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| - Saw another show here after being away for a while, and while the band was great, this venue seems to be coasting downhill on its past laurels (half of which don't even pertain to this club location but to the legendary previous club of the same name over by Cleveland State that was torn down many years ago).
I can handle the fact that the club was only letting people in the front, meaning that if you parked in the back you had to hike all around the building rather than being let in the back door as they had done in the past.
I raised my eyebrows at the 15 dollar fee for parking in the club lot, as that's more than I pay to park in Philadelphia, an area where pay-to-park is much, much more common than it is in Cleveland. Given that the show ticket alone cost 30 bucks plus fees, I would think an additional 15 bucks to park was high for a fancy new Flats development, let alone for this dump out in the middle of nowhereland with no other restaurants, bars or shops in sight. I proceeded to bypass the pay lot and park on the street about a half block from the back of the club, and as I figured this did not result in my car getting broken into or stripped during the several hours I was inside. (I don't leave anything interesting looking in the car when I exit and it does have an alarm system).
What really made me hot and bothered (and not in a good way) was the extreme lack of cooling or ventilation inside this building. I note that there have been painfully few improvements to the building in the time since it opened; no comfortable seating or any amenities, really, added, it's just a big old concrete warehouse. You would think it would be cool, at least in the bar/ merch hall where there is open space as opposed to the pit where 500 sweaty people are fist-pumping energetically to the band, You would think this especially when the temperature outside, as shown by my dashboard thermometer, was in the mid-70s with a slight breeze. Instead, the bar and merch hall were like a sauna. I hung out there to watch the opener and by the time the headliner came on I could have entered a wet t-shirt contest. This is the only venue where the pit area was actually several degrees COOLER than the large high-ceilinged hall outside the band room. If it's this bad on a cool night then I can imagine how bad it gets in there on hot nights.
And the cherry on top was the doorman getting all uptight when I asked him (after showing up looking middle aged and dead solid sober and spending all of 1 and a half minutes in handing over my ID, getting my wristband, and getting my ticket scanned, and having no line behind me since I arrived 2 hours into the evening and I'd say 90 percent of attendees were already inside) "Who's playing now, Band X?" I ask this question at a lot of venues when I arrive late and there are several bands on the bill (four on this particular night). Most door people have a list at the door and cross off each band as it finishes or else just know from seeing/ hearing. i would expect an answer like "Yup, Band X just went on" or "Band Y is on" or even "I don't know" (since I could sort of tell by looking at Door Guy that he probably didn't go home and crank the particular genre of the evening up on his stereo to relax). I did NOT expect to get a response of the guy barking "Look, I said Enjoy the Show! Now c'mon, let's go!" shooing me inside like I had asked him 20 personal questions or there was a line around the block behind me or like I was contemplating wandering out on the street rather than going in. I have no idea what was going through the man's mind but I don't need his attitude on top of the 110 degree temperature in this dive.
I already tend to avoid this place since it is a longer local drive for me than most clubs other than the Beachland, and the Beachland is a much homier and friendlier joint with excellent food and free parking. Unfortunately, between the temperature, the parking fee, the bare-bones nature of the club and the weird employees, the Agora is not doing much to make me want to go there.
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