Live music has come roaring back since the easing of COVID protocols, and a new Richmond venue aims to fan that flame. Ember Music Hall opened in July as the latest venture of the LX Group, which has operated restaurants in Richmond and Washington, D.C., including Kabana Rooftop. The mission is right there in the venue’s name, which is symbolically linked to the mythological phoenix rising from the ashes.

“Ember was inspired by the rebirth of music,” says Kunal Shah, one of the LX ownership group’s three partners. “[COVID] was a hard time for everyone, especially in the music industry. Everything had to shut down… We felt like the name was a fresh start.”

What started as two retail spaces on the 300 block of E. Broad St. is now a venue with a 450-person capacity, custom-built sound and lighting systems and a future-focused outlook on what makes for a great concert. “The culture of events and music and artists — it’s really changed a lot, where it’s not just about being on a stage and performing,” Shah explains. “Visuals are a big part of a performance.” From LED displays and haze and cryogenic effects to a raised VIP section and 360-degree experiences where fans surround the performers, Ember is designed for visual versatility.

“We wanted to develop a venue that adjusts and adapts to the music culture,” Shah says.

The LX Group is also aiming to meet performers’ lofty expectations, particularly in the realm of sound engineering. Shah has experience as a DJ and knows the struggle of having to adapt when a system isn’t equipped to handle a wide frequency range. “I didn’t want DJs, or any performer, to face those challenges when they came into Ember.”

Having the right equipment is part of that, and the goals for Ember’s custom sound system are lofty: “Our sound is very similar to L-Acoustics, which is a high-value brand sound,” Shah notes. But the owners’ commitment to sonic excellence is even more elemental. Ember’s bar was built with steel reinforcement to minimize distractions when electronic acts — the “One More Time” tribute to Daft Punk that took place in July, for example — deploy their deepest bass tones. “You have all this glass, these liquor bottles, these beer bottles,” Shah says. “We designed our shelving for our bar to be very soundproof.”

As he sees it, the stakes couldn’t be higher: “A lot of artists won’t even return to the venue if the sound is not right.”

One adjustment they made shortly after opening was eliminating the bounce-back drummers were hearing from the brick wall behind them. “Immediately the next day, we ordered all the sound-proof material and just took care of it,” Shah recalls. “That’s what Ember is about.”

Alt-country outfit Chris Leggett & the Copper Line performed during the early show on the same night as the Daft Punk tribute, and leader Chris Leggett noticed no such bounce-back, though he did take note of the attention to detail on the visual side. “It definitely was a different experience with the lighting, and the LED screen behind us,” he says. Particularly striking was the way lights above the crowd seemed to bring performers and onlookers together. “You kind of have the whole crowd experience added onto the artist experience as well.”

“It was a new adventure for everyone that was there,” he adds.

Though Ember is LX’s first music venue, the group has experience booking and hosting shows in Baltimore, D.C. and Richmond. They’re most versed in dance-driven genres like disco, house and future bass, but they’re growing their team and applying their learnings from across the mid-Atlantic to a variety of genres at Ember. “The mechanics are always different,” Shah says. “The audience is always different… Every sub-genre or genre of music — it just works differently.”

LX’s ownership is comprised of Shah and business partners Neal Patel and Aditya Mehta, who have all been friends since the age of nine. “It’s more than a business relationship,” Shah says. “We’re pretty much brothers and we do everything together.”

The trio grew up in Richmond, and while they went to different colleges, all three — George Mason University, the University of Maryland and George Washington University — were clustered around the D.C. area. They launched their first business as a team, and Shah says the ups and downs along the way have put them in a position to succeed at Ember.

“It took us almost 20 years to develop what we’re doing at Ember. It wasn’t something that we did overnight.”

Ember Music Hall is located at 309 E. Broad St. For the latest on Ember Music’s Hall’s upcoming shows, visit embermusichall.com.