El Mocambo — Local services in Toronto

They spent so much money renovating that they completely lost sight of what makes a good concert venue.

Some good things: the bathrooms are nice, it's got great decor, that's about all I can think about.

To enter the stage area, when you open the closest of 2 doors, for a sold out show, the other side of this door is packed bodies with no where to enter. So you go to the second door which is the back side of the main bar. Sure, but you can't see anything, and you have to snake through this narrow pathway to get anywhere near the stage. The layout of this venue being a "side-filling" venue, rather than a normal front to back filling venue, makes it so getting in and trying to see anything but the side of the band near impossible. Sightlines are truly awful unless you're in the front few rows. Likewise with the balcony, if you're not in the front row, you can't see, because the balcony is basically overtop of the stage. I know this is mostly the original layout, but it is impressive how they didn't think about the viewing experience here.

They spent so much money on "state of the art" cameras and recording equipment that take up valuable floor space with the wide tripod legs and camera operators, to shoot concert footage nobody will ever watch again. This also means it's a no crowd surfing venue. The security watch like hawks and prevent any such fun from being had. Really cool stuff for a punk/rock venue.

Ticket prices are also through the roof, as if the owner has no idea how much a typical concert happening down the road costs.

I genuinely do not know what bands would book shows here as the types of bands that made the original elmo great wouldn't want to play at a venue you can't get a little rowdy at or price their fans out of seeing them.

Fantastic...

I attended a concert Nov 13 at the El Mocambo, the concert itself was amazing, sound was amazing, venue looks fantastic since the renovations, bathrooms were the most impressive because I remember what they were like back in the day. Here is my only issue, whoever the Manager or Host is was very rude. We purchased VIP tickets which included balcony seats/area. We were there for sound check prior to the show so we sat up in the balcony and had full view of the stage. When the sound check was over the Manager/Host came and told everyone sitting along that section that we needed to move because these seats for for VIP. I said I paid for VIP and he proceeded to tell me that people pay $75,000 a year to have those seats, I said ok but we paid for VIP for the balcony he said we had to move to the side seats which were majority already full and the only seats remaining were side stage which sometimes part of the stage/screen is blocked. He said well you had your VIP experience so you will need to move and reminded me again these seats are $75,000 a year. I said well maybe you should have blocked these from the beginning so people knew that. It was embarrassing, I felt like a child be schooled for doing something wrong and also made me feel that I wasn't worthy sitting there because of $75, 000 seats. I have no issue with VIP areas and people who have "season tickets" but block the area off and don't embarrass people like that. I also found the bar tenders rude. I don't know what you have at the bar so when I ask for a drink there is no need to be so angry when responding, one said there was a menu but couldn't find it. I only went to this venue because of the band playing and because I have been a fan for over 35 years, after this experience I will never go to this...

As a rock music affectionado, I was quite interested when the ELMO was acquired by Grosso and Patrucci in 2012, with view to restoring it to its former glory, as a band-bar …

I attended the place a couple of times, after the re-opening and I was initially quite impressed by some of the acts and by the patrons. The was a good vibe about the place. Some of the more interesting patrons appear to have been followers of the Cadillac Lounge. The place was attracting a good demographic and was interesting to hang out in.

Somewhere along the way the wheels fell off. I was befuddled when the announcements appeared that the ELMO was promoting high price all inclusive nights with fine cuisine (who goes to a dive band-bar for the fine dining???)… So I was thinking to myself, “oh noo, the management has got the concept wrong …” somebody has delusions of grandeur..

Next, as I stopped by on a Saturday night, there was muscled-up door man asking too high prices for no name acts.. I said, “thank, but I think I will pass..” Apparently others were too.

As another commenter suggested, the Web site was primitive and confusing and there was no phone number you could contact to get information about upcoming acts , etc.…. very bad in this day and age of tech-savy patrons with limited attention spans.

Next time I stopped by, I see the place is shuttered. So I am wondering why?

It appears the partners had some sort of falling out, probably over the way the place was run and the bills were catching up.

It would be great if the place could restored and rehabilitated as a venue to watch rock bands.. Are we asking too much??

So who has $3.9 millon burning a whole in his or...