Venue

[jehu]

This was prompted by the 'Gigs' thread, and made me think of the best places that I've seen bands play. Think in terms of all the obvious shit like capacity (if that matters to you, and it can work both ways), sound system, and the less obvious factors such as atmosphere, history, and so on.

My votes would be:

The Casbah, San Diego, USA: Small place (which I prefer), great staff, has hosted amazing bands over the years, and a relatively well-equipped venue.

Star and Garter, Manchester, UK: Small again, dirty (par for the course I guess), but usually a great atmosphere as well as fairly decent sound.

 

[Xtro 2.0]

CBGB's, New York.

Place of legend, legend still to be found there too. The Ramones, New York Dolls, Blondie right through to the Strokes, Fugazi, The Faint etc - fantastic gigs there.

Over here I'd have to say Rock City in Nottingham used to be very good until about 5 years ago. Sheffield Leadmill isn't bad either.

Arenas are for Ice Hockey games or Celine Dion rockthrowing contests, not for gigs.

 

[doh_boy]

Originally posted by jehu


Star and Garter, Manchester, UK: Small again, dirty (par for the course I guess), but usually a great atmosphere as well as fairly decent sound.

The only bad point being that you have to walk through the red light district to get to it.

 

[Xtro 2.0]

Re: Re: Venue

Originally posted by doh_boy
The only bad point being that you have to walk through the red light district to get to it.

I missed the part where that's a BAD thing?

 

[throdgrain]

I used to like the Rainbow in Finsbury Park.

 

[hoggsboss]

brixton academy is the best venue i have been to in london, thanks to the sloping floor you can see from pretty much anywhere and there always seems to be a great atmosphere inside.

oh and having bars inside the concert hall itself helps too

went to the ally pally for a gig last week and although i feared the worst it turned out to be a pretty good venue, coming out afterwards to that view of london is a rather nice bonus too.

 

[Swift^]

Astoria. Bit ugly and stuff, but it's nice and intimite - good sound - and very loud.

Brixton academy. Nice venue, great sloped floor.

The Sanctuary, Milton Keynes. Just plain ace.

Fabric. Uber ace, really nice design, top sound - tad dark though, and crowd can sometimes be a bit iffy.

 

[GDW]

The Marquee, London