Manhattan Center Grand Ballroom

Well, tried to attend a concert there tonight. Gave up and came home.
Problems are as follows:
1) The «Grand» Ballroom is located on the seventh (7^th!) floor and there is one (1!) small elevator (maybe 10 – 15 people) servicing it (venue holds around 1,000). Ended up taking the stairs.
2) There is a small bar with seating for, maybe, 20 people.
3) This evening, tickets only noted a «door opening» time — 7pm. Figuring the live show might start 30 – 60 minutes later, arrived at 730pm. After hoofing it up 7 flights, find out likely start time is 9−930pm. Not pleased.
4) At that point, figured made sense to go out somewhere in the neighborhood for a drink and a seat. Unfortunately, no exits once enter (no sign in front notifying of this, btw). Upon learning this, we gave up and left since the show wasn’t going to be starting until we thought it would be ending. Bad enough dealing with this when flying. Is absolutely inexcusable in this situation.
If you absolutely have to go see someone perform here, be sure to seriously pad the start time and don’t show up early. Will probably play most of the best stuff at the end, anyway.

I saw Tori Amos film a show for e-​Town this past week at the Grand Ballroom and found it an interesting venue. There is a balcony area and when I was there, the show was set up with no-​frills chairs based on the seating chart and there was a piece of paper taped on the chair showing the section and number. It wasn’t a huge deal, but either Ticketmaster messed up the seating chart, or whomever had tape duty reversed it, because it was not what anyone was expecting. A little annoying.
It’s a small space, which is nice for a concert. More intimate. It did kind of initially feel like a church set-​up (I learned there is a church that meets there so perhaps an appropriate vibe). The accoustics though were good and overall, I thought it was a good space. The staff was helpful as well.

Went to an Evanescence concert here last week. Nothing will say the Grand Ballroom outside, it’s located in the Manhattan Center (best known for the Hammerstein Ballroom on the street level) on the 7^th floor (you can take the stairs or the one small elevator up). It’s a great place to see a concert, it’s not too big or small and it’s clean and well maintained. The floor is also carpeted so it’s slightly more comfortable to stand the entire time than a hard concrete floor. I’d jump at the next chance I have to see a band here.

Went to a NYE party held here. It was a large space with lots of dance floor, stage, and high ceilings. Nice because I didn’t feel cramped and suffocated. Gotta take elevator (or stairs) up.

This is the other area inside the building that host the Hammerstein Ballroom. I actually like this place more! I went here a lot as a kid for both golden gloves boxing and WWF wrestling. It has an opera house feel to it and oddly is fully carpeted. If you have the chance to check out a show here, go and see a great hidden gem in mid town.