Favorite/Favorite Kind of Venue?

[monosyllables]

Basically, what's your favorite sort of place to go to see a show, and maybe you have a particular venue in your hometown that you just love to see shows at?
I think about this because not only am I about to go see a show at a waffle shop in a couple hours, but because I recently passed up the opportunity to see Tune-Yards and Arcade Fire mostly because of the venue (though that definitely includes price).
I just find that arenas, stadiums, huge outdoor venues just do not do it for me. I've never been to a bona fide music festival, though, so I'm interested to hear what people think about that as a concert space?
For my money, there's a lot of places around St. Louis that are basically just bars in otherwise empty concrete rooms and that seems to be just about perfect. If you need to eek out some random space to play, the charm of it can be mitigated somewhat by the circumstances of having to play, or try to dance around tables and chairs, or trying to order a drink at the bar only a yard or two away from the music, but I hate places that are so big you have to watch a video screen of the performer you paid (usually a lot more money in such cases) to see *LIVE*.
Thoughts?

[MrFrogger]

My favorite venue here in San Francisco is a toss up between

The Chapel(like the name suggests, it's a renovated chapel)

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and The Great American Music Hall(Just a beautiful venue)

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But my favorite venue in the whole Bay Area is The Fox in Oakland, it's a renovated theater, originally built in the 20's.

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[monosyllables]

God, those all look so beautiful! Haha, venues in St. Louis seem so boring by comparison now.
The last two look a little big for my tastes, but it's hard to imagine not getting caught up in the scenery at places like those

[MrFrogger]

[monosyllables]

For sure. There's a place around the same size called the Pageant in St. Louis, and my vexation with large venues strangely seems to evaporate the closer I can actually manage to get to the band. It was amazing seeing Neutral Milk Hotel that way, and they are a band that needs a lot of room on stage to spread out

[Patman360]

Small venues, I won't be able to see any big name artists in small venues in Ireland but the artists I've seen live in small venues generally out perform any of the big name artists I've seen live. Cyprus Avenue in Cork is a great place, holds about 200-300, mainly gets Irish/British acts, though Swans and Cloud Nothings are recent examples of the acts it can pull. Plus it's generally free or cheap (Which is top priority for a uni student).

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[benpaco]

Of where I've been, Yoshi's was probably the best, David Grisman just killed it there. Tiny venue, lot of pot, but we got a front row table and some good sushi, too!

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Napa Valley Opera House doesn't look great but is small enough everyone is involved, and the acoustics there (IMO) are really incredible. Seen Jake Shimabukuro, Matisyahu, and a random orchestra, so outside of Jake the people that play there aren't great, but its a good environment I think:

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That said, I'm excited for my first GAMH concert this summer
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. . . 2016 . . . 2015 . . .

Things I Make

[monosyllables]

Much as I hate to admit it, money is always a factor, Patman. If I can see multiple strong acts for less than 10 bucks total, I have already been suckered and am privately working out the math of how many tall-cans of beer I can afford to buy on top of that.
benpaco, why do you say "Tiny venue, lot of pot, BUT" as though that doesn't sound like the most fun I'd have ever, especially with the sushi mixed in.

[benpaco]

[RockyRaccoon]

I have to say, on a nice day, I love seeing a show at Merriweather Post Pavillion

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