Lines Overlapping: Parents: 7 Reasons Your Kids Should Go See Panic! at the Disco

All About The Warfield San Francisco

Several of you have asked me about The Warfield Theatre, which is a 2,250 seat venue in the heart of San Francisco. It’s one of my favorites. The best things:

• The venue attracts great bands
• Good sound, well mixed
• Even the upstairs is nice with a lot of elbow room
• A friendly experienced staff who seem to be true music fans
• Good bars and really good food brought in from next door
• It has a storied history, and was pretty much the official theatre of The Grateful Dead.

The marginal things:

• Well, the neighborhood is a bit sketch. 

Here’s more…

Founded in 1922(!)

The Warffield is named after a famous stage actor from San Francisco, and opened in 1922 at the Loew’s Warfield. The neighborhood has changed a bit in the ensuing years, but The Warfield remains steady and strong right there in the middle of Market street:

The Warfield has hosted everything from twenties era Jazz greats to tons of Rock and Metal shows, and for a while was regarded as pretty much the official theatre of The Grateful Dead. They have a bunch of interesting pictures inside like this one of the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia:

Indeed, if there is a famous person you can name in Rock or Jazz history, they have probably played the Warfield.

Ownership of The Warfield has passed through numerous hands, and today it is owned and managed by the entertainment company AEG, which owns several other famous venues including the Satples Center in LA.

Outside and the Neighborhood

There’s this one thing: While I love The Warfield, is definitely not in the high rent district.

In fact, the somewhat seedy neighborhood is my only footnote to friends when describing this venue. The Warfield is located at the intersection of the Tenderloin and SOMA in San Francisco — what some reviewers have described as “bum city.”  Yes, you’ll definitely see winos and homeless people in the adjacent area. And, just to add extra color, there’s a “Gentleman’s Club” right next door. But, the good news is that fans lining up for a show outnumber any seedy characters by about 500-to-1 and I have never myself felt threatened or that I’m in a dangerous area. You will make friends with fellow fans and won’t even notice any eccentric locals.

From these pictures of folks lined up for a show, you can see there are a lot of fans in a line that stretches down the block and into the distance:

Don’t worry about the sketch street; your fan friends will take care of you.

Once Inside

Once inside, you are in for an amazing show. It’s a venue designed for performances, and I have seen some great ones there.

Inside the door, The Warfield is a meandering set up with various staircases to the balconies upstairs and entrance to the very large General Admission (GA) area.

There’s pretty good food, and at least six bars inside (see below), so you’ll never want for refreshment. When you come in, there’s a food counter where you can order hotdogs and sandwiches (brought in from a neighboring restaurant, so they’re better than you’d expect) and beer, etc.

Further down the main internal promenade is a grand staricase to upstairs, and merch tables are usually set up at the base of these stairs. GA is to the doors to the left as you come in.

Here’s a picture of the merch tables under the stairs. It’s compact but convenient:

Seats Overview

This seat map shows an overview of the options inside The Warfield. The main thing to remember is that if you want to be up close and don’t mind standing, you just want General Admission (GA) tickets; if you want a seat the best option is upstairs and the Warfield web site will automatically get you the best seat available.

The GA Area

The GA area for The Warfield is pretty big, and that’s because there are actually four GA areas: The main pit (which is small), a landing above (generally my favorite place, because it’s eye-level from the stage and finally a third and fourth level behind which also have pretty good views and acoustics.

The pit is pretty small, as you can see from this picture taken from the very back of the pit at a Dream Theater Show:

It’s an intimate experience, and you won’t have much elbow room. But you’ll be closer to the band. To give you a better idea of the layout, here’s a side picture of the pit and first landing, not popuated, from a Jason Mraz soundcheck (photo credit Kurt Rogers SF Gate):

This picture by Gil Regio from right up front gives you an idea of the expanse of The Warfield first level and GA.

By the way, if you have a balcony ticket they probably won’t let you into the GA area, and vice-versa. Also, there is really not seating on the ground floor except for a small VIP area at the very back, which is not where you want to be anyway.

The Balcony

First of all, it’s worth saying that the sound upstairs is great, and the view from the balcony is pretty awesome. Here’s the view from a Lamb Of God show about 10 rows up in the upper loge:

And, here’s what the balcony set up is like. Unlike some older theatres, it isn’t too cavernous so even if you have way back seats the sound is pretty good.

Sound

The Warfield has great sound and the mixing has always been excellent at the shows I’ve been to. Here’s a pic I took of the sound board before a show, and you can also see some of the GA area:

Drinks and Bars

I lose count, but there have got to be at least six bars inside The Warfield. There are a least four in the main GA area, a very nice bar upstairs, and a place to get beer and soda near the entrance.

There are also drink waiters and waitresses that will bring you things. Yay for that. They are great, and it means you don’t have to move from your cherished spot.

Food

As I mentioned, there’s a food counter as you come in. You’ll place an order, have a seat on the nearby bench and they’ll call you a few minutes later when it’s ready. The food is from a next door restaurant called Showdogs, and here’s a sampling of what they have:

- 49′er All Beef Dog: our mustard, our sauerkraut, pickle
- Field Roast Veggie Dog:  house coleslaw, our mustard, pickle
- Chicken Curry Dog:  apple chutney, our mustard, arugula, pickle
- Maple Bacon Dog:  our mustard, arugula, pickle
- Pickled Hot Link:  black river blue cheese, arugula, pickle
- Chili Cheese Dog:  house made natural chili, organic cheddar, pickle
- BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich:  house coleslaw, BBQ sauce, pickle
- Meatloaf Sandwich: house coleslaw, BBQ sauce, pickle
- Sausage Plate:  2 dogs, house sauerkraut, potato salad, pickle
- BBQ Hot Wings:  Blue Cheese Sauce, pickle
- House Potato Salad
- House Sweet and Sour Spicy Slaw
- All Natural Beef Chili
- Cheese Popcorn
- Kettle Chips

Parking

It’s San Francisco, so street parking isn’t great. But, there’s a pretty good parking lot right behind (and actually underneath)The Warfield on Turk street. If you’re coming from the south, the best way to get to that is to take Taylor street past Market and hang a left at Turk:

To give you a better idea in pictures, here’s a side shot of The Warfield building. 

Basically, turn right on Turk, and prepare to make a quick right turn into the driveway as soon as you see these pretty murals on your right.

More Parking: You can also go to the huge 5th and Mission garage a few blocks away. (Late at night I recommend walking with friends there, as you’re in a big city. But in a post-show concert crowd you’re fine.)

Public Transportation

San Francisco Muni stops right there in the same black, and the BART Powell or Civic Center stations are just a couple of blocks away.

Things to Bring

• Concert ear plugs (in case it gets loud OR the woman next to you likes to make ear-piercing hog-call style whistles)
• A coat or sweater for after the show (it gets cold in the city)
• Binoculars (if you are sitting in the upper balcony)
• A small camera

Note that videotaping with a small camera or iPhone seems mostly to be OK at The Warfield., as long as you’re not disturbing the other fans.

End Note

Today, you will see lots of fans for a popular show arriving many hours early to be the first in line. Apparently it’s a grand tradition: Here’s a picture of a guy waiting for the opening of the first show of 1935’s Gone With The Wind:

See also:

The Warfiled main web site

The Warfield on Yelp

The Warfield On Trip Advisor

Google Maps’ Street View of The Warfield

Wikipedia Entry for The Warfield

Historical photos from the San Francisco Library historical photos: 

More:

• About A Parent’s Guide to Concerts
• Follow Us on Facebook

More Pictures

Panic! At The Disco:

(Credit: Gil Regio)

Bay to Breakers kick-off:

Posters: