Palace Theatre — Attraction in City of Albany

Look, here's a word of advice regarding Albany's Palace Theatre and TicketMaster or Ticketron of whatever they're calling themselves these days: Go To the Box Office and Buy Your Tickets Direct. Again, for those in the back: B U Y Y O U R T I C K E T S D I R E C T F R O M T H E B O X O F F I C E. So I logged on my trusty laptop so I could view which seats were available and go see Bill F. Gibbons, Frontman/Guitar Player for ZZ Top. First: ZZ Top is not all 'Gimme All Your Lovin'' and 'Sharp Dressed Man'... dig way deeper into their catalogue and explore the blues roots songs that made this band a sensation before MTV and Video Killing the Radio Star. Billy Gibbons is a bona fide guitar hero with the best tone in the business. It's just good-ol'-fashioned raw Texas blues, complete with ribald tongue-in-cheek innuendo and some boogie-woogie rhythm. I expected to spend a few bucks, but these guys aren't getting any younger, and after the untimely tragic demise of bass player Dusty Hill a few years ago, well, I needed to see them live and in person at least once. So I just went online to purchase tickets to see ZZ Top. I found two good seats in the front few rows of the Loge, which are the best seats in the balcony. Upon checking out, I discovered, to my shock, that TicketRapist wanted to charge me a $50 service fee for the convenience of using the internet! That's a 25% upcharge per each $100 ticket for the privilege. And I'd bet a week's paycheck not a dime of that goes to the artist; It lines some sleazy middleman's pocket. So I emptied my cart and headed down to the box office to buy tickets in person. I was greeted by the same polite young lady I had spoken to on the phone. She recommended tickets that were'nt! on the TicketPimp website, and I left with two nice tickets, got in-person service, and saved $50 to spend at the concession the night of the show. I mean look: I don't mind folks making a living by providing a service. And I understand that sometimes convenience costs a little extra. But the last time I got violated this badly I ate dinner and saw a movie or at least got a few drinks out of the deal. I sat in the loge of the balcony in the palace to go see Jason Isbell & the 400 unit. There isn't a bad seat in that place. The sound could have been better? But as a venue even their concession is...

The theatre itself is nice and has a very old fashioned feel to it which is fun, but the staff is absolutely atrocious! They are rude and unhelpful. I went to see a show with some family and we arrived early, along with several other patrons. The doors to the entry into the theater were wide open, however the staff members did not even greet us, but istead said "we're not open yet we need you to wait outside".....so why are your doors open then? Close them and don't be rude to your customers. Open them when you're ready. Then, when they allowed us inside we went to go find where our seat section was and as I approached the ushers, who were talking to each other and seemed annoyed that I went up to ask them if we were on the right side of the stairs, these employees ALSO rudely said "we're not open yet, we need you to wait outside." What kind of theatre allows you in it the theatre but then doesn't allow you to find your seats. Once we were brought inside, the ushers didn't even know their own theatre and we're walking people around trying to find their seats just as blindly as the customer...we finally just went and found our own seats faster that the ushers would have been able to...and we had to ask for a program. Completely unacceptable customer service, or...

Shame on the Palace Theater for not monitoring the sound levels during 2 recent Christian concerts at their venue!!! The Newsboys concert was so loud and the bass so high that you could feel the vibration all the way across the lobby through closed auditorium doors and behind the restroom door near the exit. Very,very painful to the ears and resulted in high- pitched ringing that continues to this day.When I personally visited the asst.manager at the box office last week regarding this he said ''nobody else has complained''.I was seeking a refund for the Third Day tickets I had purchased at the same time as Newboys. I was told I had to deal with Ticketmaster which never returned my emails.Fearing I would lose all money,we took a chance to attend Third Day. As soon as the band took the stage the sound blared and the bass cranked up at a very, very uncomfortable level.We left right away.I have attended rock concerts before and understand that these are by nature loud events but I genuinely fear that the Palace Theater is contributing to the epidemic of hearing loss in our country by their irresponsible lack of monitoring. Many young people were in attendance at these concerts and will prematurely lose their God-given sense of hearing if...