The Venue

So… The Venue has 3 areas. Upstairs is a small room with a dancefloor that hosts Purgatory (goth night) run by Heart of Darkness. This is why I was there last night. DJs rotate, the sound system is pretty weak, the well liquor atrocious — but many of my friends hang here so I usually have a good time.
Honestly, when its summer, the A/​C SUCKS so I hope they move it back downstairs when that happens. Purgatory: 3 stars.
Downstairs: The small side room has a small dance floor, a decent layout and a really nice bar. But, its a smaller space. It does have high ceilings which beats the upstairs space all to heck.
The main room? Well — cavernous. Looks as if it was once a movie palace type place that was badly renovated to this tiered space. Only been there once for a show, wandered in to some electronica thing. I like the very top level for seeing whats up in the whole place.
Overall, its just a big empty room. *shrug*

Decent place. The metal detector when entering is really weird. I mean, I get it, but still. None of the other area venues do that, as far as I saw.
Sound-​wise, the place is fine. As far as seeing the band, unless you’re down on the lower two levels, you’re going to have a hard time. People crowd to the front of each step, and will completely impede your view. I admit, I never went much further up; the darkness was somewhat imposing. The view is probably better up there.

The Venue is where larger bands usually play if they’re touring through Gainesville, and while it’s not horrible, I wouldn’t call it a great place to see a show either.
The layout is amphitheater-​style, which should nice for viewing the stage but both the extremely long, wide, inclined entrance into the room as well as the pitch blackness of the upper levels make moving around and seeing the stage difficult if you aren’t up close. The sound is usually pretty great though, and if you’re a drinker there are several bars as well as a few beer tubs spread throughout.
The place is old and in need of a new paint job, carpet, everything. The bathrooms are lacking. MEH.

As far as medium-​size venues with capacities over 1,000 go, this venue ranks pretty low on my list. The layout is largely terrible. While it has an ampitheatre style build that allows you to see fairly well, it also allows you to fall all over the place in the pitch black darkness of a show environment. It has a sort of terrace set up with a flat area, then a couple stairs, then a flat area, stairs, and so on. Toward the back there is some limited seating. The entrance is far too wide and is located right smack dab in the middle of the Venue, taking up otherwise prime viewing space. Meh. It’s all Gainesville has to offer in that size range though. Poor Gators.

I went to my first Gainesville LTJ show at the Venue on Friday night and it was a decent place to see a show. When I walked in, I was struck by the weird mobile-​type things hanging from the ceiling, which gave the place a certain artsy appeal.
There are multiple levels leading down to the stage, allowing for people to go as close or stay as far away from the floor as they please. And if you choose to get close, be aware that you won’t be able to get toooo close, because there are GIANT bouncers waiting at the edge to cart you away.
Sound was decent, bartenders were nice. The place was wrecked by the end of the show though, with cigarettes and empty beer cans all over the place! I guess I’m spoiled by the no-​smoking-​allowed-​throw-​all-​your-​shit-​away clubs we have up in Boston. But regardless, I had a great time at this show and would most certainly return for another LTJ show!