Toronto’s Best Concert Venues 2012

Dec 31 2012 – After seeing over 200 bands perform this year T-Mak World declares our favorite live venues to see live rock in Toronto. The combination of artist selection, vibe, location and prices all came into consideration and we will simply group our picks into 3 categories. Small, Medium and Large – we wont bother with the Jumbo sized venues such as Air Canada Centre, Molson Amphitheater and Rogers Center because they are unfortunately the only choices for large concerts. None of them stand out in our opinion as anything spectacular and the only thing that matters for those venues is ultimately how close one sits to the stage. Here is what we liked this year:

By “Small” we mean a typical bar and has something like 200 person capacity. Out of all the bars we visited this year one stood out for us as consistently providing a good time. Our winner of T-Mak World’s Best Small Concert Venue of 2012 is The Hideout at 484 Queen Street West. During NXNE, CMW and Indie Week, The Hideout was our central location for every night. Their selection of music was absolutely rocking during those festivals and even without the festival presence the bar showcased some of the best rock Toronto has to offer. We hope to see each and every one of our Top 10 Indie Bands of 2012 play there in 2013. The bar has a very healthy association with Jameson whisky and the Irish whisky is the natural drink of choice in such a rocking bar owned by two Irish bros. We even contemplated camping out at the bar for all for CMW and NXNE in 2013 and not even bar hop to the other neighbouring venues. Oh and the venue has a totally awesome patio as well! The Hideout’s website is found here.

We consider “Medium” to be 1000-1500 capacity and in fact our winner in this category can hold 1129 seated patrons and 1400 standing or GA patrons. With recent renovations The Danforth Music Hall looks fantastic and sounds even better. General Manager Michael Sherman told us that the venue now has “the Cadillac of sound systems, an L’Accoustic DV-DOSC, so that the experience of seeing a show here was second to none.” With such an incredible sound system and a historic building one is sure to have a great night out. If you believe your environtment can directly affect the enjoyment of a concert then the Danforth delivers in spades. Conveniently located within a 3 minute walk of Broadview TTC Station the venue is also a stones throw from many great pubs and the Greektown of Danforth Ave. You can read one of our reviews from The Danforth with The Musical Box (Genesis tribute) here. The Danforth Music Hall is located at 147 Danforth Avenue and their website is here.

The over 3000 capacity winner is hands down the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts (capacity 3191). The Sony Centre is Canada’s largest soft seat venue and completed renovations in 2010. Originally built in 1950 the venue was previously called the O’Keefe Centre and the Hummingbird Centre. There is not a bad seat in the house, and the classy and airy foyer is a great gathering place before the concert. Conveniently located at 1 Front Street East (which is a 5 minute walk from Union Station) the Sony Centre. It just feels good to watch a concert here and unlike the other contender the seats are quite spacious and offer good leg room. Our only complaint about the venue is that not enough rock shows come through here and we wish promoters take advantage of this venue more! You can read our Brit Floyd review from the Sony Centre here and their website is found here.

Verdict: Congratulations to The Hideout, The Danforth Music Hall and The Sony Centre for the Performing Arts for being wonderful homes for great rock artists to perform. We hope to spend alot more time in these 3 locations in 2013.