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Photo: Larry D. Moore, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Address
606 E. 7th Street, Austin, TX 78701
GPS
30.2673686, -97.7361409
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No standing hours — door times vary by event, typically 6pm–10pm.
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Empire opened in 2013 during what the Austin Chronicle called “a somewhat confusing time in Austin’s music scene” — condos and hotel developers were eyeing Red River, and longtime clubs were folding. Empire became one of the district’s boldest bets instead.
Stephen Sternschein of Heard Presents, alongside partners Mike and Dave Machinist and Trey Spaw of Side Bar, opened Empire Control Room & Garage at the corner of 7th Street and Red River. The complex spans roughly 15,000 square feet across two connected buildings — the indoor Control Room at 606 E. 7th and the Garage, a converted former auto shop at 604 E. 7th — plus a creekside outdoor patio, giving Empire three distinct stages under one roof.
A Crossover Room for Every Genre
That three-stage layout has made Empire a hub for genre-crossing SXSW bookings since the start: in 2015 the Garage hosted Austin singer-songwriters like Gary Clark Jr. and Shakey Graves while the Control Room ran a simultaneous electronic-music program with TOKiMONSTA, Daedelus, and Kastle. Robert Glasper played an early Austin date in the Control Room, Fred Armisen headlined the venue’s first sold-out comedy show, and the club has long run dance nights like Fleetmac Wood alongside touring rap and indie bills. Published capacities put the Control Room at around 350, the Garage at roughly 1,050, and the outdoor patio at about 200.
Fighting to Stay Put
Empire’s history hasn’t been without turbulence — including a near-eviction during a 2018 Red River redevelopment push, a familiar challenge for independent venues sitting on valuable downtown real estate. Sternschein served as founding treasurer of the National Independent Venue Association during the pandemic, and in October 2024 the City of Austin’s Rally Austin nonprofit issued a $2.2 million loan from its Iconic Venue Fund enabling Sternschein’s team to buy the Garage parcel outright, consolidating ownership of the full complex under a 20-year live-music-use commitment. It’s a deal explicitly framed around keeping Empire — and neighbors like Mohawk a few doors down Red River — planted on the same strip that made Austin the Live Music Capital of the World.
