Ill start with the bad and end on a good note. The security here was awful!!! Rude and a little too efficient for their jobs. This was my first time at showbox and I would hesitate to see another show here. Upon entry my friend who I was with gets pulled aside asked for ID and asked to show the contents of her purse. Its not what they were doing to everyone else they asked her specifically. The man gave her lecture saying that if she is drunk she needs to keep her shit together", thing is we had yet to even begin drinking for the night. As we approach the front a woman took our tickets, ripped them out of my friends hand and stared at the both of us for a good long while then yelling at my friend saying "nobody wants to see her fucking ass and she can leave if she has a problem with that." Right before she was told that she had been adjusting her skirt and never once did her "ass" show, but yet they let two girls go in front of us with tiny little spandex boy shorts and their butt cheeks were literally hanging out of them, but they got let in no problem. The woman stood there glaring at my friend for awhile almost like she was waiting for her to say something nasty back to her so she could kick us out, I finally had to ask if she was going to let us in.
Right when we get in we head to the bar. I'm 24, almost 25 actually, but my ID is still the long ways because when I renewed my ID it was 2 days before my 21st birthday so the security guy checking ID to get in to the bar was skeptical, he stared for a long time asked me various questions about my info, what was my birthday, middle name, etc. Then had me sign my name on a piece of paper 3 times, and the man said it did not look like the compressed distorted one on my ID that I had signed over 3 years ago! So he calls his manager, we go through the same round of questions with many flashlights right in my face, this "manager" calls over his boss who then makes me step away from my friends so that Im by myself and threatens to take my ID from me. I told him to call the police, maybe they would be happy to verify my ID, I showed this man my 2 debit card, 2 credit cards and my damn costco card which had my pictures on them and my name. Thing is my ID picture you can clearly tell its me, I have very distinct features its not too hard to mistake. I kept asking him if he'd like me to step in the hallway where there was more light instead of using the tiny flashlight he kept using to blind me. The man finally let me in after over 15 minutes of this interrogation, it was quite ridiculous.
Then there was the bathroom security, where the woman in charge kept peeking through the cracks in the door and shining flashlights under the door (mind you the bathroom was a very lit place) to see what we were up to. I understand people probably do a lot of sketchy things at some of these show, but c'mon people its a little overboard!!!!!
I made my way up close to the front but stayed off to the side where a security guard was practically hovering over me the whole time. I just wanted to scream, "whats with you people!" Im not a suspicious looking person, I wasn't doing anything that could have even made myself possibly even look suspicious, I was only trying to enjoy the music NOT be babysat the whole time, jeez!
Now the good. The space in the Venue is awesome! Sound was great! They kept it really cool to handle all the heat from sweaty hot dancing people. I like that the bar had windows so you could watch the show at the same time, my madras was pretty weak so I stuck with beer after that. The bar staff was excellent though as far as the attitudes, very friendly despite the crowd of people. I like that they have a bathroom with a good number of stalls, even though there was alway a bathroom line it went pretty quick.
Overall I would avoid this place, unless there was a show I was absolutely dying to see. read more