Despite it being one of the closer concert venues and live houses to me, I've never been until…read morerecently. Really cheap parking nearby, but you have to download an app, so make sure you have good connection. Lots of extra steps but it was only $2, so not bad! Despite circling around, it was not as easy to get parking like the other down town city concert venues that we've gone to, but no biggie. It was literally right across the street from the venue.
We went to go and see the Japanese visual kei band, Jiluka, and people were lined up almost 10 hours before the concert started (vibes for SoCal way different than that of NorCal), so arriving 2 hours before the concert started, unless I shoved myself and moshed to the front, I knew it was cooked, but I got a really good spot on the second floor balcony and the staff was nice enough to point out where to stand to get a great view. Restrooms and the merchandise tables were all on the second floor. The back of the first floor was a bar and in the entrance to the side was also a bar too, I think.
Security is way tighter here than all of the other 3 venues I went to to go see concerts during the week, so I'm sure shenanigans have occurred. No canned drinks in certain areas, no chains (definitely warranted this warning since lots of people dressed alt for this show and had to go return things to their cars, etc.), and no re-entry after the concert was over, so we couldn't get the Chiikawa Jiluka freebie that someone was passing out. Boo!
The concert stage is bizarrely in the corner, but the sound quality was nice enough. I was definitely able to hear the vocalist better at this venue than I was at the NorCal stop, but the lighting was definitely better at the last event.
Even though I didn't risk it in the pit this time, I walked out when people were still there and if I was there during the concert, even with my elevated shoes, it would be much more difficult to view the stage than at the other venues that I've been to. It definitely got super crowded and unlike the other venues, there's also a gap between the crowds and the stage, so security was definitely making sure people weren't crowd surfing onto the stage, but it also meant that when the artist threw something in the crowd, some of them had to jump down, grab it, and try again.
My biggest qualm was how HOT it was. Even from the second floor balcony, near a fan, and with it not being super crowded up there, I was sweating. I can't imagine what it's like for the people in the pit.
Overall, not awful, but there's better venues out there in SoCal.