EJ's Venues

• The Quest
• >The Quest< is located in downtown Minneapolis. It holds about 1500 or so people. The accoustics are pretty good and they tend to get good acts. I enjoyed seeing my first show there. They have the coke couches if you know what I mean, which are nice to sit at if you're not too into the band, which I wasn't for Sevendust. Unfortunately the couch we were on had some white stain on it that kind of scared us all. The accoustics are pretty good, it has two levels. The first level is like any other place with a couple of bars on the sides. For 18+ shows they only let 21 year olds on the 2nd level which is awesome. The 2nd floor has an opening in the middle of it to look down on the band, also you can smoke. I'd recommend to anyone if you can see a band you love here, do it. I'm not sure how the all ages shows work yet, so beware of those.
      
• Xcel
• >Xcel< is located in downtown St. Paul. It is the home of the Minnesota Wild. It holds 18,064 for Hockey games so probaly about 3/4 of that for concerts. I've been here before for a Bob Dylan concert and we sat on the Club level which had a full bar directly behind our seats in the concourse. Since it was Dylan we had to drink a lot, but I recommend if you are going to see a show here, be either on the floor or the Club level. If you are in the upper deck the seats are not that bad for seeing, but the acoustics are quite a bit different than on the floor. So for best accoustics on the floor, for best drinking on the middle level.
    
• Northrup Auditorium
• >Northrup Auditorium< is located right on the University of Minnesota Campus. It's a beautiful building with pillars and columns on the outside. It's very pretty, but unfortunately not built well for concerts. The slope to the floor is very gradual, so if you have a tall person in front of you you're screwed. Also the chairs are not comfortable at all. The acoustics actually are not very good either. I think the building was designed for plays and talking not so much for music. There are only 2 places to purchase drinks too and they are rolled in carts not actual stands so there are 4 stations for about 10,000 people to get drinks at. I would even recommend the Target Center over Northrup.