Flipping out

Olympics’ biggest stars join Simone Biles for thrilling gymnastics showcase — but not in Austin

Gymnasts Jordan Chiles, MyKayla Skinner, Jade Carey, and Grace McCallum dazzled the world at the recent Olympics, winning a trove of medals in Tokyo — and now they’re heading to Texas to entertain fans in a thrilling gymnastics “spectacular.” But as it turns out, they won’t be landing in Austin.

Nearly every member of the Team USA gymnastics squad (minus one, Sunisa Lee) will join headliner and Texan Simone Biles on the Gold Over America Tour, making stops in Texas locales like San Antonio, Houston, and Fort Worth in October. An Austin show was originally planned for October 10 at the Frank Erwin Center, but according to the venue, that show has been canceled. No reason was provided and the Erwin Center notes ticket holders should contact their ticket point of purchase to claim a refund.

Austinites who were flipping for the chance to see Biles perform in person may find their excitement twisted into knots when they learn the tour has added some particularly spectacular performers to the lineup.

According to an August 19 news release, also performing as part of the tour will be 2016 Olympic gold and silver medalist and Dancing With The Stars champion Laurie Hernandez; All-American, NCAA National Champion and viral video sensation Katelyn Ohashi; three-time gold medalist in 2019 and 2020 at the Tokyo World Cup Morgan Hurd; elite gymnast Shilese Jones; former USA Gymnastics Women’s Athlete of the Year Chellsie Memmel; 2021 French Olympian Melanie De Jesus dos Santos; and 2018 NCAA National Champion from UCLA (where she achieved 10 perfect 10s), Peng-Peng Lee.

“The Athleta Presents Gold Over America Tour will match athleticism and entertainment,” Biles says in the release. “The show embodies the themes of empowerment and togetherness, which was on display in Tokyo. Together, all the gymnasts on this tour want to inspire the next generation of women and athletes.”

Beyond being a demonstration of eye-popping twists and flips, the show promises to promote values of empowerment, friendship, positive body image, mental-health awareness, and self-confidence, organizers say.

But let’s be real. Fans want eye-popping twists and flips, too — but Austinites will have to settle for watching Olympics reruns or vaulting down to San Antonio on October 6 for the closest tour performance.

For those who need an Olympics refresher:

(Deep breath)

Houston’s Biles — the most-decorated gymnast of all time — experienced a medical issue referred to as the “twisties” after qualifying rounds, which made her death-defying stunts too dangerous to compete safely. When she suddenly dropped out of the team final, her Texas training mate, Chiles, and calm-and-collected teammate McCallum delivered some unscheduled clutch performances that helped win the team a silver medal.

And then ... when Biles couldn’t compete in the vault final, Skinner — who hadn’t qualified, announced her retirement, and packed her bags to leave Tokyo — got the call to compete in Biles’ spot and won herself a silver medal.

And then ... Carey, who’d flubbed her vault in the same final in which Skinner won the silver medal, came charging back the next day with a stunning floor exercise and won herself a gold medal.

And then ... Biles returned triumphantly on the very last day of competition with a “twist-less” balance beam routine she could complete safely, and won herself a bronze medal.

(Exhale)

These shining stars of the games will each perform some of their most famous routines on the tour, mixed with career highlights, personal videos, and social media interactions.

“The show is a high-energy, gymnastics-meets-pop-concert spectacular,” the release says.

A crew of gymnastic dancers under bright LED video screens and lights will heighten the adrenaline, and some ticket holders will get to join them onstage at the end.

It could be fans’ last time to see Skinner perform, as she still plans to retire, so it might be worth making the trip to San Antonio for the show. Biles has not yet announced her future plans, but there was much pre-Olympics speculation that she’d hang up her leotard after this year, too. Both women are a “grandmotherly” 24 in a sport dominated by teenagers.

Fans of Hernandez will be happy to see her back on the mats, too, as an injury in warmups at the National Championships took her out of a recent Fort Worth competition. She served as an NBC commentator at the Olympics. (Follow her comeback journey, as well as those of Hurd and other elite gymnasts, in the excellent docuseries Golden, streaming on NBC’s Peacock app.)

The 35-city tour, which starts September 21 in Tucson, Arizona, will also make Texas stops in Houston on October 8 and Fort Worth on October 9.

Tickets for the San Antonio show start at $26.50, and are available through Ticketmaster.

To sign up for more information about VIP packages and a chance to dance in the show finale, visit www.GoldOverAmericaTour.com. Follow on Instagram & Facebook @GoldOverAmericaTour, Twitter @GoldOverAmerica and YouTube. #GoldInAllOfUs

Five of these Team USA gymnasts are going on tour.

Getty Images

Five of these Team USA gymnasts are going on tour.

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Belles of the Ballroom

9 Austin bar and venue experts take over popular Old Austin space near UT

29th Street Ballroom/Facebook

Changes are coming at the 29th Street Ballroom, but the goal is to preserve what already makes it special.

The evolution continues at the 29th Street Ballroom, the music venue formerly attached to Spider House Café. It's no secret, Resound Presents CEO and co-founder Graham Williams says, that he and a large team of other industry pros are taking over the space; but now they're ready to talk about what comes next for the venue and adjoining bar.

Although Spider House Café closed in 2020, the Ballroom stayed open, and has continued serving University of Texas students and anyone else who wants to see a show outside of the ordinary: punk shows, burlesque revues, fundraisers, and more. It'll stay open through most of the renovations, scheduled through January of 2025, and is expected to hold a grand opening in March.

Now Resound — one of Austin's top live music organizers, which was itself born from the ashes of another Austin institution — is lending two of its co-founders to managing the space going forward: Williams and Ian Orth. They're joining seven other team members from venues around town, many of them overlapping: Amy Mullins, Brian Tweedy, Jason McNeely, John Yaklin, and Shannon LeBoeuf of Hotel Vegas, Chess Club, Kinda Tropical, Tweedy’s, and Yellow Jacket Social Club, in varying capacities; and Brian Buscemi and Mike Sanchez of the Little Darlin’.

Williams emphasizes that although things will be changing at the Ballroom, the goal isn't to change anything people already love.

"Over the next few months as we kind of ease into the spring, we're using this downtime to revitalize things, decorate, revamp some of the stuff in the venue and the bar, and just kind of get things moving in the right direction," Williams says, "taking what's already popular about the venue and just adding to it, really."

Bar updates
The biggest shift will be turning the bar from an accessory to live shows into its own entity that's open even when there's nothing else going on. Amy Mullins, best known as a co-owner of Yellow Jacket Social Club, is overseeing that transition. She's never operated a venue that is primarily focused on music, and has been enjoying learning more about how to do it; she even worked the door recently when a staff member called out sick.

Mullins echoes Williams in assuring that the change is more about logistics than tone. It'll still feel like Old Austin, but she does express a hope to run more than the "typical venue bar," handing out simple drinks as quickly as possible. She's working on a new menu that includes wine, beer, craft cocktails, and non-alcoholic options like tea, kombucha, or mocktails. Regardless of what's on the schedule on any given night, Mullins says the menu will stay the same.

"There's no drink too complicated for us to make, however busy we are," she says.

Food options
Another goal for the team will be making sure the space works when there's not someone onstage to crowd around. They'll expand the front and side patios and create a food truck food court that features the same trucks that are there now, plus one newcomer. All in all, that includes Yalla Burger & Wings, Gyro Center, Li’l Nonna’s Vegan Pizzeria, Guppy’s Indian Fried Chicken, Waylon J’s BBQ, and Ay Chihuahua Tacos.

The expanded patio will connect to Tweedy's Bar next door, which also has its own food trucks. The idea is to create a space to hang out after shows that feels fit for the purpose. It's possible to stick around after events now, but the layout does create a vague feeling of loitering.

Artist and fan-friendly tweaks
On the entertainment side, Williams says some of the renovations include putting in a new sound system, redoing the green room, updating the facade, and repainting signs. Since the winter is a slower time for live music, they'll be taking advantage of the extra time to work on things before packing the calendar with more events than before. Resound will handle most of the bookings in live music, comedy, and DJ sets, welcoming both national and local talent.

Whatever the details end up being, this team has proved to Austinites that they know how to run venues worth visiting. And since they're all friends and business partners on multiple levels, it sounds like having this many cooks in the kitchen just isn't an issue.

"Some of us have been roommates and known each other since we were young," says Williams. "It's a good mix of people who are all very like minded, so a lot is being brought to the table per decision. So yeah, it's it's really exciting. Sometimes that's not the case. .... But with this project, it's a lot of really great, creative people that are good at what they do [and] they trust each other."

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