Slothrust's Dystopian Theatre Tour rolls into Scoot Inn on Nov. 11

The Boston-born trio's first headline run in more than a year hits Austin's oldest-bar-turned-venue a week before it wraps, with Um, Jennifer? opening.

Two months into a tour built around the idea of a night at the theater at the end of the world, Slothrust arrives on East Fourth Street with a week left to go.

Slothrust plays Scoot Inn on Wednesday, Nov. 11, with Um, Jennifer? opening. The show is listed with a 5 p.m. start, and tickets are on sale through Ticketmaster. Scoot Inn holds 1,050, so there's room, but that early start is the detail to plan around.

The run is called the Dystopian Theatre Tour, and the band has pitched it as more of an immersive night out than a straight club set, leaning into the theme. It opened Sept. 15 at Reverb Lounge in Omaha, swung through Riot Fest in Chicago a few days later, then worked the East Coast in late September before heading west. This past stretch has been the West Coast and Mountain West: two nights in San Francisco at the end of October, then Sacramento, Seattle, Boise, and Salt Lake City tonight. Austin is one of the last stops before the tour closes Nov. 18 at The Bellwether in Los Angeles.

It's also the band's first headline tour in more than a year, and it comes with new music. In July, Slothrust released "Burn the Deck," a big, anthemic single that put them back in the conversation after a quiet stretch. Expect it in the set, alongside the catalog the band has built since its early days, and if you only know the older songs, "Burn the Deck" is the one to cue up before Wednesday.

Um, Jennifer? opens, and they've been on select dates of this tour, so the pairing has had a few weeks to settle in. Get there for them: on a 5 p.m. start, the opener goes on early and the room will still be filling in.

The setting is half the appeal. The Historic Scoot Inn, at 1308 E. Fourth St., traces its history to 1871 and bills itself as the oldest bar in Central Texas. In 2016, for its 145th anniversary, it opened Ivy's Room, a new bar inside the property. This spring it was taken over by Yahoo during SXSW as the "Yahoo Scout Inn," which tells you how much the room has become part of the city's music calendar. It's the kind of Austin venue where the building is as much a reason to go as the bill.

What to know before you go: the 5 p.m. listed start is unusually early for a Wednesday, so double-check your ticket for the exact door and set times and plan to leave work a little early. Bring a layer, since a November evening on the east side can cool off after sundown. Check the Ticketmaster listing for the venue's entry and bag policies.

A week from the end of a long tour, bands tend to be either exhausted or playing the best shows of the run. Slothrust has a theatrical concept, a fresh single and a 155-year-old room to work with. That's a good bet for a Wednesday.

Sources: JamBase: Slothrust at Scoot Inn (jambase.com); Ticketmaster: Slothrust – The Dystopian Theatre Tour, Austin (ticketmaster.evyy.net); Stereogum: Slothrust – Burn the Deck (stereogum.com); mxdwn: Slothrust releases anthemic new song 'Burn The Deck' (music.mxdwn.com); Femmetal Rocks: Slothrust Dystopian Theatre Tour (femmetal.rocks); Time Out Austin: Historic Scoot Inn (timeout.com); Bucket List Bars: Scoot Inn, 1308 East 4th Street (bucketlistbars.com); Community Impact: Ivy's Room opens at Historic Scoot Inn for 145th anniversary (communityimpact.com); Yahoo: Yahoo takes over Austin's Historic Scoot Inn for SXSW (yahooinc.com)