Favorite Venues

[Brody]

What's your favorite venue to catch a live show and why?

[Hollerin Ben]

being out here in LA my favorites are

Safari Sam's - great stage, good sounding room. and they have an awesome Americana Brunch every sunday where it's free admission. Also, they have a parking lot. The value of this in Hollywood cannot be overestimated.

The cinema bar in Culver city - again, they have parking. plus its a super small room, which is great for that whole intimate performance thing.

Pappy and Harriet's in Pioneertown (by Joshua Tree) - this is an awesome old fort style place. The food is really good, and the crowd is always really excited, which makes a gig more fun to be at.

The Echoplex - makes country music look super duper fancy in a good way.

[Stormy]

Threadgills--outdoors with the softest grass known to man.

[Funk]

The Gorge at George, Washington is pretty nice. Also, Redrocks in Colorado. A surprise to me was Boulder Station (The Railhead, I think is the name of the actual venue) in Las Vegas. But my very favorites have been Big Head Todd and the Monsters in a 3 bdrm house in Boulder, CO, every other weekend for a year and Liz Phair in her apartment in Chicago. Think Flower up close and personal.

[Lucas]

Actually, The Ralph Engelstad arena in my hometown. You haven't seen an arena until you've been there. Leather seats that are $120 each, $10 million college mascots made of italian marble on the floor entrances, the place is basically a palace built for hockey and a great place for a concert.

[Matt B]

The Gorge Amphitheater is an amazing venue nestled inside the Columbia river basin (it is similar to Red Rocks). It's in George, Washington. It's just cool to watch shows there.

EDIT: I didn't see funk's post there! haha

[Kelly]

Gruene Hall dure was great as far as the whole "historic" vibe is concerned, but I'll take the Granada theater in Dallas for its exceptional talent booking (Lucinda Williams, Avetts, Jeff Tweedy, Ralph Stanley, OCMS, Dale Watson), great sound, and friendly staff...not to mention it's a beautiful, old historic theater.

[Matt C]

The Ryman Auditorium, hands down. I pay a "Ryman premium" in that there are many shows that I pay to attend at the Ryman that I wouldn't pay to attend at any other venue. Several reasons:

1. By far the best acoustics of any venue that I've experienced. For electric music the Ryman is merely excellent, while for acoustic music it is, I believe, the best venue in the world. You can hear things vividly without the loudness that characterizes many acoustic listening halls (e.g., the Schermerhorn Symphony Hall in Nashville is excellent for symphonic music but they've had a few bluegrass/country concerts there and they sound terrible because the venue is wound far too tightly; you can hear every bit of fret noise).

2. A small venue with no bad seats (provided that you stay away from the significant number of obstructed view seats).

3. The most historic venue for country and bluegrass music in the world and it's maintained most of its famous features: e.g., church pews and stained glass windows.

4. The best and most informed audiences that I've ever experienced.

5. The frequency of surprise guest appearances at major shows.

6. The obvious reverence that most artists feel for the venue, which elevates many shows to a new level.

[Stormy]

You have that here too, because Stubbs is the huge venue in Austin, but overall I like the accoustics and set up of The Parish better.

[Swcj]

Not many near me...There is Four Street Live in Louisville and this one place near Kentucky Kingdom. I have only seen three Country Conerts was at Four Street Live...it a free Jamey Johnson. Brad Paisley was seen in West Virginia which had a good auditorium. number three was last year at the CMAfest.

[Brody]

I'm a fan of the smaller venues:

Gruene Hall is nice during the week when they usually book the smaller bands and you can sit at the tables. Otherwise it's standing room only on the weekends. Still a cool atmosphere though.

Caught a show at the Cactus Cafe last night and loved the vibe of the place. Intimate would be a good word to describe it.

The smaller outdoor stage at Nutty Brown Cafe is a cool place to catch some music.

The Continental Club is nice, but gets crowded fast.

The Paramount Theater has good sound, but the seating is cramped.

And there's still plenty of places around here I haven't had a chance to check out yet.

[Stormy]

I'm a fan of the smaller venues:

Gruene Hall is nice during the week when they usually book the smaller bands and you can sit at the tables. Otherwise it's standing room only on the weekends. Still a cool atmosphere though.

Caught a show at the Cactus Cafe last night and loved the vibe of the place. Intimate would be a good word to describe it.

The smaller outdoor stage at Nutty Brown Cafe is a cool place to catch some music.

The Continental Club is nice, but gets crowded fast.

The Paramount Theater has good sound, but the seating is cramped.

And there's still plenty of places around here I haven't had a chance to check out yet.

I will say down here there are a lot of good theatres to see music because of two factors:
1. For all that it gets crowded the fans go to enough concerts that they have a fairly good sense of etticate.
2. The venues were built to house music so you can actually hear it.

[Sam G]

In Chicago where I used to live, it was Fitzgerald's. Great little bar in Berwyn that has an eclectic music calendar and a cozy, intimate feel. In Atlanta (technically Decatur), Eddie's Attic is my favorite, especially because the venue and attendees have no tolerance for people who insist on talking through a performance or leaving their cell phone on.

As far as larger venues go, I like the Tabernacle and Variety Playhouse, both in Atlanta. The Tabernacle is a former church and House of Blues before becoming an independent venue. It's dumpy and rat-infested (according to Colin Meloy, at least), but it has character. Variety mostly has Broadway touring productions, but it is a perfect place for catching a concert. Nice comfy seats, too.

[scooter]

Backyard in Austin was nice. I'll second the tabernacle in Atlanta. Caravan of Dreams was cool in the 90's in fort worth.

[galleybrad]

Gruene Hall
Cheatham Street
Mucky Duck
Love and War-Plano
Cactus Cafe

For focus on the songs and songwriting...nothing is better than Clubhouse Concerts in Fort Worth on a Sunday night. It has been in several locations...right now it's in the upper room of the White Elephant down in the Stockyards...their slogan is "Sit Down. Shut Up. Listen." and they will not tolerate anyone disobeying the rules! Saw Jason Eady, Owen Temple, Adam Carroll and Modern Day Drifters in there last night. Always good shows there.

[Brody]

Gruene Hall
Cheatham Street
Mucky Duck
Love and War-Plano
Cactus Cafe

I've wanted to check out Cheatham Street for a while just because of all the awesome artists who've gotten a start there, but for one reason or another I haven't done it yet. If the atmosphere of the venue matches the talent of the artists though, I'll have to bump it up on my list of priorities.