Venues fill Boise with sights and sounds

For music lovers, one of the most exciting experiences is seeing your favorite band live in concert.

There is just something about the high volumes, bright lights and interaction between the band and crowd that makes going to a show a special experience.

Whether you’ve lived in Boise your entire life or you’re new to the area, there is a lot to know about what is going on musically in our city.

While Boise isn’t Seattle, Nashville or Los Angeles, it’s still a great city for seeing national touring bands and  Boise’s smaller venues offer a more intimate setting for concert-goers.

If going to shows is near the top of your to-do-list, you will be happy to know that the number of bands who choose to travel through our humble town continues to grow each year.

Whether you like classic bands like the Rolling Stones and Journey, newer popular music like Snow Patrol and John Mayer, or even indie bands like the Shins, the Decemeberists or Modest Mouse, Boise has a lot to offer.

All of these bands have come through Boise in the past and are sure to come back.

Boise has two primary venues that are very close to campus.
The Big Easy Concert House hosts a number of concerts every month, showcasing popular national acts in a non-arena environment. Located on 416 S. Ninth Street, the Big Easy is just a few miles from Boise State and serves as a concert venue as well as a restaurant, bar and nightclub.

The Big Easy’s general admission ticket price is almost always around $20, which means everyone pays the same amount of money for a ticket to stand wherever they choose (usually according to when they show up) and with its 1,000-person capacity, seeing a larger scale concert at the Big Easy has its advantages over seeing a band in a larger city, at a larger venue.

In 2005, Icelandic Indie Band Sigur Ros played Boise’s Big Easy and Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl (which seats almost 18,000) on the same United States tour.

While enthusiasts of the band paid anywhere from $40 to $100 to get a good view of the show in Los Angeles, tickets at the Big Easy in Boise sold for just $25.

Another one of Boise’s most frequented venues is the Boise Venue, located at 521 W. Broad Street.

The Venue, an all-ages concert house, showcases national bands supported by local talent. Bands who play at the Venue are usually more underground than mainstream, but it has seen more well-known bands like the Decemberists, Mute Math, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Mae and Hot Rod Circuit in the past.

The price of tickets at the Venue is rarely more than $20.
Other venues in the Boise area worth mentioning include the Egyptian Theatre, located at 700 Main Street in Boise, which has hosted artists such as the Shins, Built To Spill and Patty Griffin in the past and the Idaho Center in Nampa off of Franklin Road, which hosts the largest tours to come through Boise, including John Mayer, Rascal Flatts, Martina McBride and Josh Grobin.

Both venues turn out the more popular and sought-after concert events of the area.

JUSTIN NEWELL
Culture Writer

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