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| - *Edited: I've updated this review after the concert, including my long discussion with a manager after the show. I did not change my star rating, however, because overall my experience was not great and I don't know that I would go back no matter who is playing. I know that ratings are important to businesses, and I don't give poor ratings lightly. But this was my experience.
Let me start off by saying the good things about this place. First, the staff were all very friendly. Everyone was really great from a security guard (who, while walking through the crowd, didn't just say "excuse me" but said "Hi folks. How are you doing? Are you having a good night? Good, good." ) to the manager who stressed how much they appreciate and take seriously customer feedback. Second, the place looks really nice - they've done a great job on making the place look really nice, including several bar areas and an outside eating area.
This was what I said while waiting to get into the show (Lord Huron):
"The show hasn't even started yet and I already hate this place. Doors are supposed to open at 7:00. There's a thousand people elbow to elbow in the lobby at 7:20 and the doors are still closed. We paid extra to get Mezzanine tickets (quite a bit extra) so we could have seats. But guess what? You have to pay an extra $20 EACH on top of the Mezzanine surcharge to sit down in the Mezzanine. And the place to get these extra wristbands? On the far side of the lobby from the where you enter the mezzanine. So I fight through the crowd to get to the podium and it's cash only. Guess where the ATM is? BACK ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE LOBBY. So after fighting through the crowd three more times and paying an ATM fee on top of everything, we're back waiting in line to get up to our seats (7:40 and the doors are still closed). Not to mention the ticket fees they charge are about $10. So those $40 upgraded tickets for the mezzanine? About $75 each. And don't forget parking.
This is the way you turn away future customers."
Why do I care so much about this? I have issues with my spine that prevent me from being able to stand for more than about 30 minutes without intense pain that will last several days. So I go out of my way to try to figure out a way to still see shows while dealing with this issue, and I DID NOT appreciate the lack of communication or clarity about all of this before the concert and the feeling like I was being nickle and dimed to death. I ended up paying almost as much for this show as for tickets to the upcoming U2 concert. That's kind of ridiculous for a venue like this.
As beautiful as the remodel job is, this is not a great place to hear music. Much like the Marquee Theater, this place is ultimately a giant brick/concrete box with big speakers. Once you fill it with people, the crowd noise seems to amplify and compete with the music. When it came to the music itself, the balance seemed off, with the music completely drowning out the vocals in many of the songs. Also, in about half of the songs at some point there was a screeching speaker feedback, and the band had to leave the stage at one point while they figured out some technical difficulties. Was this the venue's fault? The band's fault? Who knows? It doesn't really matter - the sound for this show was pretty awful.
I had a long talk with a manager after the show who was very nice. He tried to explain some of the issues, many of them stemming from being a brand new venue. He said it was the band's decision to push the doors back 40 minutes because they weren't happy with the initial sound tests, so that was not the venue's fault. Also, the lobby was only as crowded as it was because they didn't want to make people stand out in the heat while waiting for the doors to open. Normally they would not have let that many people into the lobby but it was quite hot outside. He also said that adding the chairs to the mezzanine was a pretty new thing and they are still working out kinks.
All of those are fair points. However, I have been to about 100 concerts in the Phoenix area and have never seen a band have that much trouble with getting set up on time for doors to open. Also, the people who run this venue (from what I can tell) are also involved with running the Crescent Ballroom and Valley Bar. The excuses related to getting things ironed out fall a little flat to me because they should be experienced at how crowds and crowd management work in this market. And you would think that they would have already had good plans in place for helping customers on hot nights considering they are in Phoenix and have experience with this climate.
All in all, this was probably my least favorite concert I can ever recall attending, and the lack of communication, both about the way that tickets worked and about why we were all waiting 40 minutes late in a crowded lobby, is pretty frustrating.
I know they are new, and I'm sure they will get better over time. But this was my exper
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