The Hives Were Great! Also: Terminal 5 Is The Worst Venue In New York City
(Text copied from my Yelp.com review of the venue. Sorry for dishing up refries. I'm sleepy. Pictures tomorrow!)
The sound was pretty bad but the visual experience was downright exploitative.
Let me explain.
You can see the stage from pretty much anywhere on the first floor.
The 2nd and 3rd floors? Not so much.
There is a wrap-around balcony which has great views if you are the first, second, or third closest person to the railing. But because the stage is below you, and so you must look down to see it, anyone behind that third person needs x-ray vision to see the stage.
There are risers on one side of the balcony, but on the night I went that area was VIP only. The rest of the 2nd and 3rd floors (which make up quite a bit of square footage, probably 20-40% of the non-bathroom floor space attendees are allowed to stand in, and thus the space counted towards their capacity limit), are given over to bar/lounge areas with stools at the bar and couches against the walls.
None of the bar/lounge areas have any lines of sight to the stage.
If you want to see the stage you *MUST* be on the balcony railings or the 1st floor. The other 20-40% of the venue has NO LINE OF SIGHT to the stage. Meaning that once the first floor has filled up for normal capacity and the balconies have been stuffed, there are still 20-40% of ticketholders for a sold out show that need to crush in as much as possible on the 1st floor. After that, everyone else in attendance cannot see the stage.
Except on one of the many HD screens scattered throughout the venue.
Which, you know, would be nice, except for a big problem: If I wanted to watch a band on an HD screen, I would've stayed home and rented a concert video. But if I'm at Terminal 5, it means that I've paid upwards of $30 after ticketmaster fees, plus traveled all the way to midtown and just shy of the Hudson river to see a live band play. Live. Not on a television.
I've lived here for five years and seen shows in venues from Queens to the Financial District, and I've been to shows in Boston, San Francisco, Chicago, and Connecticut for ten years before that, and this is the single worst venue I have ever attended. I will not be going back.
I wouldn't go here to see the Beatles resurrect John Lennon and George Harrison to play one last set. I'd wait for the DVD to come out, since in the end I'll probably just be watching the show on a monitor anyway.
Bonus material deleted from my original review!
If you think Terminal 5 is a good place to see live music, you are an idiot. Or you went to a low-attendance show. But probably you are an idiot who doesn't like music and hasn't been to a lot of shows. You're probably the kind of person that buys the album just to listen to the single on repeat. Fuck you! You fucking people are the reason places like Terminal 5 exist!
And me. I paid to go there tonight. I didn't know how bad it was going to be! I am so sad that they have some of my money now.
Don't let this happen to you. Never, ever, ever go to a show at Terminal 5. The band might be good. But the venue will be bad. I promise.
you are fucking insane! Terminal 5 was great for the Hives... I loved the show.
It's not a "theater", it's a GA rock club. Get there earlier next time to get a good spot you whiny bitch.
Well, Mr. Anonymous is correct only insofar as the owners of the space sell general admission tickets to the space when rock bands are playing.
In terms of construction, purpose, and design he is technically incorrect. Terminal 5 is not a GA rock club.
The space is a three floor dance club that has undergone a name change. It was not built or designed with live music in mind, which is problematic for the reasons I discussed above.
The space is unlike any GA rock club I have ever been to, and I have been to quite a few.
The venue is overticketed by default and a very sizable portion of the venue has no sight lines to the stage whatsoever.
For the purposes of live music performance and spectation, the venue is broken.
I went to the Hives show.
They were awesome. However, I do agree that Terminal 5 has horrible sound. It's too bad, because the awesomeness of the Hives' precise overlapping guitars/bass riffs didn't sound as sharp. (Although, it's funny how it didn't really matter for The Donnas because they suck so much, and the guitar player mostly plays just fuzzy chords... The shitty sound quality may have had the unintended positive effect of drowning out some of their awfulness).
I was near the back of the central area of the first floor, and it really wasn't overly packed. I was comfortable, and didn't have a problem with line of sight. (I'm 6ft tall, so I could imagine there being problems if you are under 5'8" or so.)
I did check out the 2nd and 3rd floors, and as you say, they're useless unless you're in the first row by the railing.
Unlike some other reviews I've read, the lines to enter and exit did not take very long, and the whole experience was relatively well organized/staffed.
Bottom line is:
The Hives: 9 out of 10
The Donnas: 3 out of 10
Terminal 5: 4 out of 10