A first glimpse into the new Beauty Ballroom: Light on glitter, heavy on character

First things first; it’s not just a concrete box with lots of glitter. Spoken or not, that question has been on lots of mind of lots of folks since the annoncement last year that Austin’s Beauty Bar was going to open a new, much larger location on East Riverside within beer bottle chucking distance from the new Emo’s East. And when the new Emo’s was seen to be a very large concrete box (essentially), there was at least a little worry that the move for the new Beauty Ballroom would find the club in a similarly character-deficient space. But that’s not the case, as an early walk through of the new location by CultureMap on Monday showed the 700 capacity room is a very compartmentalized space that will allow for a feeling of intimacy, even when bright lights and a thundering sound system rattle a packed crowd. Most recently a dance club, the it’s been redecorated in the chain’s glitter-accentuated motif by Steven Hammel, the man responsible for the look of every club in the chain.