Bowery Ballroom
This first-rate Art Deco venue is a favorite New York destination for strong, touring acts that want to take a small step down in scale in exchange for the intimacy and attentiveness of a midsize stage. The place holds a crowd of about five hundred concertgoers, with tremendous sightlines to accommodate all of them. The balcony section is a luxurious place to see a show, with comfortable booths and a private bar.
The Ballroom is owned and operated by the guys behind the smaller, impeccable Mercury Lounge, and it shows in the attention to detail both sonic and visual. The venue is on what, in previous decades, might have been just about the seediest intersection in all Manhattan, on the flophouse-strewn Bowery and the dimestore-district-in-a-single-street, Delancey.
My first experience at the Bowery Ballroom "coincidentally" occurred the same night that I got a chance to see my favorite band: Sloan.