Best Live Venue (Large): Toyota Center
The perfect concert venue sounds a bit like a fairytale, perhaps. You need to go Goldilocks sometimes in search of venues that won’t ruin your happily ever after with your favorite music artists. If the venue’s too small, prepare for a long, crowded night with iffy sound quality. Too large and, weirdly, it’s the same story. That’s part of what makes a show at Toyota Center that “just right” option. Big names on tour swing through the downtown Houston sporting arena because it’s long doubled as the best concert option with plenty of seating (19,000) and expertly-tuned acoustics.
This year, Blink-182 and Paramore visited within the same week, just two of music’s A-listers who have or will play the arena this year. And while the shows maybe had crossover fans, they felt entirely different. Blink brought its much-anticipated reunion show to the hall and filled the space with festival-sized inflatables and a rising platform which put drummer Travis Barker above most of the seated crowd. Paramore chose a general admission design which made show-goers feel like they were back at Warped Tour in the late 2000s (albeit, not baking under a hot Houston sun). Similar bands, similar fans but a different feel because the arena is large enough but not too large – okay, “just right” – for creating unique concert experiences.
1510 Polk
713-758-7200
toyotacenter.com
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
