The Historic Ashland Armory is indeed a barn of a building, and I should know being from Iowa. It's also not to be confused with the current Armory that's a few miles walk away. That's where you'll find the Rogue Valley Growers Market on Tuesdays. I've walked by, I've entered, and I've been entertained. And back in the Summer of 2011, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) hosted several performances here after the Angus Bowmer theater was suddenly closed due to structural issues. read more

Love this venue for smaller shows as the sound guy has it ideal for the size! not sure what people are thinking when they give it anything less then rave reviews as it's a GEM! The management team is outstanding as have met them many times and has always been a positive experience. I love seeing shows and then we got the fair the comes at Christmas also. Have had friends use in the past for weddings and said it turned out wonderful. Ashland Armory is one of my favorite places in Ashland..."nuff said" read more

I've been to this Venue many times within the last 9 months for shows. Last night was one of them. There was 2 bands last night and I arrived a bit after 8pm. There's no ins and outside yet I had to leave for a bit due to women's issues(10 mins maybe) and was willing to pay or whatever to get back in to see the Headliner (Turkuaz) When I tried to get back in I was denied. Kicked out. I have NEVER been kicked out of anywhere. I was nice. They were not. read more

Will never come here to see a show again. 1. Don't expect that if u bought tix in advance, that they will have a different line. 2. Don't expect they'll have enough people at the door to take tix. No, you'll have to wait 1/2 hour to get in. 3. Don't expect that their will be a place to sit and watch the show. No. All those seats are taken 4. Don't expect the performers to be any good. We just walked out of the place 3 songs into the Beatles / Stones revival. The Mick Jagger character sang flat. Does this venue do anything to ensure the quality of the acts? Guess not. I'd have thought a venue owned by a former mayor and current state legislator would be more respectful of its audiences. Guess not. read more

I've tried to go see a couple shows here where I had very negative experiences with the people working the door. The venue sells alcohol and so they need people to show identification before entering. The first time I came I was not aware of this and was a little annoyed that I had to walk back to my car for my ID. When I returned they told me that my water bottle had to be empty before I entered. It was good water that I had made sure to fill up before I came, and so this annoyed me further. At this point I wasn't sure anymore if I was interested in going to the show so I asked if I could just stand at the door and listen for a minute to help me decide. They didn't seem to understand my question and just told me I couldn't stay in the lobby and had to go outside. At that point I gave up and went home. Just now I tried to go see another concert and I think I may have left my ID at home in the coat pocket i had been wearing last time I tried to come here. I pleaded with the door guard to work with me some how. I suggested they give me some kind of no alcohol pass so the bar would know I am not interested in them and they are not allowed to sell to me. They seem unwilling to work with me on a human level and just keep reciting stringent rules. Now both of these shows I have left without going inside. I have no interest in the alcohol and now i feel excluded from the music because someone choose it over me. read more

Went to see Eric McFadden last night at the Armory. Thank God we are friends of Eric's for were we not, we would have left right away. We arrived to the Armory, quite early (8pm) and parked in the assigned parking lot. Before we went in we had a cigarette outside and some guy who was clearly a bouncer told us that we had to present id's as soon as we got inside. He wasn't rude although not particularly friendly either, but it felt like we were being addressed by airport security before a flight. We go inside. To my horror, they were asking for $25 as a cover charge. There was also a VIP room price. Fortunately for us, we were on the guest list. There were two girls at the entrance sitting at a table taking the moneys in and checking the lists, a brunette and a blond. The brunette to my right was very pleasant, helpful and smiling. The blond girl sitting next to her was clearly wasted. As we were checked in and the blond girl was writing on people's hands to indicate they had paid, she looks at me with swimming eyes and says, "did you pay?", after she had just witnessed her partner looking us up on the list. Just sloshed. As we walked in past the coat check, the coat check girl being very polite, there were some other girls selling what looked like chocolates. I looked at them and neither of them smiled or looked back at us... more like blank stares. We get into the hall. It was COLD in there. The hall is more like a gymnasium. The "VIP Room" was a section of the floor to the left of the stage which had no real partition, no one checking for passes, a few folding chairs and a few beer stands manned by colorful looking hippies donning wings and silly but fun costumes. Aside from being pissed off already that anyone had to pay $25 to get into the joint while being made to feel so unwelcome, it pissed me off even more to think that anyone had to pay extra to be in that "VIP Room". What a joke. To the back of the room was a table where many beautiful crystals were laid out. I looked at the person sitting behind the table. She didn't look at me. I said, "Hello there." and she said nothing. My girlfriend asked, "are these for sale?" and the woman replied, "Yes - everything on the table is for sale." No smile, just that blank stare. Was not inclined to buy anything from her although she really did have some beautiful pieces. The first band, "100 Watt Mind", who started 20 minutes late, started to play and the acoustics, as one could expect in a gymnasium that was only holding some 30 people at that point, were absolutely ghastly. The drumset was a backline kit that was not well tuned and sounded like it had some super cheap cymbals like Sabian B8's or something. Because of all the reverberation from the room being so empty, if you were standing too far back from the stage, it just sounded like a cacophony of 200hz noise. I want to say that the sound was horrific and the sound engineer didn't have a clue what he/she was doing - but again, the room acoustics were so appalling that I feel like it'd be unfair to him/her to say that - but the sound was crap. My girl and I went out for a smoke. She was wearing a backpack purse. I put my coat on her to keep her warm and as we were coming back in, someone from security, an African American female ran up to us and asked my girlfriend what she had under the jacket. I put my coat back on, revealing her small back pack purse and she asks to check its contents. I asked her, "are you serious?". She checked the contents of my girl's backpack, didn't apologize or say anything like, "sorry for the hassle" and just walked away. Talk about feeling unwelcome. Does anyone really think someone wants to blow up the Armory? A little less enthusiasm please... The half time show was a couple of amateurs doing some act that involved a piece of curtain hanging from the ceiling a la Cirque de Soleil. Strictly amateur. I tried not to look because the performer didn't really look like he knew what he was doing and I was more stressed by the prospect of having to witness him breaking his neck than I was interested in actually watching his act. He was wearing a wife beater and jeans. $25 worth? My girlfriend bought some of the chocolates and shared them with me. They were dry and tasteless. Into the garbage they went. The guy and girl manning the beer station at the back were the highlight. Super friendly, big smiles. Aside from too much dead air time between acts, at one point there were "dancers" on the stage, one of whom was dressed at her sluttiest who proceeded to take off her top exposing her breasts. Fun is all good and well but if I want to see titties I'll go to a strip club. Definitely not $25 worth. I never want to go back there. It was a disgrace to the service industry, the music industry and any other industry that is supposed to be dedicated to making people feel good and welcome. read more

I attended a First Friday event here hosted by Live at the Armory. I bought three drinks for my group at the bar. There were only ten people in the whole place. The audio for the DJ kept giving feedback and the person running the soundboard looked confused and couldn't seem to fix it. The staff then went around and told everyone to pay $10 or leave. Needless to say we left. The music was bad, the place was empty and the staff was petty. It seems like pretty bad business to kick out the only three people who are spending money and buying drinks. I will never go here again. My friends who were visiting town left with a bad impression of Ashland. read more

The staff are rude, the shows are disorganized, they completely ruined our New Year and we paid $40 a ticket! It will take a miracle for me to ever see a show here again. read more

Big barn of a building near downtown Ashland, this is the main venue for big shows that are in town for an evening or two, plus some permanent office space. The main public space has a stage, big open floor area that works for dances, dinners, seasonal craft markets, and presentations. It's used during the Ashland Independent Film Festival for the really BIG shows because is seats about 500 for those shows, with a 30-foot screen. It's a good venue, but the flat seating is a problem when you're at the back. Risers for the Film Festival would be prohibitively expensive, I'm told. read more

Assholes. There were continual fights at the front since the first opening band (of three bands) and nobody did anything. The bitch inside checking IDs was in a bad mood or something, but she was the nastiest person I've ever seen in my life. Tribal Seeds naught have been a good show but the venue ruined it. read more

I will never go to this place again. We went for an Acoustic Brett Dennen concert on Valentines Day and they overbooked the place. It was the WORST. There were so many people you couldn't move. We had some jerk standing next to us who backed into me twice and spilled my wine on me. When I said "please give us some space" he tried to fight my husband. So we moved. Anytime you moved through the crowd someone called you a hostile name. Not only was I annoyed but the performer was expecting an intimate show and was visually uncomfortable. read more

we had an amazing wedding and reception last night at the Armory. Abby and Tyler were so helpful and made everything run smoothly. Everything was beautiful from the tent to the requested lighting. Our caterer had ample space and our photographer was able to get some amazing shots in and around the building. The cool temperature inside was also a blessing on such a hot summer night. We also appreciated the dressing rooms to keep our Bride and Groom separate until the big reveal. Such a great night!! read more