Tennessee Theatre — Attraction in Knoxville

DENIED ENTRY by RUDE and POWER-TRIPPING Travis Monday, the theatre's assistant general manager, over my transparent attempt to bring in a single translucent sealed bottle of Nestle Pure Life Water. I had just showed the female usher a picture of my COVID Vaccine Card on my phone. She then reasonably asked for my ID to make sure that I was indeed the person listed on the vaccine card. I then proceeded to open a high-resolution copy on my phone's PDF reader. That ended up taking about 25 seconds to actually load. During that time or just before her asking for my ID, he asked me about the bottle of water. I mentioned my reasons for having the bottle, but my answers weren't to his satisfaction.

He then asked me to step back away from the queue. I was going to show the female employee my ID and then step back to speak with him or her. Once I presumed it wouldn't load and having heard him ask me to step back a few times, I obliged his request. I didn't expect anyone behind me to be pointlessly held up if my phone was going to be such an issue.

At the moment I stepped back, he had become incredibly testy and OUTRAGEOUSLY rude. I've never been treated in such a manner at any concert venue. I've attended a ton of events at the Bijou, Civic Auditorium & Coliseum and have never had such a terrible experience at those venues or any other venue throughout the country. I then just asked him why he had such an attitude and from that moment the situation quickly devolved into a sad and relentless power trip by the despicably NASTY and heartless Travis Monday.

I wasn't sure if he was upset about me not having a mask or if it was that I took about twenty seconds before stepping back to speak with him. But something clearly had him alight and on an outright ego trip. Within a few moments he threatened to keep me from entering the venue and in doing so showed what his unjustifiable goal happened to be. Within another moment, he flatly said I could not enter. At about this point, I unhappily offered to throw the bottle away if he was going to be so utterly ridiculous and discriminatory. But that didn't matter to him. He had made the decision to go on his pathetic power trip and there was no turning back for him. I left the venue about fifteen minutes later. I also made sure to tell him and his colleagues that I would be reaching out to his manager(s) regarding his discriminatory, insensitive and grossly unjustified conduct.

I take no joy in writing this review. I really hate to have write such a scathing review at all. I've been to the Tennessee Theatre about fifty(50) times over the years with my first visit happening in either 2007 or 2008. I've always had a wonderful time there. I've NEVER had a single negative instance occur with any staff member during my previous visits. The venue is incredibly beautiful. I can in fact specifically recall being treated most kindly by staff members on my many previous visits. In light of all that, it really pains me to have share my extraordinarily negative experience for what is an AMAZING venue but for the INSANELY RUDE and UNREASONABLE Travis Monday.

I spoke to John at the box office later that night. He exemplified the usual pleasantness that I'd come to know over the years when visiting the Tennessee Theatre. He provided me with the General Manager's information. I assured John that I would absolutely be following up with the General Manager, Tom Bugg, regarding the gross mistreatment that befell me exclusively at the hands of the assistant manager Travis Monday

A manager should lead the way by showing his or her colleagues the appropriate manner in which to treat a guest. Travis Monday epically fails in this regard. He showed his colleagues how NEVER to treat a visitor to the Tennessee Theatre. Rather than being an asset to his team and this historically significant venue, he's an ABSOLUTE LIABILITY. If he's willing to flippantly treat one visitor so poorly, he'll most definitely do the same thing again. Travis Monday personifies LIABILITY and...

So, I was attempting to buy tickets for the Tribute to Abba Concert on Thursday, 08/15. The performance had been sold out prior to the night of the concert. When I stopped by the Box Office to inquire about seeing if they knew if any seats might open up and be released the day of the Concert. The lady at the Box Office was friendly and helpful, and said that I could absolutely check at the box office the day of the concert to see if any seats had opened up. I did notice that seats had in fact opened up the day of the concert. However, there was an issue when I tried purchasing them thru Ticketmaster. And I was advised to purchase them at the Box Office. Unfortunately, due to unforseeable circumstances, I was a bit late for the concert. When I attempted to proceed to the box office thru the front door, and very RUDE, INCONSIDERATE, and UNPROFESSIONAL, who was apparently part of the team pushed himself in front of me telling me that I could NOT inquire at the box office to purchase a single ticket, despite tickets still being available for sale. I understand the need for Security, but the attitude of this person was completely disrespectful, and humiliating. He the. Proceeded to follow me onto the sidewalk. It was harassment. I don't think he was Security, as his shirt read "staff event". I have attended concerts and events at this theatre for over 2 decades, and have always had good experiences prior to this occurrence. NOBODY deserves to be treated this way. I have attended events at concert halls and venues all over the world, and I have NEVER been mistreated in such a way. I should have recorded it. Definitely will next time. One of these days this guy will be on the opposite side. And, I hope he gets treated the same way that I was treated, so he can see...

We watched the Cinderella front man, Tom Keifer sing his heart out to adoring fans last night but the sound kept glitching in and out every few seconds for the whole show. Instead of fixing the issue the house sound crew didn't do anything to fix the problem. I've been to hundreds of shows and seen many technical issues arise, but it was always made a priority and either the issue was fixed or "plan B" was implemented. I once watched Metallica be forced to do an acoustic set due to issues and it was great.

We had a party of 7 that drove from London, Ky to see the show and was not disappointed with the show but was very disappointed with the sound. The Tennessee Theater is a beautiful venue, but Travis Monday and his sound team failed on every level last night. I don't know how much Mr. Keifer paid the Tennessee Theater to rent the facility but I hope he was refunded. Yes, it was that bad. The stage left, hanging amp stack kept going in and out causing one sided stereo which sounds really weird. Imagine listening to headphones with only one side working, you miss half of the instruments and vocals. The worse part for me was missing the iconic lead guitar riffs and raspy vocals that Keifer is best known for.

The only way that I would ever see another show at the Tennessee Theater is for them to (1) publicly apologize to the band and fans for the terrible sound last night. (2) guarantee the band and fans that the sound issues will be resolved. (3) If sound issues DO occur in the future have a "plan B" that satisfies the band to carry on the show with great sound.

The truth is the band gave it everything last night and the sound crew ruined their...