Walter’s Downtown is the best kind of family business. Owner Zack Palmer inherited the warehouse-like venue north of downtown after his mother, beloved Houston nightlife matriarch Pam Robinson, passed away in late 2014, and he has carried over the anything-goes booking policy that makes Walter’s one of the most accessible and artist-friendly clubs in town. Many acts who pass through Walter’s do so without much commercial attention or outside financial support, and its DIY hospitality props up a broad spectrum of underground music, from indie-pop to hardcore punk and all sorts of laptop-beats alchemists. Walter’s got even cooler when the vinyl-only Deep End Records, run by local musician and Walter’s primary booking agent John Baldwin, opened last fall in what used to be the club’s lobby.
This article appears in Oct 6-12, 2016.