Photos by Brett Thorne

The title "Live Music Capital of San Marcos" was not exactly difficult for San Marcos venue Triple Crown to earn, co-owner Eric Shaw said.

Shaw, a San Marcos High School graduate, grew up playing in bands. In the mid-90s, during a brief period when Cheatham Street Warehouse closed and was reopened as a Tejano bar, San Marcos was without a real venue, he said.

"There was nowhere to play in San Marcos at all for bands," Shaw said. "Bands were going to Austin."

Shaw remembers being excited in the mid-90s when he heard about a Chinese restaurant in San Marcos that was beginning to book live music.

"It was that bad," he said.

He suspects that is part of the reason why when he and co-owner Allen Manning opened Triple Crown, there was an overwhelming response.

The venue opened Nov. 22, 1996, with a show featuring Shaw's band, The Things. From there, the venue began booking live music. As of Dec. 5, the venue has had a live music performer on each of the 6,516 days since Feb. 1, 1997.

"We were blessed that there was a lot of talent in the area," Shaw said. "Next thing you know it just started filling up the calendar."

Since opening Triple Crown has become a launching pad for internationally renowned bands. The members of Blue October, whose album "Foiled" has sold 1.4 million copies worldwide, toiled at the venue's open mic nights early in their career. Acts such as This Will Destroy You and Scott Biram played Triple Crown early in their careers and have since gone on to international prominence.

But an untapped live music market does not mean Triple Crown has been without challenges. During the 1998 floods that brought 30 inches of rainfall to parts of Central Texas and killed 31 people in the region, Manning and Shaw made sure the venue had a musical act— even after the power to the venue failed.

"We had customers in here until the sun went down," Manning said. "I said, 'When you can't see, that's when you gotta close.'

"I've always said if you can't find anybody I'll come down and a cappella the national anthem up there."

In January, Carson Properties announced plans to build a nine-story mixed-use building on the 200 block of Edward Gary Street, which would have forced Triple Crown to relocate.

"Everyone was on pins and needles around here," Manning said. "I said, 'Just wait until the 15th. Just don't think about anything. Let the 15th come and go. We'll know on the morning of the 16th whether we have 45 days to shut down, or if we're gonna be here for a long time.'"

Manning received a call from John David Carson, the developer of the project, on Oct. 15. Carson said the project was being put on hold.

In an email, Carson told Community Impact Newspaper that the development is still working on the project, but declined to elaborate.

For Shaw and Manning, that means the venue gets to remain at its current location.

"There was a lot of joy in town when people found out we weren't closing," Manning said.

The duo are planning a few renovations to the venue's stage, which had been put on hold after the initial announcement of Carson's plans in January. Now they are moving full steam ahead with those plans, Shaw said.

"We're going to keep doing what got us here," he said. "It has served us well. I think the town needs a place like us. We intend to keep on keepin' on."