Favorite place you have seen live bands?

[Jind]

So - all this old school metal talk in the other thread made me start reminiscing about days long ago when I went to a ton of shows on a very regular basis at all sorts of venues. It made me wonder about the place all of you have been for shows and what were your favorites? Do you like small club shows, large arena affairs, or huge outdoor festivals - how do you like to see your metal performed?

I've never been one for the big US festivals - only been to one Ozzfest and had a less than stellar time - I tend to prefer my metal in more intimate settings. I've been fortunate enough to have seen some of the big names of the past and present in some small venues and had a head-bangingly great time.

My favorite venue is probably the now long closed and demolished Agora Ballroom in West Hartford, CT. It was a former bowling alley turned live music hall where many a band on their way up and down the musical ladder played when coming to Connecticut. It had two rooms - one large room that could hold upwards of 5,000 people, and a second room (the one I more often found myself in) that would hold maybe 1500 max people. It had great sound - a nice wooden stage about 4 feet off the ground - NO RAILING, you could get right up against the stage. It had a bar in the back for the over 21 crowd, but it was an 16 and over only place if I recall.

In that venue I saw Metallica - Ride the Lightning tour, Megadeth - Peace Sell tour, Anthrax (way too many times to count - went through a period they were opening for every band), Motorhead (I was stationed directly below Phil Campbell - he sweats like a mother fucker and i was getting soaked the whole show long), this show also was the loudest show I've ever been to, Twisted Sister - several times (they played there several New years Eve's in a row - once I remember it was with Ratt and Lita Ford opening), Yngwie J. Malmsteen - Marching Out tour, Metal Church, WASP, a CT band called Joined Forces (my brother lived with their singer named John Cryer for several years) and lord knows how many other headlining and opening bands and other acts outside of metal - I saw Peter Gabriel there as well.

It was a great place to go see a show - it had a huge parking lot that you would hang out early for every show - drink, get high, do whatever. Fights would happen all the time, but it was still the best.

Here is a video a guy did last year before they demolished it - watching this brought back some good memories despite it being a trash heap now - it was the best place back in it's day.



That's my favorite place - whats yours?

 

[J.DavisNJ]

Tough one, but my answer is a bit obscure.

Local VFW hall! For the Euros, it's a "Veterans of Foreign Wars" hall for old time WWII and Vietnam vets, they'll have meetings, rent it out, etc. This place 5 minutes from my house used to book the BEST hardcore bands. I used to be super into hardcore.

I saw Shutdown and a zillion other bands there once. The show was on the floor, they didn't use the stage. I've never seen more kids going nuts in a dilapitated building in my life. The energy was incredible!

Other than that one, which brings back lots of memories, I'd say L'Amours in Brooklyn. I saw Kreator, Destruction, Cephalic Carnage, and a bunch of other bands there. They place just reaked of vibe. Megadeth and Metallica used to play there in the 80's. Awesome place.


Joe

 

[Trevoire520]

The Barrowlands in Glasgow is my favourite venue personally. Used to be a ballroom before it was a venue, holds just under 2000 people (all standing) It looks like a complete dump but the atmosphere is always awesome.

Donnington before it moved out of the racetrack was awesome too.

 

[Skinny Viking]

A place right in center city Philly called The Trocadero. Best venue for metal bands IMO

other than that, the Wacken fest has high marks from me. Not just for the atmosphere and all involved but I was surprised at how the good the sound actually was

 

[Nuno Filipe]

Well, the best it´s from my sofa

 

[Jind]

Well, the best it´s from my sofa

While it might be nice to see the occasional musician sitting right in front of me in the studio (if I recorded people other than myself), I would rather see metal with a couple of hundred or more head banging, sweating, metal-heads like myself - the more the merrier.

 

[Chris_P_Critter]

many years ago, my favorite place was coney island high in nyc

 

[colonel kurtz]

A place right in center city Philly called The Trocadero. Best venue for metal bands IMO

other than that, the Wacken fest has high marks from me. Not just for the atmosphere and all involved but I was surprised at how the good the sound actually was

hmm...i've heard the trocadero is a shithole. never been there myself though, so i dunno

my fav. venues would have to be probably SLO brew in san luis obispo, CA...saw isis there twice and DEP once - converge are also hitting there on their upcoming tour, but i don't live there any more

i was also really impressed with the lifestyles pavillion in colombus, OH. i caught that high on fire/converge/mastodon/dethklok tour there, and it was extremely intimate and small feeling for a venue that holds 4,000+ heads.

 

[DolphinSplatter]

Churchill's pub!
It's all about the punky grime and the crackheads directing traffig <333

 

[roy22341]

A place right in center city Philly called The Trocadero. Best venue for metal bands IMO

other than that, the Wacken fest has high marks from me. Not just for the atmosphere and all involved but I was surprised at how the good the sound actually was

I loved the Troc. Saw the filming of Killadelphia there, as well as Nile, Black Dahlia Murder and Behemoth.

Tower Theater is great too for certain kinds of shows. I saw Tool there, Primus, and the Smashing Pumpkins - all three of which were fantastic.

Crocodile Rock up in Allentown has had some great concerts in its day, too. I'm gonna try to make it back up to Allentown in April for the Between the Buried and Me show there.

I miss living near Philly.

Only was ever at the Bowery Ballroom in NYC once and it was to see Metallica. Needless to say it was awesome.

 

[Wolfeman]

Man there was a place I used to go to all the time when I was in grade school/high school, kinda carries the same story as the place in the OP. It was called the Flying Machine in Lorain, Ohio. We used to go see Chimaira and Mushroomhead there all the time before they both got signed. They would play shows twice a month sometimes. I also got to see some huge bands there(I considered them huge at the time), like Machine Head and Fear Factory, Napalm Death, Six Feet Under, Sepultura, Cannibal Corpse, Emperor, Dimmu Borgir, and way to many local bands to list. They never had good ventilation in that place (and it was VERY small), so even in the winter everyone would be shirtless, and you could never see through the smoke cloud in the place. So many memories there like my first mosh pit, crowd surf, and stage dive. Too bad it's not around anymore.

 

[Skinny Viking]

hmm...i've heard the trocadero is a shithole. never been there myself though, so i dunno

There's actually 2 clubs in the Troc. The main theater room for the main stage and then a small shithole stage in the bar upstairs where they have the after parties. I've played both ... upstairs bar has its "charm" but the main stage is where its at. Like Roy said, you can check the LOG dvd or even (old school) I think it was called the Ultimate Revenge vhs tape(!) that had Forbidden, Faith or Fear and I think Death ... all at the Troc

Any show I see there always sounds great and its a great stage to play on as far as stage sound and comfort

 

[Torniojaws]

Club Teatria in Oulu is quite nice usually. It has a really intimate mood during smaller shows (with the small venue in use, instead of the big one), and not too many people, so you have lots of space, good sound and you get close to the bands

 

[Harry Hughes]

I prefer small gigs.
I saw Meshuggah and Whitechapel (and unfortunately this really gay metalcore band that was thereuke at a fairly small club venue last week and it was just immense.
Meshuggah just fucking melted my face off.
It was just so awesome to be less than 10 meters away from the band and watching them in action, just a great atmosphere and vibe.

I hope to see Katatonia in Australia one day in a fairly small venue (not that they'll be able to get a gig in a big venue anyway), that would be so amazing.

 

[JayB]

The Troc was cool, Electric Factory was cool , I just recently saw Metallica at MSG but the sound was a bit off , great performance though

 

[Skinny Viking]

The Troc was cool, Electric Factory was cool , I just recently saw Metallica at MSG but the sound was a bit off , great performance though

Never liked Electric Factory ... acoustics in there always seem horrible unless you're in the perfect spot

Tower is a pretty cool venue also. Saw Sabbath there like 15 years ago with Dio singing (Prong opened). Killer show and it sounded awesome

 

[plague_rider]

I'd say Revolution, Fort Lauderdale

Saw Gojira, Machine Head, Trivium erk and Lamb of God on the Sacrament tour


It was smack bang in the middle of a holiday to Florida which consisted of lots of trips to Wal-Mart, Copius amounts of Dew, Steak, BBQing, Jack Daniels at ridiculously low rates, Busch Gardens, and chilling into the early hours floating on airbeds in my mates pool while smoking cigars and drinking the Jack

Speeding down the highway in a black pickup blasting Testament/Metallica/Lamb of God/Machine Head - Priceless

 

[Jind]

My second favorite place to see live bands is at the famous Toad's place in New Haven, CT. Another smaller venue, but a great one none the less. It's got an odd configuration - more wide then long, but it also has a pretty wide stage. I've seen everything there from Joe Satriani, the Dixie Dregs, Steve Vai, Black Sabbath w/ Motorhead and Morbid Angel, Trivium w/ All that Remains and 36 Crazyfists to name the ones I remember off hand. I know there are others, but those are a good place to start. Toad's has a wonderful vibe to it - you know so many greats have played there, the posters are all over the top of the center section up by the ceiling. Since going mostly all ages now, it has railing separating the over 21 section to the back, but still gives you plenty of room to enjoy the show.

Another locations for the less rowdy concerts is the Oakdale down in Wallingford - I've seen Dream Theater a few times there - the sound is simply amazing there. There are very few bad seats in that place and the sound more than makes up for the more calm nature of the place.