How North Texas venues’ sounds stacks up

Sound can make or break a concert. The best performance in the world can be ruined by a bad mix, inaudible instruments and vocals, echo or sheer volume. While the sound engineer is an essential part of this sometimes ruinous equation, the design and architecture of the room in which the artist is performing is critical as well. Engineers can only work with what they’re given.

Here’s a rundown on some North Texas venues and their sound.

Arenas

American Airlines Center, Dallas: With its capacity of 18,500, this sports arena has also played host to some of the biggest concerts DFW has seen over the last decade, with everyone from Kanye West and Jay Z to Miranda Lambert and Garth Brooks making an appearance. As with AT&T Stadium, where you sit largely determines how great — or not — a concert will sound, as, much like the other big sports space, the AAC was not designed to be an acoustically forgiving venue.

Gexa Energy Pavilion, Dallas: Next to AT&T Stadium, this amphitheater inside Fair Park is the biggest venue North Texas has to offer, with a capacity of 20,000 (7,500 of that reserved seating under the canopy). Still, it’s possible to deliver — as Radiohead did in 2008 — a concert that sounds far more crisp than might be expected for an outdoor shed of this size.

Mid-size

Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie: While it’s easy to ding this 6,350-capacity venue for bland architecture and lack of personality, it generally has good sound and unobstructed sightlines, even in the back of the room. That it’s designed specifically for music makes all the difference in the world.

The Bomb Factory, Dallas: This Deep Ellum venue — one in a growing series of rooms revitalized by Clint and Whitney Barlow — holds about 4,300, which makes it one of the rare mid-size spaces in DFW. That it also, generally, sounds pretty clean is just icing on the cake.

Small halls and clubs

Bass Hall, Fort Worth: Designed for classical music and opera in a style reminiscent of the stereotypical European opera house, this 2,000-seat venue is also very good for pop music that’s not meant to be heavily amplified or distorted. For styles ranging from the chilly soundscapes of Iceland’s Sigur Ros to the big-band twang of Lyle Lovett, Bass Hall has proved to be perfect.

Live Oak Music Hall & Lounge, Fort Worth: An intimate space tucked away just off Magnolia Avenue on Fort Worth’s Near Southside, this 300-capacity room puts a premium on providing pristine sound for everything from rap to jazz. Its bookings favor singer-songwriters — from up-and-comers like Reagan James to established veterans like Leon Russell — but it is easily one of the best-sounding venues in North Texas.

Lola’s Saloon, Fort Worth: This outpost of predominantly local music is situated just across from the bustle of West Seventh Street and has been, over the last decade, steadily expanding to fill an ever-larger footprint. Now home to three stages — one indoor, one outdoor and another located not far away at Lola’s Trailer Park — the main room holds about 300, and despite its gritty exterior, generally provides clean, clear sound.

House of Blues, Dallas: While the mix is usually fine at the 1,600-capacity HOB, it’s audience noise and chatter that work against bands here. Maybe it’s due to the large bar on the ground floor or perhaps a larger influx of tourists attracted by the HOB brand more than the headliner, but the level of crowd commentary seems to be exceptionally high. You might be better off in the balcony.

South Side Music Hall, Dallas: With a capacity of 1,500, this venue is one of three in the Gilley’s complex (the others being the Loft and South Side Ballroom). As the room is an intermediate step in the hierarchy of performance spaces, its sound depends largely upon the act on stage: Cat Power, in a rare gig, sounded immaculate, while Miguel and Frank Ocean were a bit muddier.

Kessler Theater, Dallas: This former movie theater has gained a reputation as a room with pristine sound and attentive audiences who don’t talk. It helps that it’s small with a capacity of around 500 and takes the Alamo Drafthouse approach in that management doesn’t suffer disruptive fools gladly. Two women who were asked to leave during a Lee Ann Womack show last year even briefly became internet stars when they ranted outside the theater and it ended up on video.

Granada Theater, Dallas: If you don’t mind the often cramped, standing-room-only policy for the floor, this 1,000-capacity former movie theater is one of the best places to see — and, equally as important, hear — a show in the region. Even along the sides and the back, the sound is balanced and rarely abrasive.

Sons of Hermann Hall, Dallas: Built in 1911, this historic structure, which holds about 350 people, is one of the best-sounding venues in DFW thanks to low ceilings and wood everywhere. The result is that a band like the Church, whose chiming, psychedelic rock might be muddy or indistinct in other venues, sounded sharp and crisp when they played here this year.

Cary Darling and Preston Jones

This story was originally published August 25, 2016 at 10:51 AM with the headline "How North Texas venues’ sounds stacks up."