Spanish Ballroom at Elks Temple — Local services in Tacoma

My husband and I took our son to the Spanish Ballroom for the Haunted Puget Sound, History Pub Night. We had heard great things about the venue from several friends and we were really looking forward to a unique family outing. The venue was beautiful but a little hard to navigate as a first time guest. As we attempted to locate the Spanish Ballroom, we came across several other confused patrons making their way to the same location. We were early and able to get seating at one of the few tables offered, with the bonus of a getting good view of the guest speaker(who we enjoyed). We ordered our food among the group of early guests and sat down wait. As we watched all the other people being served, some who arrived after we had, I started to worry that we had been forgotten. Our wait extended out to an hour and from what I could tell, we were the last to be served. Once our food finally arrived, our sides were cold, the grilled cheese was room temperature and burger was warm but still quite pink. Given that this was our first visit, we were not aware that off menu items were an option, so we asked for the grilled cheese, intending to get the caprese grilled cheese listed on the menu. This would have easily been brushed off as our mistake but instead, further added to our disappointment after the long wait and cold food. As a first time impression, this was quite...

Unsafely Overcrowded. NEVER GOING AGAIN.

Immediate impression was unorganized chaos for the ticket line. People were scrambling in from different directions and being pushed back downstairs where 3-person-wide lines were barging up. I just spent hundreds of dollars at the restaurant on the venue level but was rudely herded through an ascending mob just to come back up.

Got through the security check and couldn't get further because it was completely overcrowded. There was absolutely no walking room and the crowd was backed up all the way to the bar and metal detectors. No one was moving in to the room. No place to push through. I was literally butt to the bar with nowhere to go, fighting for space with folks wanting to get a drink and folks trying to put their jackets and purses back on from the checkpoint.

I've been to hundreds of concerts and this isn't my first time attending a sold out show. But I couldn't even get out to the floor or see the band through the blinding overhead bar lights.

Walked out and had some manager tell us he was within capacity and was tired of people telling him his shows are "oversold". Sounds like this may be a recurring problem if he keeps hearing that. He refused a refund and insisted that we had to just squish in "like sardines".

Never again, Spanish Ballroom. And I'll just keep my patronage away from your entire...

Saw Gary Numan here awhile back. Gary Numan is an amazing performer and I was happy it was a venue that is so close to where I hang out. However, it was SO loud and distorted, I listened to one song and had to walk out and hang out in the bar, which was sad because I've always wanted to see Gary Numan. It was painful. I'm not sure if the volume was up too loud, but either way the sound was awful. It's not a very big room, it's not like they need it that loud. The distortion made the music very hard to hear. I don't know about you, but the only reason I like or don't like a venue (besides how reasonable staff and security is) is the SOUND. Maybe it's just not good for metal shows, I'm not sure. But I'm sound picky and didn't want hearing damage so I had to miss the show I was so excited to see because I couldn't stand it. Besides that, the drinks were very limited. The overall look was cool, but that was about it. Sound and loudness makes or breaks it for me, and louder doesn't...