Venue Variation: Exploring Chicago's best music venues

Venue Variation: Exploring Chicago’s best music venues

Erin Yarnall • November 8, 2015

DePaulia_Feature_Jacquin — A portion of the crowd at Childish Gambino’s 2014 Lollapalooza set. While Grant Park is not typically considered a music venue, it hosts over 100,000 concert goers every summer. (Photo by the DePaulia).

Indoor or outdoor, dive bars or ballrooms, thousands of people every night make their way to one of Chicago’s numerous music venues every night.

While most people won’t attend a concert specifically for the venue, people still have venues they’re excited to attend concerts at.

“My favorite music venue is the Aragon Ballroom,” DePaul freshman Olivia Peera said. “My favorite thing about the Aragon is its ceiling. It’s painted to look like the night sky and outer space and it’s breathtaking. When the stage lights hit it, it becomes even more magical.”

“It feels like you’re in a castle looking up at the sky,” DePaul freshman Kaitlyn Madden also said about the Aragon Ballroom’s ceiling, adding that it is one of her favorite venues as well.

Most attendees want their concert-going experience to be unique. A lot of the feeling towards having a unique concert experience is dependent on the venue in which it takes place.

“In a music venue I look for a place with some character,” Peera said. “Lucky for me, most of the venues in Chicago each have their own little quirks and cool details.”

These quirks are evident when walking into any of Chicago’s many music venues. Each of the theaters including Aragon Ballroom, the Vic and Metro are all uniquely beautiful and the perfect size to catch larger bands when they come into town. Smaller dive bars like Double Door and Beat Kitchen are the perfect size to see a band or artist before they make it big. And there’s nothing like watching the night get darker over Lake Michigan when attending a massive concert at Soldier Field, or embracing some of Chicago’s great sports history at the United Center while taking in a concert.

Chicago also hosts great outdoor concerts as well, turning the parks and fields that residents love throughout the year into the best music venues for summer.

“I usually base (going to music venues) off the artists performing there and not the venue itself, but Lollapalooza is a big pull for the atmosphere and reputation in Grant Park,” DePaul sophomore Ravi Dhebar said.

Whether indoor or outdoor, and large venue or small, Chicago is home to a large assortment of varying music venues — making the city one of the best places to catch live music.