Hmmm where to begin? Just saw Kings of Leon at the Austin Music Hall - worst concert venue I've ever been to. Most importantly, the sound quality was horrible. Terrible acoustics, a sound that was muddy and scrambled. The venue itself was over-crowded, hot, and humid. There was nowhere to go to get a halfway decent view of the band, unless you got there 6 hours early to crush forward to the front of the huge mob on the ground floor. These people are packed in like cows going to the slaughter. I don't know what they did when they had to go to the bathroom or get a drink or sit down, there was no way of going in or out. The main bars at the back of the ground floor were overcrowded, the lines were spilling out into the section where you stood to listen to the concert-which created a huge bottleneck for people who wanted to go to the bathroom or move from one side of the room to the other. The staff were worse than the Hell's Angles-constantly bossing people around with ridiculous, nit-picky rules that seemed arbitrary at best. I went to the bar to get 4 beers for my group and was told by the bartender I was only allowed to buy two beers at a time. Ooooooookay....then, when I went to pay for my two beers with my debit card, I was told there was a minimum charge of twenty dollars for cards. What? So they only let me buy two beers, but then told me I wasn't charging enough to use my card. We elbowed our way up to the balcony to try to get a glimpse of the band, and was once again met by an angry bossy staff member weilding a flashlight. The concert was almost half over before we finally found a spot way off against the right side wall, and I spent the rest of the concert staring at the back of the person in front of me, occasionally standing way up on my tippy toes to catch a glimpse of the top of the lead singer's head. Just don't do it people-consider yourself for-warned, the Music Hall is bad news.
Pros: Decent Location Downtown
Cons: worst sound, staff, ambience, layout, crowd control
more