Concert Venues

Summertime in Seattle is music season. Festivals and concerts are everywhere, with some of the biggest names in music on the list of performers. Take a look at this sampler of events that the city has to offer. Once you listen to music in Seattle, you’ll be talking about it for years.

Seattle Music Fest
This famous music festival takes place at Alki Beach every summer, and showcases both emerging and established artists for the benefit of both club-hoppers and families all over the region. Admission is free, thanks to the Northwest Programs for the Arts, which also supports the preservation of public art and the development of new musicians, among other things. Three days of free music at a local beach with mountain scenery nearby is hard to beat.

The Experience Music Project
This is actually a museum exhibit at the Seattle Center, but it is also a unique celebration of diversity in popular music. Permanent exhibits of the EMP include the Guitar Gallery (the history of the guitar), Northwest Passage (the history of regional music), and Sound and Vision: Artists Tell Their Stories (video interviews with musicians). One of the special exhibits, Jimi Hendrix: An Evolution of Sound, features interactive displays on sound effects and sound mixing to give visitors a sense of how innovative Hendrix really was. It really is an experience.

Summer Concerts at Marymoor Park
Home of the Mountain Music Festival, Marymoor Park in Redmond offers an open-air music event, with padded reserved seating near the stage and graded lawn seats spreading out over the other 50,000 square feet of grass, where picnic baskets are welcome. The beverage court even ditches the usual plastic cups in favor of biodegradable cups, setting a great example of eco-friendly waste management. Their annual concert line-up presents performers from various genres, so everyone can see something they like at least once during the summer.

Seattle Chamber Music Society
Listening to chamber music, one can thoroughly enjoy the classics without being overwhelmed by the full orchestra. The Chamber Music Society centers its local concerts around Summer Festivals in July and August, and a Winter Festival in January, with family concerts planned especially for children. Due to scheduling issues and artistic license, no two concerts are alike, with various combinations of selected string and wind instrument virtuosi performing works from all the great composers. Every concert is a new musical adventure.

Bumbershoot: Seattle’s Music & Arts Festival
l imagine this festival as an umbrella that brings all the artists together under it. Bumbershoot is another word for umbrella, and the vision which the festival promoters had for that umbrella has blossomed into one of the biggest music and arts festivals in North America. Every Labor Day weekend, around 150,000 locals and tourists gather at the Seattle Center to soak in the atmosphere of performing arts, visual arts, and literary arts, with a little local food added for flavor. It’s like seeing 100 concerts for the price of one.

The Gorge Amphitheatre
The Gorge in George, as it is affectionately called, is a large contemporary amphitheatre with one of the finest views available to concert-goers. The stage is right in front of the Columbia River Gorge, and the scenery alone helps to explain why this was voted best major outdoor concert venue by the readers of Pollstar magazine for nine years. The Gorge Campground is available to everyone before and after the concert. Pack for any type of weather, and have a great time!

Up for some music? Want to see your favorite music performer in action? Love the live experience of a concert? Detroit’s capacity for handling big crowds and drawing the biggest names in music makes it a prime destination for concert-goers. This is Motown after all – the city where the likes of Stevie Wonder and the Supremes launched their careers. Rising stars and local bands still find an enthusiastic welcome for music of all kinds in Detroit City.

Fox Theatre

The preservation of the Fox Theatre is one of Detroit’s proudest achievements. The 5,000-seat palace of the arts, arguably the most opulent in the nation when it opened in 1928, was designated a national landmark in 1989 after an $11 million renovation. The Fox is now busy with concerts, family-oriented shows and a wide variety of other offerings. It’s the anchor of the Theatre District and perhaps Detroit’s greatest civic treasure. In 2008, the Fox welcomes American pop band The Jonas Brothers; Grammy award-winning R&B, soul and jazz singer Jill Scott; and Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, recipients of the 2007 Grammy award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals, for the track Gone Gone Gone. Audiences can also catch big-name entertainers like comedians Chris Rock and Frank Caliendo.

Joe Louis Arena

Home of the 10-time Stanley Cup Champion Detroit Red Wings, Joe Louis Arena proudly stands along the banks of the Detroit River. The 20,058-seat arena is Detroit City’s largest indoor venue and regularly hosts exciting attractions, including professional sports, college hockey, concerts, circuses, and even Disney on Ice shows. The People Mover stops at its door, so concert goers can park elsewhere downtown and reach the arena quickly. The Foo Fighters are set to rock Joe Louis Arena in 2008. Def Leppard with REO Speedwagon and Styx will also make an appearance here and later in the year, Rush makes a stop at Joe Louis during their extended Snakes & Arrows World Tour.

Cobo Arena

Situated near the Detroit River, the Cobo Arena is one of Michigan’s finest event sites, entertaining national and international audiences for over four decades. While the Detroit Basketball Championships are held here, so are some of the greatest rock and roll concerts in the world – Slipknot, Madonna and KISS, to name a few. Contemporary bands such as Weezer, Jimmy Eat World, Bush, Oasis, Blink 182, and the Goo Goo Dolls, as well as seasoned veterans like Bob Dylan play here. Cobo hosts several sporting and civic events, rallies, gatherings, and location shoots.

DTE Energy Music Theatre

Originally known as the Pine Knob Music Theatre, due to its proximity to the nearby Pine Knob ski area and golf course, the DTE Energy Music Theatre was renamed in 2001 when DTE Energy purchased the area’s premiere outdoor amphitheater. Despite this change, many people still continue to call the venue “Pine Knob” or “the knob.” Many of music’s greatest stars have performed at the theater, including Chicago and Eddie Money. The Detroit venue is also on some of the biggest tours of the summer concert season, including Ozzfest, Gigantour, and Reggae Sunsplash. Canadian power-trio Rush have regarded the DTE as their favorite venue to play in the United States. The blockbuster Police tour makes its stop at the DTE in the summer of 2008. Tim McGraw and Gingantour with Megadeath are also scheduled to appear during the May to September concert season.

Meadow Brook Music Festival

Located at Oakland University, the Meadow Brook Music Festival accommodates up to 8,000 in the expansive outdoor pavilion and lawn seating area. The Meadow Brook Music Festival is the official summer home of the renowned Detroit Symphony Orchestra, in addition to being one of the top concert venues in Michigan, showcasing the musical talents of James Taylor and His Band of Legends in 2008.

Palace of Auburn Hills

Detroit’s premier auditorium-style concert venue is often referred to simply as the Palace, and is home of the Detroit Pistons and hosts numerous concerts and special events throughout the year. Some of the venue’s past big-name entertainers include Sting, David Lee Roth, and Crosby, Stills and Nash. In early 2008, the Spice Girls performed at the Palace as part of their reunion tour The Return of the Spice Girls to a sold-out crowd. The 2008 season also includes Avril Lavigne, Creedence Clearwater Revisited, Santana, Kanye West, Tom Petty, and Celine Dion.

Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Founded in 1914, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra is one of the United States’ most prestigious and accessible orchestras. In 2003, it launched the Max M. Fisher Music Center, a performing arts complex, which has become a popular venue for musical concerts of various genres, including some of the most popular jazz concerts in town. The Max houses the famous Orchestra Hall, the Music Box, Atrium, and Allesee Hall. Excellent acoustics and state-of-the-art facilities make every performance memorable. The Max also has facilities to host conferences, private concerts, banquets and weddings. The Chieftans, Ireland’s musical ambassadors, make their appearance at the Fisher in 2008, as well as five-time Academy award-winner John Williams, followed by New Orleans Jazz and the Mambo Kings.

New York is the theater center of the United States. The Americans have a very rich culture with the music and theaters being an integral part of it. Only in West 40 & 50 streets and Broadway, there are around 38 theaters opened in winter and autumn. In mid eighties, there were more than 200 theaters in the New York apart from Broadway which were generally located in Chelsea and Greenwich Village. New York also has more than 400 cinemas, from the very well known Radio City music concert hall to the local cinemas where small halls run elite movies. New York entertainment industry is just unimaginable without its cafes, bars, discos and nightclubs.

Lincoln Center in the Amsterdam district for Performing Arts consists of 3 buildings located just about the square: New York State Theater built in 1964 is the site for the NYC Ballet, Avery Fisher Hall (built in 1962) hosts the concerts of NY Philharmonic Orchestra and the Metropolitan Opera built in 1966. Other concert halls in New York City are New York City Center, Carnegie Hall and Brooklyn Academy of Music.

The largest concert venues in New York to listen to your favorite groups include: Madison Square Garden, Roseland Ballroom and the Radio City Music Hall.

Madison Square Garden: Madison Square Garden or MSG is the name of 4 arenas in the New York City. It was also the site of the original Madison Square. The first Madison Square opened in the year 1979 at the north eastern part of the Madison Avenue and the 26th street. This is the place where many fights of the legendary boxer Jack Dempsey were held. The 2nd Madison Square Garden replaced the first in 1889. It was designed by the famous Stanford White. The building features a theater, concert hall, and a roof garden. The building was demolished in 1925 and the Madison Square Garden was relocated to 8th Avenue and the 49th Streets in the New York. Presently, the Madison Square Garden is situated at the Penn Station.

Roseland Ballroom: Roseland Ballroom or the Roseland Dance City, located at New York City in the West 52nd Street of the theater district. It is a music venue/dance hall /catering hall with a multicolored ballroom pedigree in a transformed ice skating ring. The venue can accommodate around 32,000 standing and about 2,500 for the dance party with about 1,500 to 1,800 in the theater style and 800 to 1000 for the sit down dinner. The venue has hosted events like Hillary Clinton birthday party, movie premiers and musical performances from celebrities like Nirvana, Madonna, the Rolling Stone, Ramones and the Phish.

Radio City Music Hall: The Radio City Music Hall, located in the Rockefeller Center in the New York City is an important entertainment center. It has been nicknamed as the Showplace of the Nation and was among the favorite tourist destinations. Radio City has the capacity of seating 5,933 spectators and was the World’s largest movie theater at its time of opening. The interior of Radio City Music Hall was declared landmark in the year 1978.