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Nobody has reviewed this place, so I'll be the first. I'll give you my perspective so if you come here for a concert, you'll know what to expect. I didn't have any idea when I came and would have liked some idea what the setup was. I've never been to a concert venue like this. It was difficult to find. I used my GPS and still ended up in a Meijer parking lot. Then a Menards parking lot. This was during the daytime. If you come, the venue is down any one of a couple small access roads off of Wendell Jacobs Ave or Wayne Street, NW of that intersection. My GPS was very confused by this. Part of the reason I had trouble was because I was looking for, you know, a concert venue. Because it is indeed a concert venue. But from the outside it looked more like a semi run down clubhouse at a public golf course or maybe a VFW post. It's a small, one story building. Mostly unpaved parking lot. About 25 people were waiting in line outside before the doors opened. Security frisks you, and I do mean FRISKS you. No metal detectors. A dude at the door checks and scans the ticket. Those who paid for "orchestra" seating enter and go the left. Those who paid for the GA cheap seats go the right. The two lanes are roped off. The stage is about what you'd expect at a small venue that also serves as a bar. The "orchestra" seating area is basically like 10-12 rows of maybe 20 folded chairs. The area behind it is roped off, and that's the GA standing room only area. One room, with a flat surface floor, so I'm not sure how the people in the back can see anything on the stage. I guess they do. I paid for row A orchestra seating. That's the front, separated from the stage by a thick row of metal fencing. Beyond that is a walkway maybe 3-4 feet wide. Security walks through it periodically throughout the show and grabs guitar picks flicked by the performers that OF COURSE are too light to make it across the walkway, over the metal fencing, and into the seating area. But the security people refuse to hand them to anyone. They just fling them into the seating area, which causes people to tumble all over each other, anyone else nearby, and the folded chairs as they make their desperate attempt to grab a pick. I was extremely put off by that kind of BS. Even with the separation of the fencing and aisle/walkway, you're VERY close to the stage in row A, and if the performer is standing at the front of it, you're within maybe 6-7 feet of whoever you're watching (in my case, Yngwie Malmsteen, which was a TRIP). An important thing to know - the seats in each row aren't assigned. You buy row A seats, you get to sit in row A. But you may be sitting in one of the two corners of the row, pretty far from the action for a front row seat, if others have beat you to the seats in the middle. So either get there early or buy a ticket to sit in one of the rows further back so you have a better shot of sitting in the middle and seeing the stage better. Security also appeared to allow people (buddies?) from the GA area to come stand up front for a while. Some of the buddies didn't behave. I had a drunk women next to me who came up a couple times and kept ramming into me, then laughing. She was excruciatingly irritating, particularly since she didn't belong there. There's a bar behind the GA seating area, and it has its own area where people can stand (not sit, I saw no tables anywhere). I don't know what the drink prices were, I didn't want to risk losing my seat, which was toward the middle of the row. There's no way to save your seat, it would just be how lucky you are that no one decides that your seat is now their seat by the time you come back. One other note, if photography is your thing, you'll be disappointed. No use of anything beyond a camera phone. I read online that this doubles as a wedding venue. I suppose someone could gussy it up a bit, but this would not be what I'd call a posh locale for your nuptials. In the end, it was an interesting experience to go to a show with a name performer and be that close for under $100. But if it hadn't been someone I really really wanted to see, I'd have been completely underwhelmed by the venue, and I don't intend to return to this venue ever, ever again. read more
2 years ago
