Warehouse on Broadway: In a fresh variation, the venue makes its return as an inclusive space in Westport
Photo by Maggie Gulling
Kansas City’s newest venue, Warehouse on Broadway, might also be the hippest thing to hit Westport in years. Partners Neill Smith and J.C. Cirese soft opened the 650-capacity venue on St. Patrick’s Day of this year, and while there were a few shows scattered in the following weeks, the official opening weekend saw local metal legends The Esoteric reunite for their first show in over a decade on Friday, April 4. The very next night brought a double headline bill of dance rockers Hembree and your favorite boyband Post Sex Nachos, with both nights absolutely packed.
“The room was full—not just with fans, but with people who had clearly never met before, dancing, talking, and connecting,” recalls Smith. “That energy, that sense of shared experience—That’s exactly what we wanted Warehouse On Broadway to be about. It clicked at that moment that this place had already started becoming what we hoped it could be.”
Located off 39th and Broadway, the space is just across the street and a block north from the neighborhood’s former live music headquarters of the Riot Room, which is somewhat kismet, since Smith got his start booking shows there in his twenties.
“Kind of by accident,” Smith admits. “I found a real passion for it because what I really love about it is the part where I’m on Facebook 15 years later and some dude that DJ’d on the patio is like, ‘I need a plumber. Is anybody a plumber?’ And some dude that was in a metal band was like, ‘I’m a plumber. I got you, man.’”
Photo by Maggie Gulling
What the Riot Room could do, booking-wise, resulted in the sort of nights where intergalactic surf rock band Man (or Astro-Man?) was on the inside stage and hip hop duo the Ying Yang Twins was outside, mixing and mingling people who would have never met otherwise. As Smith puts it, he missed that bridge between two disparate worlds when he found himself working for AEG: “I’m like, ‘Would’ve never met you if you hadn’t played a metal show and wandered out to the patio afterwards.’”
Smith honestly admits that he didn’t plan to get into all of this, and this was an opportunity that came across unexpectedly. He and Cirese both said to each other, “‘Do you want to get back into [KC]? Well, let’s do it.’”
Both partners felt that, when the Riot Room closed during the pandemic, it left a big hole in this market. The mix of hip hop, EDM, metal, and indie shows worked because it was so different, Smith says, and that’s really the void they thought that they could fill: a venue that’s not huge, but not tiny, and capable of feeling like there’s a solid crowd even when not sold out.
A big part of that is the venue’s design. Rather than the standard shotgun setup with a stage located at one end, the venue horseshoes around the stage with bars elevated on either side. The end result is a venue that is wider than it is deep, and there’s not a bad seat in the whole place. Grab a drink at the bar, turn around, and you’re level with the stage itself.
All of that said, Smith wants to make it clear he’s not competing with the likes of The Madrid, The Granada, or The Truman.
“I’m just competing against Netflix and YouTube and I’m competing against shows that just haven’t made their way here,” the co-owner emphasizes. “I’m competing against trying to pull a show that would probably end up in Minneapolis.”
Photo by Maggie Gulling
Looking at tour routing over the last few years, Smith’s point stands pretty well. Many tours have stopped using the I-70 corridor quite as much as they once did, with bands making their way from Denver to Minneapolis, and maybe stopping in Omaha, rather than KC or Lawrence.
“There’s so many different things that I think you’ll see start to pop back up in here, or things that have just never been here because of the size,” Smith says.
He has cannily realized that the folks with money to spend on concerts are typically in their late 20s , 30s, and beyond, so there are seats available. The ledges near the bars have stools. Their restaurant concept at the back of the venue, Sound Bite, opened in June and features a full kitchen and items like the Warehouse burger, a pork belly BLT, fried bologna, roasted eggplant sandwiches, and more.
“So it’s like, ‘Alright, I’m gonna go back here, sit down and have a drink or order some food, and then I can go out, stand, and watch the show,’” offers Smith. “There’s flexibility to it. It’s got more facets to it in the sense that it’s not just event-based. You can come here and hang out without a show going on.”
Having a fluid identity is one part, with the other big part being community involvement. Smith enthuses over what Frank Hicks has managed to do with Knuckleheads.
“That dude literally has figured out how to pull so many different groups of people into his venue and have something kind of for everybody in that realm,” Smith marvels, pointing to the fact that Hicks has capitalized on an underserved concertgoer, offering ample seating, food, and other different options folks like to have in an event space. Once you’re there for the show, there’s no need to go anywhere else, nor would you want to, thanks to the open and welcoming environment, and it looks like Warehouse on Broadway is well on its way to being that kind of space for Westport.
Photo by Maggie Gulling
“One of the biggest surprises has been how quickly the local community embraced the venue—not just as a place to see live music, but as a gathering space,” reflects Smith. “We expected some traction, but we didn’t anticipate how many people would treat Warehouse on Broadway like a second home.”
Part of that is likely due to the fact that Smith, Cirese, and everyone else at Warehouse have quickly learned the importance of flexibility. Whether it’s last-minute artist changes or reconfiguring the space for different vibes, they’ve learned to think on their feet.
“We’ve really focused on listening to artists, to guests, and to our staff,” Smith continues, saying that’s helped them quickly identify what’s working and where they need to pivot. For example, he says, they’ve fine-tuned their sound system and stage layout based on feedback to better suit different types of performances and have also made small but meaningful adjustments to their bar flow and ticketing process to make the entire experience smoother.
“The goal has been to stay responsive and treat this first phase as a collaborative process with our audience,” says Smith, offering that everyone at Warehouse on Broadway has tried to create a space that feels authentic, intimate, inclusive, and artist-centered.
While they’ve put a lot of thought into every detail, from acoustics to lighting to making sure people feel welcome the moment they walk through the door, Smith thinks that, more than anything, people respond to the intention behind the venue.
“It’s not just about putting on shows,” Smith concludes. “It’s about fostering a creative culture and giving both performers and audiences something real to connect with.”
Warehouse on Broadway is located at 3951 Broadway Blvd. in Kansas City, MO. More information on their upcoming shows can be found online.
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