Marin Center Box Office — Attraction in San Rafael

My first experience with the MVMA (and Marin, for that matter) was a mere two months ago or so, coming up this way for a Jake Shimabukuro concert with a girl I was dating at the time. If you've never heard of the man, Youtube him: he does magic with a ukulele!

While positive overall, I did have a few mixed opinions about the venue. Let's start with the most important part of a venue for a musical performance: the sound system and setup here was fantastic. For those who care about lighting and effects, theirs were also surprisingly nice: no, not EDM show level impressive, but, very nice for small and solo acts.

As for the venue itself, while the outside and lobbies were quite nice, a careful glance around the auditorium itself showed that the place was definitely a little dated. To each their own on how to react to that: perhaps it's nostalgic and has character - to me, it just felt a little old and worn. That aside, the interior is fairly spacious, and performances without many (or any) intermissions won't notice that the two lobbies on either side are actually quite small, which was only noticeable to us because of the meet and greet Jake did after the show.

Accessibility Info

Venue - For a venue of their size, I was actually a little surprised at the amount of accessible wheelchair seating they had. Located roughly in the middle of the auditorium, where one of the main walkways was, were a smattering of spaces designated as wheelchair... parking spaces, if you will, with some adjacent seating reserved for accompanying guests.

Bathroom - I believe there were a set of bathrooms on each side of the auditorium. Either way, there is at least one that is...

Just had my first experience at this venue and I would say it's just okay. The place is huge for a veterans memorial hall and the outside and grounds are beautiful.

Appearance wise, It looks very nice inside as well, but the parking is ridiculous for sold out performances. We had to go blocks away from the venue to get a space in one of their "onsite" lots, but did everyday find one. After the show it was a standing traffic jam to get out, which took close to an hour.

The Box Office line was a block long and under staffed, leaving many of us who came "early" rushing to get to our seats before the performance began. They definitely have "nose bleed" seats in this auditorium, high enough that you have a little trouble hearing the lower speaking on stage and you can see the performers, but not their facial details.

The Seats themselves were not very comfortable, but they did have ushers to help you find yours in the darkened theatre.

Not anxious to see another performance here, but It's give it one more try before...

Great venue with plenty of parking. The auditorium is located right next to a small lake/park. The seating was spacious with plenty of leg room. We were there for the Bob Woodward lecture as part of the Marin Speaker Series.

I was a bit disappointed by Bob Woodward. I expected Woodward to provide his take on the NSA snooping, drum beats to war with Syria, etc. And doing so, perhaps, share some valuable nuggets of insider information that will help us to cut through the hot smoke of demagoguery. Instead, the lecture was an off-the-cuff, stream of the consciousness affair. It was more about his experience rubbing elbows with the Washington elite. I disagree his view that the "fiscal cliff" was the result of the politicians unable to reach a compromise. In any case, in my opinion, the journalist who broke the Watergate story is now part of the Washington...