Sleep Train Pavilion

It looks as though it could do so much more, yet the acoustics just ... suck. I really tried to like this place, but whether I've had about enough with the boatload bucks for parking, or whatevah. I always walk away thinking to m'self ""It doesn't matter how amazing the performance, there's something always lacking"". It's just what it is. more

BF-J tells me put something nice on for our Saturday night. I'm an open minded GF so I ask, ""Something here in the house or to go out?"" He clarifies to go out, & prefers I not wear jeans & tennis shoes..hmmm. Driving into Concord this past Sat evening unsure where the heak he's taking us, & then he asks me to look in the glove compartment to get some flyer out of the envelope. Not a flyer at all, but rather 2 tickets to the Maxwell BLACKsummer's night Tour @ the Concord's Sleep Train Pavilion! I really ""heart"" this man ^_^ DATE NIGHT: Saturday, 10/17/09 WHERE: Concord, CA * Sleep Train Pavilion STARRING: Maxwell w/ pre-show performance from Chrisette Michele & Common TIME: 7:30pm - 11:30pm-ish SEATS: Section 201 Row MM Seats 5-6 PRICE: I think BF paid like $81/$86 per ticket (just under $200 bucks) PARKING: Feeling like we were deep in Concord or something, we arrived @ the front gates just around 7pm, their parking lot is free, staff directing parking traffic, & we get directed to park directly up front. Decent walking distance to entrance of STPavilion. Bit of an inclined hill, but my sandles had a thick heel & were tolerable w/ the walk (thank goodness). Prob suggest to ladies not to wear stilettos-like shoes as much walking is on an incline (up hill & down hill) plus some paved & unpaved areas. VENUE: Security checks BF, peak in my purse, & we're through the gates. Both our 1st time to Sleep Train Pavilion & discovering it's an outdoor theater. Shelter overhead for stage & major center seating areas. Outskirts of seating areas (Sec 201 & I believe Sec 205-206 are unsheltered, & further back away from stage, no shelter & lawn seating. Ushers w/ flashlights help u find ur seats. Seating was comfortable; arm rests weren't full length just something to rest ur elbows on. Bthrms outside venue where they are food/drink booths. Staff members walking-yelling up & down the aisles while stage lights off ""Bottle water here! Get ur kettle corn here!"" Almost made me think I was @ a baseball game. I'd recommend getting seats in rows that are ""doubled"" (ie, MM, LL, etc) for better stage views; rows w/ single letters will put u further back away from stage. PRESHOWS: 1st on stage right on time @ 7:30pm was Chrisette Michele. Such a beautiful voice! Her album is based off a break up in her life, & can just say dude should be lucky she doesn't mention his name. 2nd performance was the handsome & talented Common! Seriously, brotha ROCKED the audience w/ R&B & Hip Hop Classics! Definitely on stage longer than Chrisette & got displayed on 2 projector screens too. His swag was sooo on point for the ladies & his coolness was aiight w/ the fellas. THE MAIN SHOW: On stage about 9:20pm-ish, the soulful Maxwell! Definitely entertaining, sensual, funny, & all about love. Maxwell's mic talk to all the ladies who got pedicures matching their panties & how he'd devour his lady like sushi dipped in soy sauce...well, let's just say he got nothing but loud responses from the entire audience. Fellas w/ their dates were happy Maxwell was ""warming"" their lady for the ride home, & the single fellas were prob hopin' to catch one of the single ladies who were getting ""warmed"" up from Maxwell. Definitely a concert of love, sex, peace, love, & more sex. Maxwell was passin' out love in his music to whomever was feeling the soul, meanin' the sisters, latinas, asian ladies, & white ladies. Performances we enjoyed: * Fortunate * This Woman's Work * Til The Cops Come Knockin' * Bad Habits * Pretty Wings CURTAINS DOWN: Overall it was a great concert! BF believes he enjoyed Common more, but I enjoyed Common & Maxwell equally high. A wonderful surprise by my BF-J! As we suspected, traffic congestion in parking lot, but we were outside the gates in our car around 11:45pm-ish, so not bad really. Salamat po honeyko for the treat..oh that's right, I thanked you already ;-) more

I recently attended the Journey,Heart & Cheap Trick concert Sept 24th at this venue. I had been there in the past and this time the entire experience was horrible. \r After going through the main gate to get the ticket scanned (staff THERE were very nice people) we walked up to the food court / concert Tee both etc. Prices were off the hook!!! on EVERYTHING. 13.00 for a watered down Margarita that looked like some 7-11 slurpee. nasty frozen microwaved type burgers. all way over priced.\r After the concert started, there was some white trash hick and his ""woman"" who decided to stand up to dance (if thats what you wanna call it) and block the view of everyone behind them. After numerous attempts of polite requests to get them to sit down. we were all ignored . \r One at a time, everyone was approaching ""security"" and ""ushers"" who basically stood there watching the whole scene and said ""THERE IS NOTHING WE CAN DO"" \r \r BS!!\r \r Finally people started throwing Ice at them. then ""he"" was ready to fight and show off how macho he was to his date.\r Great Concert Experience here!!!!!! 1 RUDE IDIOT gets by with ruining the whole show for several others.\r \r So basically you pay 85.00 for a show that you cant enjoy because of some drugged up moron who is as low class as you can get. Why the Hell does this place even have security? are they patiently standing there waiting for a violent fight to break out??? ...because it almost happened. \r If people wanna stand up and shake their asses, buy a damn lawn ticket and show some respect.\r also...\r The sound level was so high that the music quality was about as bad as it could be. Total distortion.we ended up leaving half way through Journey's set because all agreed we were going to have permanent ear damage. \r My friends and I talked after leaving and decided none of us will ever return to this venue again. Cons: all listed in my review more

This is the first time i've gone to the Pavilion and I wasn't impressed. It's easy to get to and we went to GateA for parking general parking. There's 3 lanes and no signs so we get up to the guy and he's like you're in the wrong lane, you need to go out and come back around and get in back of the line, this lane is for employees only. So we drove ahead some and when we got to the start of the line i guess the head guy was there adn he just told us to sit tight, the gates were about to open anyway so that was cool but how about some signs if you're going to have reserved lanes ?! Concord is one of the hottest places in the bay area. 104 was the temp when we went there. There were lots of vendors around for food, drink and other cool treats and even some picnic areas, and being 'upstaris' in the concession/vendor area is the coolest place you'll find. Once you go down into 'the pit' where the seats are, it's way way hotter. There's a sun shield shading a good portion of the seating but when that places is full i think it just traps the overheated body -heat. It's dug down into the ground/hill so there is no breeze through there at all unlike the breeze you get up in the lawn seats. So sitting there was extremly uncomfortable due to the way the theater is designed to trap and hold heat. So i doubt we'll return the the Sleep Train Pavilion in the summer months again. Then after the show it took 90 minutes to get out of the parking lot ! Traffic direction was an epic failure. Cars were going every which direction but no one was getting out to the exit roads, it was just twisting disorganized lines everywhere. A total and complete traffic management failur. To avoid the wait don't do the VIP parking and don't get there early, you want to be among the last to park for a rear parking space. So overall i was happy with the show which has little to do with the venue and was also happy with the vendors but everything else was an epic failure. Pros: Great show and good concessions Cons: Bad theater design traps heat and 90 minute exit due to traffic mismanagement more