What are the concert venues by you?

Cafe Society
1

It is easier to ask here than to google this. (It is research for a story of mine.)

What are the concert venues near you, how big are they and how long have they been around?

Older, defunct places, like The Hippodrome can be included too, only if they have ever played rock and roll ( 1960’s onward.)
I’ll start:

Detroit:

Joe Louis Arena , downtown. Large venue with big acts, though I’m guessing alot of the Af-Am music scene ( I don’t listen to big people music anymore and I am so out of the concert info loop.) Also is the home of Detroit Red Wings since the late 80’s.

Cobo ditto. Though, it’s biggest clambake is the Detroit Auto Show in January every year. One of the most important, if not the most important autoshow on the planet. Hugely well attended and parking is a basic nightmare.

The Fox classier venue, medium size. Ornate inside.

CoMerica Park Home to the Tigers. hosted the 3 tenors and a large variety of musical interests. large venue. Outdoors.

Suburbs:

The Palace of Auburn Hills large venue,(22k seats, I think.) one of the top spots for all major acts in every genre to come too. Also sporting. 15 minutes from me.

The Silverdome Xtra large venue.(Was or is the largest indoor concert/sports place in the world. 50K seats, I think.) though mostly home to truck pulls now. Use to home the Lions whom suck.

DTE Energy Theater formerly known as Pine Knob Outdoor medium sized summer place. Awesome shows of all varieties. (10 minutes from my house.)

Freedom Hill, Warren, Outdoor summer venue. Have never attended. Seems to have alot of artists that are either staples of smaller venues or on a downward slide to their once huge careers.

There are some much smaller, intimate clubs that I forget the names of that get the indy artists: The attic in Ann Arbor and there is something in Pontiac as well. Been to both.

I’m probably forgetting a few.

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Major venues of Albany, Schenectady, Troy, Saratoga (Capital District):

Pepsi Arena – 16,000 seats for the top acts (e.g., Elton John, Billy Joel, Roberta Flack, Grateful Dead, etc.), plus minor league hockey and Division I college basketball. Albany

Palace Theater – a few thousand seats for smaller acts, now converted into a place for Broadway road shows, but still plenty of music acts. Seats about 2000. Albany. Recent acts include John Prine. Home of the Albany Symphony.

Empire State Plaza Center for the Performing Arts “The Egg”. Several small theaters 200-500 seats. Lyle Lovett recently performed there.

Proctor’s Theater – Primarily a stage venue, but they do have occasional classical music groups and, years ago, the New Riders of the Purple Sage performed there. Schenectady. Seats about 2000.

Memorial Chapel, Union College – smaller acts for college only. Seats about 1000. Schenectady. Back when I was there, acts included Bruce Springsteen, The J. Geils Band, Sha Na Na, Loudon Wainwright III, Manhattan Transfer, The Flying Burrito Brothers, and several other acts that went on to successful careers.

RPI Field House – occasional acts brought on campus. Seat around 2000.

Saratoga Performing Arts Center – There are around 5000 seats, plus a lawn – it looks like they’ll sell up to 20,000 lawn seats. The venue is in a natural ampitheater, so you can listen and see the acts (though you often need binoculars). Summer home of the Philadelphia Orchestra and the New York City Ballet, but there are plenty of rock concerts. This summer, acts include the Allman Brothers, moe, The Moody Blues, Brian Wilson, Meat Loaf, Chicago, Dave Matthews, and Avril Lavigne. That’s a typical list for most years. Used to host the Newport Jazz Festival. Lawn tickets are a good deal – $15 in advance, $20 at the door. Major national attraction.

Troy Savings Bank Music Hall – one of the most acoustically perfect venues in the US. Recent acts included The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Judy Collins, Leo Kottke, the Kingston Trio, and Sonny Rollins. Second home of the Albany Symphony. Seats about 1000.

Northern Lights – small club venue with occasional recognizeable names (Asia, Rod Zombie, Ryan Adams). Don’t know the size, but I’d guess no more than 300. Clifton Park.

The Van Dyke – Restaurant and jazz club. Probably seats 100-150, but does occasionally get name acts. Schenectady.

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Relatively close stuff (including Cincy and Louisville):

Rupp Arena - Has trouble getting acts by being too large. The full arena seats 25,000 for basketball, so with floor seating it would hold close to 30,000. The half arena holds about 12,000 with floor seating. Recent concerts include 3 Doors Down, Kenny Chesney, Kid Rock and comedian Ron White.

Avio (formerly A1A) - Used to be the big rock club in town. Kid Rock played here early in his career. After the remodeling and renaming, it lost a lot.

The Dame - Lexington’s newest concert hall, it mainly has local bands, although it occasionally gets regional and small national acts.

Freedom Hall - Louisville’s big concert venue. I saw Metallica here in 2004. Fairly common stop on most tours.

Louisville Palace - Smaller theater-type venue. Hosts a lot of stand-up, as well as smaller concerts (Deep Purple is playing there this month, and Michael Buble is coming in next month.)

Jillian’s - More of a restaurant/bar type place, they get a lot of rock acts on their first tour.

Riverbend Amphitheater (Cincy) - Has hosted Farm Aid on numerous occasions, as well as shows from every conceivable genre. Festival shows play Riverbend fairly regularly.

US Bank Arena (Cincy) - Right next to Paul Brown Stadium and the Great American Ball Park on the riverfront in Cincy.

Bogart’s - A lot like Jillian’s in Louisville, only sometimes they get big names.

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Hersheypark Stadium (saw Annie Lennox there)
Giant Center (in the same complex) (Bette Midler performed there in her last tour)

We’re 1 1/2 hours from Baltimore, so add those, as well as Philadelphia. I’m not familiar with either area, though, except for the Tower Theater in King-of-Prussia(?), where we went to see Duran Duran last year.

5

Austin has dozens of small venues for watching music.

When a big name acts like U2 or Springsteen come to Austin, they generally play at the Frank Erwin Center, where the U.T. Longhorns play basketball.

More often, the really big name acts skip Austin and play at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Selma (which is accessible from Austin, but is much closer to San Antonio), Texas.

The pretty-big name acts and nostalgia acts (say, Chicago, Yes, or generally play at the Back Yard, an outdoor venue way down South of Austin. A very nice venue, but if you’re playing there, it means you’re on your way up or on your way down.

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When I think close, I think anywhere in the state of Connecticut. that being said:

The meadows in Hartford. Big venue. It’s got a pavillion where the actual stage is located with a grassy general admission area outside (for big shows).

The Oakdale is a slightly smaller, all indoor venue in Wallingford. Generally used for quieter shows.

The Webster is another small indoor venue. It’s generally a place for bands that are comin’ up or goin’ down

That’s all I can think of now, I’m fairly certain that there are more, though.

7

In Greensboro we have the following:

  • Aces Basement, which is a place underneath a local motel that houses semi-national faux punk young adult bands like Underoath, Emery, Taking Back Sunday and the like.
  • Several places that function like venues at times. This includes places like Tate Stree Coffee, Gate City Noise, and even Fincastles - a restaurant that some of my friends played at recently.
  • Greensboro Colliseum, which is a huge place where all the washed up has beens practice washed up has been music.

In the Raleigh area (hello MagicEyes et al) we have the following:
-Cats Cradle, which is a pretty decent smaller venue for more popular people, although not pop stars, to play pretty decent sets. This is mostly for indie stars.

  • A large cellphone sponsored thing.

In the Charlotte area we have something similar to the Raleigh area; a large amplitheatre and a smaller indie venue.

Also, in the mountains (hello Left Hand of Dorkness) we have the Orange Peel, which features really cool bands like Arcade Fire and TMBG. But, they have age restrictions.

No one comes to North Carolina and it makes me sad.

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Hey homey, I can help ya!
What about The Masonic, Det Opera House and The State Theater? Meadowbrook, Jerome Duncan Ford, Majestic, Gem Theater, Harpo’s, Emerald Theater, Macomb Center for the Performing Arts, Clutch Cargo’s, St.Andrew’s Hall, Royal Oak Music Theatre or The Magic Bag?

We got’s culture, yes we do, we got’s culture, how bout you? :smiley:

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I think there is an opera house in Cairo. They do at the pyramids there from time to time. Other than that you have to up to Beirut.

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In Boise, there’s the Big Easy Concert House. It’s kinda small, but it’s easy to work your way through the pit and get up close to the performers. That’s where I saw GWAR and Mindless Self Indulgence (and how I gave a cigarette to Little Jimmy Urine).

There’s also the University Pavilion, which I have never been to.

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Here in Anderson, there’s the Camarata. It’s a coffee-and-beer shop with a stage. During the day, it’s a music school with rooms for individual lessons. Downstairs, there’s a lounge where parents can listen to their kids’ lessons on headphones.

In Indianapolis, the top venue for jazz groups (Rippingtons, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Diane Schuur, Spyro Gyra) is the Indiana Roof Ballroom. It’s an elegant joint with tables of 10. The acoustics are splendid and groups love to play there. It’s a very old establishment; my in-laws wooed there in 1936.

For big venues, there’s the Conseco Fieldhouse, where the Pacers play. I hear it’s a fine hall for music (they change the acoustics for concerts,) and I have tix to see Mark Knopfler in July.

In summer, there’s a jazz and blues fest at three open air venues downtown. At the State Fair Grounds, there’s a series of shows at the Grandstand on the mile dirt track. Long ago, the (now Pepsi) Coliseum hosted the Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin, but I don’t think there’s music there now. The Pepsi Coliseum was Indy’s first corporate-named venue.

By far, the busiest big venue around here is Verizon Music Center, east southeast of Noblesville (formerly Deer Creek.) It’s an open air gig. The stage is under a roof, as is the front part of the audience. Behind the seats, there’s a lawn seating area.

For more intimate gigs, there’s The Jazz Kitchen, The Vogue, The Patio, Music Mill, Birdy’s, The Slippery Noodle and dozens more. Willie Nelson will play The Vogue this summer. The Slippery Noodle and Bonge’s in Perkinsville both claim to be the oldest bar in Indiana.

For quieter acts, there’s Clowes Hall, where I saw Donovan, Simon and Garfunkel, Andres Segovia, and Benny Goodman.

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Elvis Presley played his last show at Market Square Arena in Indy, which was demolished (and so was Elvis.) Jerry Garcia played his last show at Verizon Music Center. I’m not sure, but I think jazz vibrophonist Lionel Hampton played his last show at a small club in downtown Indy.

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San Francisco proper has the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, the Fillmore, the Great American Music Hall, Bimbo’s 365 Club, SBC Park, the Cow Palace, and Candlestick Park (home of the Beatles’ final show). It also has probably hundreds of smaller venues, like Bottom of the Hill, Last Day Saloon, and the Red Devil Lounge, which can be little more than a bar with a couple of boxes piled up and some electrical outlets around it that they call a stage. Sure enough, it’ll be booked on the weekend.

Outside the City, there’s the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View (near San Jose) and Concord Pavilion in Concord (northern East bay). Those are the two “traditional” concert venues… several semicircles of seating, with a lawn behind that. The San Jose Arena hosts a respectable number of concerts, as well. Oakland and Berkeley (and other towns, I’m sure) have numerous smaller bar/venues. Blake’s on Telegraph pops into mind.

I also feel I should mention the Catalyst and the Rio, in Santa Cruz (which again, has a bunch of shoehorned venues).

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Don’t forget the Warfield (where I just saw The Pixies perform this week), and Slim’s, one of the best standing-room-only venues in the area.

The Freight and Salvage, in Berkeley, is a great coffeeshop-type venue for smaller shows.

15

Orlando has the T.D. Waterhouse Center arena downtown for large acts, plus the Orlando Magic basketball games.

Other concert venues include the Hard Rock Live at Universal CityWalk and the House of Blues at Downtown Disney, and two downtown Orlando clubs that specialize in live music: the Social and the Backbooth. There are other smaller venues as well, but those are the main places I’d go to see bands.

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:smack:

Yes, there would be those as well. I’m such a ;j

Thanks, homie.

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What about furren doper concert venues?

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I live in the Washington, DC area. We’ve got:

Wolf Trap - Outdoor venue run by the National Park Service near Tyson’s Corner, Virginia. Small for an outdoor place, tends to get highbrow acts.

Nissan Pavilion: Outdoor, somewhere in the Virginia suburbs. Capacity of something like 15000 people. Tends to get large acts and some big summer concerts.

Merriwether Post Pavilion: Medium sized, outdoor, near Columbia Maryland. This is an old (at least 30 years old) venue, and hasn’t been getting particularly good shows the last few years.

Patriot Center: George Mason U’s center.

RFK Stadium: Though not so much now that DC has a baseball team.

930 Club - DC: Opened in 1980, moved to its current location in 1996. Gets medium-sized acts - absolutely horrible place to see a show, though.

Black Cat - DC: Similar to 930, but a bit smaller.

Birchmere - Alexandria, VA: Dinner-and-a-show kind of place. They book a lot of folk acts and reunion tours.