Question of the Week :: BIG Rumor Alert!
Submitted by Wendy on December 17, 2007 – 4:35 pm14 Comments
New music venue slated to open downtown Roanoke 2008… using Austin City Limits and Asheville’s Orange Peel as models… this venue plans to be a non-smoking, 300-400 capacity space to see great acts you would normally drive to see in other cities as well as support our regional talent.
What do you think? Describe your dream music venue here and maybe the cool people planning this will see your ideas.
Hope it’s not another auditorium. We need a space to dance and to be able to move around and talk to people.
AND NO TV/VIDEO SCREENS!
No smoking is a Definite Yes. It needs to have a liquor license and room to dance. Also – LOTS of bathrooms. There is nothing worse than a long line to one clogged nasty toilet.
I hope it actually happens…how many times has someone said they are going to open a REAL music venue!
My fav music venue is in N. Va. It has both a dinner theater and a standing room only bandstand with a bar in between. You can’t smoke in the dinner theater but the band stand bar area is still smoking. Its great to have the best of both worlds. Check it out … its the Birchmere in Alexandria.
Many years ago, nearly immediately after graduating from high school, I left Roanoke for the big city, and the main reason was to live somewhere where there was a cultural atmosphere that provided an abundance of diverse options. The availability of limitless music & art choices is mainly what I was looking to find … and I found it. Through the years I satisfied my appetite for these activities. Now I’m back in Roanoke, and although the scene is better than when I moved away, one still has to leave town to attend the better shows. I’m not exactly sure why the better touring acts don’t stop in Roanoke, but I suspect that it has more to do with ticket sales than the lack of a proper a venue. If an adequate performance space would attract more events that many of us would like to attend, then I’m all for it. Just make it a comfortable place with a great sound system.
I don’t think we make enough use of the venues we already have. This is not a “build it and they will come” scenario. The Jefferson Center gets some really great acts. There is live music in no less than 5 bars on any weekend night. Floyd gets some really amazing acts at the venues up there. I think if we want great music to come to Roanoke, we need to start going to see the great music that already is coming.
It would be great to have something modeled on the upstairs performance space at Star Hill in Charlottesville. They can put chairs down and tables for some acts and pull them up for dance space for others. The good microbrew is a plus. When is someone in Roanoke going to start a decent microbrewery where you can hear some music? As an old married guy I don’t get out as much as I used to, but when I do, it’s to hear live music and have a beer, preferably in a smoke free environment.
I will say that the music scene here is definitely improving, and I agree that our problem is not necessarily a lack of places (Blue 5,Martins, 202 are all great additions) but our ability to support them.
I agree that we have fabulous venues to see music now and some really fabulous acts coming to our town that we need to support and I am going broke doing so. 202, Blues 5, Blues BBQ as well as Shaftman Performance Hall. But what we are truly in need of is the 300-400 capacity, versatile, micro-brewery type space. We miss a lot of performance groups because the venue is either too small or too big, or in the case of Jeff Center, a seated only venue. So I say whoever these people are, I hope they can make something extraordinary. I hope this isn’t all hype!
Oh it will happen.
mmmm.. Mircobrews are a good idea…
True, there are venues downtown already, but they really aren’t suitable for good rock/punk/etc shows that require some room to move and stand and mingle without a bunch of tables and chairs and redundant furniture. Starr Hill is an excellent example someone mentioned, they have a massive floor, but can still put down tables if needed. I don’t go to a lot of the shows I have wanted to lately downtown because I will be damned if I am going to pay 25 dollars to see someone I can see for 10-15 anywhere else. And I second the motion about the tv screens, can I go one place to hear music and not have to be around television?
if there could be some excellent combination of the fresh, hip orange peel with the huge vintage graphics on the wall and giant ceiling fan, crossed with the classy and well-lit norva with that bomb chandelier above everyone, that would be really perfect.
The announcement of the Oasis 2009 tour got me thinking. It's every band's dream to sell out at the biggest UK venues such as Wembley Arena, Wembley Stadium, 02 Arena and Millennium Stadium. Which bands have done it in the past and which are likely to do it in the future?
The announcement of the Oasis 2009 tour got me thinking. It's every band's dream to sell out at the biggest UK venues such as Wembley Arena, Wembley Stadium, 02 Arena and Millennium Stadium. Which bands have done it in the past and which are likely to do it in the future?