Long Beach Terrace Theatre

Before the show I spent a really eerie time walking around the Long Beach Convention Center, so quiet and empty, when a couple of weeks before there were 60,000 screaming fans who couldn’t be heard over the roar of the engines at the Long Beach Grand Prix.

Inside the Terrace Theater, which is right next to the Convention Center--the round building painted with whales and dolphins--I had my first encounter with a sensor-driven water fountain; started up before I was ready. Much like the Dorothy Chandler in downtown El Lay, there’s a huge lobby going up all the way to the roof, with expensive-looking chandeliers, which might be plastic, for all you can see of them at such a great height. There are, however, fantastic views of all of long Beach from inside the theater, especially to the east, with the corn cob hotel looking as prominent as the building that tries to pretend it’s a Georgian castle. Northward were all the skyscrapers that make up downtown Long Beach. From the balcony level you can see the little bay that makes up most of Long Beach, all the way to the far east where my buddy Christiane had her wedding. To the south you could make out the Queen Mary, and of course there was the perfect view of the convention center with the whales and dolphins painted on it, which of course led to. . . at first I thought it was a sound check, but maybe “Come Home To the Sea” {from the band I came to see Mannheim Steamroller} was on the house music--either way, pumped me up, especially at the beginning when you hear the dolphins on the soundtrack while looking at the painting. . .

In this theater--quite the overbearing name itself--it’s a lounge, not a restroom, though neither the urinals nor the sinks hade sensors like the water fountain. And apparently I was the first one in--the lights were off. Inside the actual performance area, there’s a Cubist roof; don’t know how that works with the acoustics, but it’s right out of Escher’s Med painting. And with a smile I notice that my seat is right in the middle again, just like the first Rush concert, at the Hollywood Bowl.

Well, I’ve certainly been in far worse music venues, and really, all you need is a comfortable seat and a good view of the show. But there’s something about its use of pretentious words like theatre and lounge that gets my hackles up, so I’m giving it a four, not that it matters--if the music you like is playing here, go watch them! If not, it’s an easy miss. . .

{If by chance you want to read the blog about the concert:
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=10579346&blogID=390699368&Mytoken=52B03996-1EE0-4132-82ECE9C21F623619170924594 }