Venue Size Quotes

Today, you're either very big or you're playing stadiums or you're not playing anymore. You're either popular where everybody will go to a 20,000 seat arena to see you or they won't go to see you at all.

We wanted to incorporate lights and the like to really accentuate the music. We play mostly small venues, so we don't use it overboard by any means. The most important thing is the music. I think we do a good job of letting that show.

I kind of consider myself... I mean, I try to have my comedy be accessible, and if people are paying $30 to see me in a theater and they want to have their picture taken with me, it's not the end of the world. It's one of those things, where I'm not the only comic who does it. A lot of comics do it. If I'm doing a 4,000-seat venue, it might be a little bit of a different task, but it's all good.

There was a lot more music than the size of the place would indicate.

I never played coffee shops; I just played a lot of coffee shop-sized venues. I took every venue I could get my hands on.

Our music doesn't make many compromises, but we take it into a venue that's larger than people expect.

I've asked to go back into theaters and smaller venues because to me, in smaller venues I can really demonstrate my commitment to quality. Theaters are great containers for music.

I've been to Vector Arena, and I've seen it. I've stood in the middle and just appreciated the space, appreciated the volume of the place.

I just played at a club in L.A. called the Baked Potato. It fits like 90 people. It's like playing somewhere in a basement in, like, Indiana or somewhere where all your friends show up. It's really fun and there's a very different energy to that than to play to 50,000 at a Tokyo baseball stadium.

The large venue gives me the thrill that comes from the power in numbers.

My fans are great and amazing, but there's no way all of my fans are going to be able to fill up Bristol Motor Speedway.

I love the intimacy of venues like the House of Blues. When everyone is packed in and so close to you, it makes you play differently. It's so much more fun to play because there's so much more high energy in a place like that.

When you play a smaller, more intimate venue, you can have real conversations with your audience, take risks, and stay current. You can also change the set list, on how the day feels or how the audience reacts. When you do arena shows, every arena looks and feels the same. You can't see who is in the room.

I did three club tours before I started playing concert halls, and the clubs were half full the first time around.

I'm not as surprised in going from playing 1,000 seats to 4,000 seats as I was from 100 to 500 seats.

I like all kinds of shows. The small shows are a totally different vibe. I don't care how many people are there as long as they're into it.

Carnegie Hall was real fabulous, but you know, it ain't as big as the Grand Ole Opry.

I've played Madison Square Garden and Jones Beach several times, but I personally don't enjoy those larger venues. I much prefer theater or a performance space.

One minute we can be in a small club, the next minute we can be in a coliseum, and the next minute we can be in a small auditorium. It varies, depending on the promoter, the budget, and the travelling distance.

If you ever want to play bigger places, you need to have records that sound like you're playing in big places.

I watched R.E.M. connect with the back row of a 50,000-seat venue.

I will definitely start in small venues, as I want to find my feet as a performer; the first shows that Westlife did was ten dates at Wembley, which was just crazy. We didn't have a clue what we were doing because it was so big.

If you're playing in a room that holds 15,000 people, it's just a question of how bad the room acoustics are and in what way they're bad.

When we tour in America, the shows are great, and the fans are just as passionate and excited as anywhere else in the world, but in other parts of the world, in parts of South America and in parts of Europe and Asia, the size of the venues and the amount of people we get at concerts is considerably more.

When you play arenas you can create whatever you want. At a theater the height of the stage and the limitations of the theater can make you feel more separate from the audience.