New music venue and restaurant coming to KC: ‘There aren’t any other rooms this size’
Neill Smith has served as talent buyer for just about every major music venue in Kansas City over the past 15 years: Riot Room, Czar Bar, RecordBar, the Midland, KC Live!, the Truman.
Like a lot of people in the live-events business, Smith was laid off during the pandemic. For the past several years, he’s been working in real estate development. But he’s been itching to get back into the music industry.
So last summer, Smith and a partner, J.C. Cirese, purchased a building near Westport, at 3951 Broadway. Most recently, it was home to Jukebox Heroes, a live-music concept that came and went in five months in 2023. Prior to that, the space was occupied by Komatsu, a ramen restaurant.
Next month, Smith and Cirese will bring both food and tunes back to the space with the opening of a music venue and restaurant called Warehouse on Broadway.
“It’s a 650-capacity club, which we don’t really have in this market,” Smith said. “It’s about half the size of the Truman. I think we’re going to be able to get some acts to come to Kansas City who have been passing us over because there aren’t any other rooms this size.”
The calendar is already coming together. Warehouse on Broadway will welcome Omaha dance-punk act The Faint on March 28, a reunion show with KC hardcore band The Esoteric on April 4, and New Orleans bounce rapper Big Freedia on April 12.
“I’m thinking of (the venue) as kind of a bigger version of the Riot Room,” Smith said. “A lot of metal, EDM, hip-hop, rock. Some DJ residencies. A lot of local acts. And we’ve actually been very fortunate to bring over a lot of Riot Room alumni to work with us — bartenders and sound staff.”
Smith and Cirese — a former tour manager for emo-hardcore bands and the current owner of Dr. Smoke, a dispensary next door to Warehouse on Broadway — have spent the last nine months overhauling the space. They’ve added a new stage, acoustic sound panels, tiered sightlines, and upgraded the lights and sound system.
“We’ll have a dedicated box office as well that’s open throughout the week,” Smith said.
And there will be food — a 100-seat, quick-service sandwich joint open seven days a week from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m.
“It’s open to everybody — you don’t have to have a ticket to the show to eat there,” Smith said. “But the goal is to get people into the restaurant who maybe don’t know who’s playing that night, and the draw of food serves as a kind of feeder to the music.”
The first official show at Warehouse on Broadway is More Than Friends, a DJ party March 21. But Smith said they’ll have the space open a few days before that for the St. Patrick’s Day parade, which rolls past Warehouse On Broadway on March 17.
“(Local jazz-blues band) Grand Marquis is going to perform, and 90.9 The Bridge is doing a live remote,” Smith said. “We’ll be open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., so anybody who wants can come by and see what we’ve done.”
This story was originally published February 19, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
