Great American Music Hall

02/01/10

Oldie But Goodie

by Julie Dyer , Citysearch Contributor at Citysearch

Enter the Great American Music Hall, and you'd think it hadn't been updated since its glory days back in the late 70's and early 80's. It probably hasn't, but that's the beauty of this old-school classic. The stage is ever-so-slightly elevated and the standing room is so enclosed, it feels like you're watching a show in your living room. The upstairs balcony usually has one side that's reserved for "special patrons," whomever they are, and the other is for the regular folks like you and I. Granted, if you get there early enough to snag a table. "Backstage" is actually downstairs and most resembles a small grade-school. Long, faded yellow hallway adorned with old oak-wood frames with pictures of people no one knows. Nevertheless, GAMH has always been ahead of the hype, and all you need to know is the price is decent, the bartenders are generous, and the acoustics are still in perfect condition. Bravo to GAMH staff for preserving this beauty.

• Pros: It's a classic
• Cons: It's near the TL

03/18/09

Don't go away anytime soo

by cyngrant at Citysearch

Yes, some of the Bay Area's very best local bands got their very big break right at their very stage.

What a great San Francisco institution! Don't go away anytime soon.

10/01/08

Nice building, but horrible place to actually watch music

by Lochardil at Citysearch

I went to see one of my all time musical heroes here last night (Peter Hammill). The building itself is lovely, very atmospheric, but the evening was completely spoiled for me for two reasons.

One is that the staff there seem to lack any form of social skills, they tend to treat all of us paying customers like naughty children. The tone was set early on in the evening when we moved a chair out of our way and one one the (seeming tens) of staff who seem to hang around watching the audience without much to do, mumbled t us "...you only had to ask....", seems it's not allowed to move chairs. There was also a restriction on taking flash photography of the show but one of the staff jumped right at a group of people who were taking flash photographs of each other, around an hour before the show was due to start. . I honestly felt like I was back at school, we were frightened to move out of our seats!

Worse, it was a quiet, semi acoustic show and the show was completely spoilt by this venue having no idea how to host a show like this. There is a noisy bar in the main hall and the bartenders clinked glasses and opened and shut the till throughout the performance making loads of noise and generally disrupting the show. Even worse still, the bunch of staff who seem to just generally hang around and tell everyone what to do started to goof around during the performance, obviously not enjoying the show themselves, they started disrupting it for the audience by goofing around and talking in loud voices to each other - unbelievable!

Oh and also, this venue is on the borders of the Tenderloin which, if you don't know, is San Francisco's inner city bad area, so you need to be very careful as you walk to the venue. As we walked there what sounded like a gun shot went off and we had to negotiate our way past some very scary looking characters, obviously high.

• Pros: Nice building
• Cons: Terrible place to watch music, horrible staff

08/12/08

It's good to know that the institution is still there.

by lexipac at Citysearch

Wow, what a blast from the past! I remember going here on weekday evenings when I was barely legal and watching local great Chris Isaak, amongst many.

It's good to know that the institution is still there, and that they're not going away anytime soon.

01/22/08

Best Venue To See Live Music

by dgrunat at Citysearch

Seen a few shows here! Great sounds, Great Atmosphere, Great Shows! Suggest it for anybody who wants to see a good show!

• Pros: Great Sound
• Cons: No Seats Downstairs