2016 was also Vegas and the only UMBowl I’ve attended. Night after has arguably my favorite 1348.
My money’s on Denver/Mission Ballroom.
It feels like a missed opportunity to give up the Denver market for 3 nights of Mishawaka year after year. They’re not making it back to Red Rocks, but there’s still more opportunity for them here than they’re taking advantage of, even if Mish tickets are ~$100/night.
Same for New Years when they’re limiting themselves to a 1,000 person venue. I think they have a little more draw than that, and UMBowl will attract some people traveling for it.
This makes sense. I don’t love that venue though. Pretty sure the main floor is completely seated, right? At least the one time I went there it was.
Localized musical guests would be a big benefit to this pick.
NOLA UMBowl would be a blast. Probably bad for my overall health but very fun. Was looking for an excuse to do a fall weekend there, like watching Rocktopus win a live vote over Nopener
Dark horse candidate should be Louisville. Two fall nights at the Iroquois could be legendary. That’s in my top five outdoor venues I’ve seen them at. I would lose my shit if they swung through there for multiple nights at the Iroquois UMBowl or not. Should be a destination venue for any ‘Phreak imo and hopeful they play it again as they visited Louisville in the winter last time thru.
New venue for them. They’ve played Iroquois many times
Yeah dude I’m high totally spaced on that again. Are there any new venues in Nola?
The Fillmore New Orleans opened in 2019 and has yet to be played by the boys. Capacity is over 2K so might be a bigger room than the market in New Orleans demands but I could see them taking a swing on getting a lot of people to travel to a destination city with a destination event like UMBowl. I know I would 100% try to make it happen if that goes down. Fingers crossed someone tell the raptors let’s get the rumor train going and see if we can get someone to get some more intel out of Joel about the location. New Orleans would be so much fun. Also 10/30-31 are a Friday/Saturday this year. Could a return to Halloween shows be back in the mix? Would KB try to book UMBowl Halloween weekend in New Orleans like a fucking lunatic? That would be something…
They can remove a large section of seats for shows where the bands request dance space or a “pit”, just like how the Riverside can transform their seating/section options. I have seen quite a few shows at the Pabst with that setup.
Best venue in MKE. They remove the first few rows for a small pit.
That is a crazy thing to say about the Pabst. That is a great room. Sound is awesome too.
I went there once for an indie rock show like 10 years ago, before my drug band days. The band was Alvvays if that means anything to anyone. I remember the venue being very tall and very narrow. People seem to really like it and have strong positive opinions about it, but I was not particularly impressed. YMMV.
+1 on the Iroquois venue being outstanding. one of my favorite venues
Only been once and loved that place.
I miss that place, would love to go back
Pabst is great. And honestly the highest up seats can be some of the best seats too. Cheap and great sight line, sound is still good. Seen explosions in the sky, sylvan esso, David Crosby and Courtney Barnett way up there. Granted the first floor is great too, but I’m a cheap bastard and like cheap seats.
Bisco there was the most outrageous I’ve ever seen a crowd there. Felt like the balcony was gonna cave in. Some of the old volunteer ushers had no idea what was coming
Agree on all points. I feel like it’s gotta be at some venue with a similar story, simply judging by the way it was worded. A city that’s never had UM Bowl and a venue they’ve never played. I’m sure there are a ton of other venues/cities that fit that as well, I’m just super hopeful that they’ll play there someday, especially after Biscuits were there a couple years back. It’s always been a double edged sword type thing though, as it’s a step down in size from the Riverside, but after COVID peak ended, they’ve been playing smaller rooms. The last 2 shows at the Riverside weren’t as well sold, but the 1st was still on the heels of peak COVID, then the other was just a single night after they’d done so many 2-3 night stands. I feel like an event like um Bowl would be an appropriate first Pabst trial run. Still just very hopeful….
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As much as I love the Riverside, the Pabst is pretty much equal for me. Plus way back balcony sound can be the worst at RS. At least the Pabst sonics sound great all the way up
Thanks for the advice. Definitely going to hit up this show, and maybe the Pisgah show the night before. Looking forward to it!

