The Espee

Manager here is an absolute idiot. Doesn't understand revenue or customer service, so really not sure why he's in this business. My husband and I bought VIP tickets to a concert that wound up having little to no turnout, so we reached out to some friends to come and join us. After driving an hour to get here, and being willing to pay full price for a ticket, they were turned away because "their system couldn't take their money," I tried to speak to the manager and he spoke to me like I was worth less than the gum on the bottom of his shoe. First and last time I will ever spend money at this establishment.

First time at this venue in years. Last I was there, it was Sunset Station. It was nice, and I don't remember it being so "intimate." We were 3 rows from the stage, and it was an awesome show! We did have a hiccup where the staff couldn't figure out what my extra lounge pass meant. So when you purchase tickets to the Espee event, there's also an add-on like "lounge passes." I purchased these passes because it included a "special lounge" with "light bites. " Well, the "special" lounge was just a rope cutoff to the public lounge. Same room except a rope cutoff, and in the special lounge, the "light bites", was free popcorn. We laughed, we ate it, we had a good time. No one was really enforcing the lounge access after an hour or so, and we actually liked the public lounge staff, that we kept going back to them and buying our drinks there. The only thing the lounge access was neat for is if you don't feel that your seats are close enough, the pass comes with elevated seating to the side of the stage. ( See my pic from that side seating ) we sat there for the opening band, but our seats were really good, so for the main band, we went to our purchased seats. It was a great show! I went to 3 concerts this week and 3 different venues. If I had to rank venues, this one comes in a high 2nd. Tech Port with Mars Volta event and Alamodome with Red Hot Chili Peppers event in their respective Google maps sections.

The Espee is a great venue for live shows. When I visited they had a two stage outdoor setup. A smaller front stsge was bumping house music while a more distant outdoor stage near the rear played the showcase bands. In between and inside were local craft vendors selling some fun items. It's worth keeping track of their event calendar to catch a show here.

I had gone to see Pierce the Veil here with Pavilion tickets. Amazing show, but the major compliant is the layout of the venue for a big show like that. It's flat viewing from front to back meaning that VIP and Pavilion get a great view of the show but the rest of the audience in the Plaza will have difficulty seeing. Sucks if you're short or going solo without anyone to hold your place in the Plaza crowd. Other than that, the staff I encountered were all fast and helpful. There was plenty of restroom availability (for guys at least). The security in the Pavilion area deserve the biggest shout-out. They got the job done while being fun and hyping up the crowd. They were definitely good at matching the energy.

Manager here is an absolute idiot. Doesn't understand revenue or customer service, so really not sure why he's in this business. My husband and I bought VIP tickets to a concert that wound up having little to no turnout, so we reached out to some friends to come and join us. After driving an hour to get here, and being willing to pay full price for a ticket, they were turned away because "their system couldn't take their money," I tried to speak to the manager and he spoke to me like I was worth less than the gum on the bottom of his shoe. First and last time I will ever spend money at this establishment.