The Basement

The Basement is, by far, the worst commercial concert venue in Columbus. The Basement was originally a dance club. When that failed, they should have filled the entire area with concrete and been done with it, but instead, they turned it into a concert venue.

The first thing you will notice upon entering the basement is that the layout is more suitable for a 50 yard dash than a concert. The bar is “L” shaped and when I say “L” shaped I really mean “l” shaped. Large, 24” x 24” pillars hold up the ceiling and create a visual maze for anyone trying to watch the show from anywhere but right in front of the stage.

In front of the stage, there is room for about 75 people. Those 75 people have a great view of the stage and probably have a great experience. The problem is that the Basement will sell 400 tickets and the other 325 are screwed. There is some viewing of the stage off to the side, but that is a no standing area because of fire codes. If The Basement has one thing going for it, it’s that it’s mostly concrete and mostly (hopefully) flame resistant.

The placement of the sound board at the end of the bar blocks a good portion of the stage viewing. It’s not the sound guy’s fault so don’t blame him.

The Basement realizes that it is a horrible concert venue so they installed a single camera at the stage that plays on the televisions behind the bar. Please note, the camera they had installed was top of the line back in 2006. I think they bought the televisions behind the bar about 10 years earlier than that. When you want them to put a television on that shows the stage, they have to flip a switch on a little box connected to the back of the television that says TV on one side and GAME on the other.

Please join me in a little prayer… “Dear Lord and Heavenly Father, Great God above. Please see it in Your heart that someday when The Basement venue is empty without a living soul to be harmed, that You will, In your Grace, cause those obnoxious pillars to collapse and fill the entire Basement with rubble so that it can never again be used as a concert venue. In Your Name we pray.”

The bartenders are nice. The bathrooms are filled with previous concert venue stickers and fun graffiti. These are the only two redeeming qualities of The Basement.

Avoid.