Quote:
Originally Posted by _Q_
The Palace was my go to spot in my early 20s for partying and getting into stupid fights. The best night I ever had there, however, was a Deadmau5 concert during it's Flames central days. The Kaskade concert was also incredible.
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I was at both those shows also. When it first opened, it was good times. I remember BBC radio's Pete Tong playing one of the first nights it opened and he got on the mic and screamed 'this place if ####ing awesome!'. Crowd went nuts. Felt good to have a nice venue like that. At first.
Then the place slowly went down the ####ter. Probably the worst thing they did was when the would sell tickets for some shows, you had to buy a ticket for upstairs or downstairs. Couldn't access both floors. Incredibly stupid. Even more stupid was sometimes they would close off the top floor completely to make it seem more busy. That place only has 2 washrooms, and one of them was upstairs. By not allowing anyone upstairs, everyone was forced to walk down the stairs on the east side, past the busy coat check line to the lone washrooms in the basement. Absolutely stupid that a venue that size only had 2 washrooms, and often times they would make only one accessible. I guess they truly were trying to replicate the saddledome experience with long lines that made everyone mad.
Then they started letting in questionable patrons. The place was always full of ###### gang member wannabes and I know for a fact the door staff knew exactly which ones were selling drugs and they would always let them in, no questions. The sound system was pure crap and never got upgraded. One DJ from Toronto who was pretty big at the time (Arnej) was promoted as starting a new residency there and he backed out after his first gig. Went on twitter and just ripped the place how crappy the staff was and how poor the sound management was. He never returned.
Last time I was there over 4 years ago, I got jumped by a bunch of guys who thought I was throwing ice them. Got the crap beat out of me and not a single staff member helped me at any point. Finally got outside and didn't even get asked by security what happened even though I had a huge gash on my forehead and was bleeding everywhere. My friend called a couple days later to tell them I wanted access to the video tapes to send to the police, and of course ''the camera's were off that day and regardless it's not our policy to release footage''. Talked to my friend who did promotions at the place and he said there were 5-6 fights that night and it was completely out of control. Just another night at FC.
Good riddance, I'm so glad the FC brand is being shut down. A prime example of what is wrong with the Calgary night scene. Always heard good things about the Palace so hopefully they can continue where they left off. The building itself was nice to be in. But all the problems just compounded and made it a place that ended up being a stink hole.
Palace Theatre Returns - Flames Central is no more
