone became the talent buyer at RBC shortly after Rios left. He says Rios was his “arch rival,” but they grew closer over their mutual distaste of RBC and the owner whom they allege screwed them over.“I tried to warn Chris to stay away,” Rios says. “He called me later and said, ‘Man, everything you told me was true.
A week before the show, the government put everyone on COVID lockdown. Nonessential businesses were forced to close, and Rail Fest was canceled, along with the other 60 shows. Instead of giving back the security deposits, the bands began rescheduling, Rios says, since they had already spent the deposits paying their people and had it in their contracts that they could reschedule.
“We did a show with a Rush tribute band, and we had to turn [attendees] away at the door," Rios says."You can’t make any money. It really hurt.”and the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission over COVID restrictions. He lost his liquor license after the TABC refused to renew it, which cost him his chance of recovering the thousands he lost on security deposits. The only way to renew it, Polone says, was for him to step aside.