The Waiting Room

Dinosaur Jr is the loudest band I have ever heard. I have heard them at several locations and each time it blows my mind. This place was a great place to see them. It was not too crowded but there were a lot of people there.

It is a unique space and I had a really good experience watching a band here. It is as simple as that.

Cool place, good venue, good sound, good prices, arcade games in the back, cool staff.

I don't tend to go to a lot of concerts, so I'm generally unqualified to speak on venues, but here are my thoughts on The Waiting Room, nonetheless.

It was much cleaner than I expected. Maybe it's just me, but every time I picture a local music joint, I visualize a grungy, dirty, broken down dilapidated mess where people insist that the nastiness is part of the charm and let it get way too far out of hand. The Waiting Room, however, defied that conception. It had a touch of dive about it, but was clean and well organized. TVs hang over the bar, displaying a feed of the concert so that patrons don't miss a thing while their backs are turned to refill on refreshments. Pretty cool.

So, those are the high points, now onto the gripes. Number one: two beers should not cost $13.50. I don't care if it's at a concert, a ball game, a county fair, a speakeasy or a pub. Those prices are too damn high. Number two: turn the music down. Now, before you accuse me of being a cranky old person, hear me out. I have no problem with cranking music up to eleven, so to speak. I've received my fair share of noise complaints in the past. However, there is a line, in my opinion, not to be crossed, and when your music is played so loudly that it loses its form and becomes an incomprehensible, tangled cacophony, you've crossed said line. If I want loud noise without being able to recognize any instruments or singing, I'll go down to Eppley and stand on the runway. What makes it worse is when the band and venue staff are playing with the audio levels as if it makes any difference whatsoever. Here's a tip, guys: it doesn't. You can equalize all you want, but nobody in the crowd can understand a damn word your singer is yelling, or tell your two guitarist's performances apart. By all means, be loud... but if you are going to stand up there and act like you care about "music", at least keep the volume low enough that your music doesn't become "noise".

Three stars, Waiting Room. You didn't give me tetanus, as I half expected, but you did commit highway robbery at the bar and you raped my eardrums. I'm willing to come back, but I'm bringing earplugs and a flask if I do.