Back in August, Travis Hill knew he had to make a decision.
Hill, the owner of Little Rock record label Last Chance Records, has organized the annual Holiday Hangout at White Water Tavern for over a decade. The show, which takes place around his Dec. 2 birthday, is a gathering of Hill’s favorite national and local musicians for two days of rock ’n’ roll and has attracted fans from across the country and overseas.
With White Water shut down since March due to the pandemic and shows everywhere scaled back, the traditional version of the Hangout, with fans and musicians gleefully crammed into the venerable tavern, dancing and singing along to the bands, was out of the question.
“I didn’t want to hear it,” Hill says when thinking back to those days in the summer when the topic of canceling the Hangout would arise. “I tried to avoid it mentally, but by August I made the announcement that we weren’t going to have Holiday Hangout this year. It broke my heart.”
He began thinking of a way to hold the event online and was inspired by Mutants of the Monster, an extreme metal festival organized by local promoter and singer Christopher Terry that was presented online through the Arkansas Times’ YouTube channel.
“He was telling me what a success it was, so I just said, ‘Let’s do it,’” Hill says. “I’d been looking for a way, and the Arkansas Times channel seemed like a stable environment so that no matter how many people tuned in it would be good.”
And so this year’s Holiday Hangout — redubbed Holiday Hang in There — with over 20 bands and solo performers, goes virtual Friday and Saturday. Admission is free, but Hill hopes to raise money for musicians who have not been able to earn through touring this year and also for White Water.
Paypal and Venmo information will appear onscreen during the performances, he says. A poster by artist John Lucas and T-shirts designed by Isaac Alexander, who will be performing, will also be available.
The lineup includes John Moreland, Lucero frontman Ben Nichols, Adam Faucett, Cory Branan, Austin Lucas, Brent Best of Slobberbone, Bonnie Montgomery, Dazz & Brie, Joey Kneiser of Glossary, Cary Hudson, John Calvin Abney, Micah Schnabel and Shane Sweeney of Two Cow Garage, Kim Nall, William Elliot Whitmore, Tim Easton and more.
The Hangout has its genesis in November, 2007, when Ohio rockers Two Cow Garage were on tour and looking for a gig.
“They needed money to get back home and contacted me and said they needed a show on a Sunday night,” Hill says.
The gig, held at White Water, established a foothold in Little Rock for the scrappy band and Hill invited them back the next year for his birthday show with the Drams and Glossary over two nights. From there the number of bands and fans continued to grow.
By 2010, the show was selling out as people from out of state were coming in and Hill called it the Holiday Hangout. The weekend had grown beyond just a celebration of Hill’s birthday with his favorite band and buddies to an annual gathering of music lovers from all over and stretched beyond the cozy, funky tavern to include in-store performances at Arkansas Record & CD Exchange in North Little Rock and Lost Forty Brewing.
“Every year it just blew my mind,” Hill says. “People from Scotland, England, Germany would come and we had an average of 21 states represented every year.”
Schnabel has been at most of the Hangouts and will perform at this weekend’s iteration.
“I was so glad they tried to keep it going and do something this year,” he says from Columbus, Ohio. “It’s important to do things like this to keep some semblance of being together in the midst of all of this. Even if it’s virtual, everyone can gather around and participate in some way.”
The singer-songwriter has fond memories of White Water.
“It’s like being a part of [legendary New York punk venue] CBGB’s,” Schnabel says. “It’s such a special place and it’s at that level of mythology.”
While Hill is happy to have the virtual option this year, he’s already looking forward to 2021.
“I’m doing this for the hardcore people and anyone who is a fan of these bands,” Hill says. “But I hope we are all back together at the bar next year.”
Holiday Hang in There
- 9 p.m. Friday-Saturday, youtube.com/user/ArkansasTimes
- Featuring: Aaron Lee Tasjan, Adam Faucett, Austin Lucas, BJ Barham of American Aquarium, Ben Nichols of Lucero, Bonnie Montgomery, Brent Best of Slobberbone, Cory Branan, Dazz & Brie, William Elliott Whitmore, Eric Amble, Isaac Alexander, Isaac Hoskins, Joey Kneiser and Todd Beene of Glossary, John Calvin Abney, John Moreland, Jon Snodgrass of Drag the River, John Paul Keith, Kim Nall, Lee Bains, Micah Schnabel and Shane Sweeney of Two Cow Garage, Michael Dean Damron, Cary Hudson of Blue Mountain, Paige Anderson of the Anderson Family Bluegrass Band, Tim Easton and William Elliot Whitmore.
- Admission: Free, donations accepted
- lastchancerecords.us