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Club Retro
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- No
- Parking:
- Private Lot
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Music:
- Live
- Best Nights:
- Thu, Fri, Sat
- Happy Hour:
- No
- Alcohol:
- None
- Smoking:
- Outdoor Area/ Patio Only
- Coat Check:
- No
3 reviews for Club Retro
Club Retro is pretty cool and Cody K. is tripping. Every show I've been to at Club Retro has been packed, but without feeling like you're a sardine in a can like at The Boardwalk.
The venue doesn't let bands cuss or disrobe or basically do anything too offensive, but considering bands like The Secretions play there regularly, the rules aren't that intrusive and shouldn't stop any bands from playing a show.
The place is huge, great sound system, huge stage, really cool lighting system. It's new and clean and has an affordable snack bar. Because it's at a church, it has a large parking lot. When it's cold and there's a huge line, it is so nice to wait in a warm car. So nice.
The negatives:
1.) It's in Orangevale.
2.) The crowd is almost exclusively underage kids. At 25 I don't like being the oldest person there aside from the bands.
3.) Shows start super early. I am just not ready to rock out at 7 p.m. (On the plus side, you can stay for an entire show and then catch a bar show downtown.)
4.) Sometimes the vibe is too chill.
When headliners take the stage, the place goes crazy and kids stage drive, mosh, and it's great. But many times during openers, the vibe is just off and it doesn't feel like an exciting live music club, but a community/church youth night.
Still, considering the alternatives, this place is the best for all-ages show.
People thought this was:
- Useful (1)
This place is awesome. This place is also big, which is the benefit of being built and run by a church, I suppose. Also, they have an upstairs VIP room - and I still have to do this - you can throw a concert, pick your bands and stuff, and if you rent the upstairs VIP room, they'll do it for you. In other words, you can have a concert, have the party upstairs, and it's all yours (except the costs!).
I was planning to have a big birthday party, and that offer was made to me and the girl I was gonna party with. I'll have to take advantage of it another time, cos I'm an attention whore and running a concert sounds SO awesome!
This place is also a youth group. Wednesday nights, you can watch Christian kids freak out to dead end musicians. I'm being mean, but I actually liked it there the few times I went, except for one problem: I'm not Christian. I'm not anything. But it served it's purpose in my life at the time, which I'm grateful for. If you're a Christian person under about 25, I'd suggest checking their youth group out. The people are super nice, and into their faith without being particularly scary.
In the end, Club Retro is rad.
People thought this was:
- Useful (2)
This would be a good venue - if people went to it. The room is huge, and the sound and light setup is super nice, but it's about a two-minute drive from the Boardwalk. Why go to Retro and hang out with 10 other kids watching some metal bands you've never heard of when you can just hop over to the Boardwalk?
That being said, they are pretty open to giving relatively new bands an opportunity to play shows (something that can't be said about the Boardwalk), and they (as of the last time I played there) had probably the second-best sound guy I had ever worked with. That may not mean a ton to spectators, but it makes things much easier on bands.
The upstairs room Melony mentioned seems strangely out of place to me. There are free drinks, snacks, video games and foosball (IIRC) for the bands, but I'm not sure it's encouraging the right mindset. Small, local shows should be about walking around and meeting people (especially for the members of the bands), not sitting in some kind of "VIP room" and just watching everyone else. It might be cool in a huge, well-known club, but when the dance floor is almost empty, you should do your duty and go join the others.
People thought this was:
- Useful (1)
