House Of Blues Boston

Please do yourself a favor, do NOT see a show here unless you have seats. Flew my best friend in from west coast for a show, paid $ 91 a ticket, ended up 3^rd floor standing room only. Ok fair enough we’ll find a good spot; WRONG! This place way oversells shows, and leaves you with 200 angry people fighting for 40 feet of railing. Horrible view all night, everyone super confrontational because they are all in the same boat.
Thanks HOB, for ruining what should have been an awesome show for us. Everyone else who was there: I feel your pain!

I saw Bloc Party here and there were a bunch of bros in the crowd snapchatting and yelling idiotic things the entire set. The venue doesn’t have any way to report bad fan behavior so we just left the stage area and went upstairs. Would not go back.

Venue staff are friendly I guess but not well trained/​knowledgeable.
They usually offer front of the line access to the concert to those that dine in their restaurant.
I called weeks before to confirm it was available for the event I was attending.
I then called 2pm the same day (concert entrance was scheduled to begin at 7pm) and the employee again confirmed it was available.
For this reason I stayed home until 5pm before the show, in order to have time to eat there, and be in front of the time.
Long story short, I ended up being at the end of the line because I wasn’t told until I arrived that the front of the line access was not in effect.
THANKS GUYS.
Also as I was leaving, I stopped to take a picture of the sign just inside the door and a staff member told me NOPE can’t take a picture of it. Come on I was just INSIDE the venue taking photos and they allow it. Wasn’t a big deal, but come on train your staff properly. can’t even take a photo of a sign saying «House of Blues Boston»? LOL.
Also the sound, you guys that mentioned it are right, it is pretty atrocious. Vocals are super hard to hear, in fact I couldn’t make out 1 word from the opening band. Get a new sound guy please.
Another annoying thing. pushy people do sneak in front of you. Be prepared to stand your ground and tell them to get the *&(#$ away.
Enjoy :-)

Went here last night for a concert ! Manager Joe took care of us, went to the foundation room which is amazing by the way before the show. Went up after the show as well and had its own Dj and the party kept going !

I’ve probably been to the House of Blues a dozen times throughout the years. I do not love the venue, but they continue to book shows that I want to see, and thus…
The employees are usually pretty mixed. I’ve found some to be very friendly and others to be quite the contrary. At one show my boyfriend had to help a friend get a cab, as she wasn’t feel well (uh) and they were pretty accommodating with him leaving and coming back in… which was surprising and DEFINITELY not the norm for this type of venue, as they are usually very strict with their rules (of which there are a lot)… it’s dubbed the House of Rules for a reason, people…
The most important tip I can give for this venue, is MAKE SURE YOU BUY THE CORRECT SEATS! It’s often misleading, as I’ve seen them call the 1^st balcony many different things that are confusing and can lead you to believe you are getting general admission. By the way, you ALWAYS want general admission here, as the balcony sucks and isn’t any less crowded than the floor with a shittier view.
Another tip is to not bother with the coat check. Wear a shitty old coat that you wouldn’t be devastated if it got lost. you’ll save some money and more importantly time when you’re waiting in a line of 100 people to get it at the end of a show…
The bars here are overpriced, but that’s to be expected.

There should be a class action lawsuit by anyone that has ever bought a second floor mezzanine ticket here. ¾ of the tickets sold are undisclosed «obstructed view» because it’s literally impossible for anybody but the first handful to be able to see the stage. The indisputable fact that they couldn’t care less if you have a good experience after they get their grubby, greasy little meat hooks on your hard earned cash is perfectly exemplified by the experience of paying for, but not actually seeing a show on their second floor. Dan Aykroyd, after seeing his amazing little joint in Harvard Square turn into this sewage soaked landfill fire of a music venue, would probably drown his sorrows, and possibly himself in a vat of Crystal Skull vodka.

Nice big club. Efficiently designed so crowds can enter and exit. An adjoining bar/​restaurant offers food and drink, I just had a Ballast Point IPA on tap. Inside the venue there are two balconies that wrap around the room, and plenty of folks took advantage of them. The acoustics were good, overall it seemed like a nice club designed from the ground up. A much better venue than the Orpheum, which our concert was originally scheduled at, and which despite its history made us feel like we were constantly crammed in somewhere. At the House of Blues there is plenty of room to enjoy the music, which is the point.

House of Blues is a classic venue for any kind of show. I’ve seen industrial shows, metal shows, rock shows, folk shows, electronic music shows here and the bands always sound great!
The last time I was there l, my girlfriend and I dealt with some real douchebags; it’s Boston after all, douchebags are everywhere. They were physically and verbally harassing my girlfriend and I but thankfully we had the great staff at The House of Blues help us out. What started as a negative evening was saved by the staff and Joe Spano, Assistant General Manager, who dealt with the jerks and helped my girlfriend and me out. Joe and the other staff helped save our evening and turn it into an amazing experience! Joe said he was happy to help, which was pretty cool because I’ve never before met someone in the venue entertainment industry who treated me, not like a dispensable customer, but rather like a real human being.
It’s clear to me that Joe and the other staff at The House of Blues really care about ensuring guests have a great time at their concerts and venue! Love The House of Blues.

I want to say this is the worst venue in Boston, but it might actually be the worst venue I’ve been to in the entire country. Sound is bad. I bought general admission tickets for Sleater Kinney, and ended up with no indication in advance stuck on the second tier, which is sort of like being tucked into the theater’s air conditioning duct. If you’re lucky you can see just a sliver of the stage, but otherwise you join a depressed, pitiful cluster of people watching it on a monitor. That’s right, I bought tickets to a concert and watched it on a small, suspended television with muddied sound playing in the background. Aside from that, the décor is sort of like a less authentic TGIFridays.

Apparently I’m not very strong-​willed. Swore I would never come back here based on «seeing» a Belle & Sebastian show here in the mezzanine, but being oversold and way too packed to actually see anything. But then, of course, some other amazing band is playing and it’s either just don’t see them or it’s the HOB.
Floor level isn’t bad at all, sound was decent enough, bar is okay… just two suggestions to anyone going here:
If you’re here in the winter and plan to utilize the coat check, plan to wait in a VERY long line after the show is over. The poor girls running the coat check show sure are trying their hardest, but there just be a lotta coats back there I guess. To make matters worse, the line comes out of nowhere as you’re trying to leave with thousands of other people, so everyone is in the wrong line, it’s a total mess, their staff are yelling at people, and there’s really no line to speak of, just a cluster_​_​_​_​_​.
Secondly, just don’t ever, ever, ever go to a show here if you have to be in the mezzanine, at least if you think it’s going to be a packed house.

Great smaller venue! Three levels all with a great view. Three bars on the lower level and a few more upstairs. The sound and lighting was amazing! If you eat in the restaurant before the show you can skip the line outside. Be aware you must order an entrée… apps and drinks don’t count.

Everything sounds good, nice space, great lineup, decent list for drinks. NONE of this matters if you feed misleading information to your customers and they miss performances of acts that they purchased tickets for.
If you’re coming here for a show forgo any pre-​event plans you have any line up before whatever time they list. Or just skip it and catch them in another town with a venue that has organized promoters.

Seeing as how this is basically the only mid-​sized venue for concerts in the Boston area, it’s pretty unavoidable for many music-​lovers. The tickets are affordable, though, and drinks prices seem on-​par, so I can’t complain too much. The sound quality is great and the bouncers are always on point with helping out crowd surfers and the like. They broke up a fight at a recent show in about 5 second and threw the jerks out.
The multiple levels makes seeing the stage easy as long as you snag a railing-​side spot (get there early!) and there is seating offered, so that’s nice for all the non-​stander folk.
If you get food, which I don’t particularly recommend, from the attached restaurant before the show, you get to cut the line. You have to choose from limited options, but the cheapest is a flat bread pizza for only $ 10, so it could definitely be worth it if you’re dying for that sweet spot.

CONCERT EXPERIENCE — I read a bunch of reviews online before seeing Breaking Benjamin. They all warned about the MEZZANINE/​UPPER MEZZANINE LEVELS. They were all correct. If you are not there early, you WILL NOT be able to see the stage. We saw Breaking Benjamin which was a sold out show, and if we didn’t get lucky with finding spots, we would have not been able to see.
Here are your options:
1. Get there early and snag a spot right up against the railing. Do not let that go because it will get taken by people. If you do, you’re going to have a great view of the concert.
2. Eat in the restaurant. This will allow you to get in early and pass the lines which will allow for a good spot.
3. Buy Floor Seats. This is your best bet. I have not talked to someone who was disappointed with being on the Floor.
OVERALL — The House of Blues is an awesome venue. The overall vibe is great, and the people at the concert were all cool. Other than making sure you had a good seat, there were no real issues. Definitely recommend for any concert.

I didn’t go to the Interpol concert you’re all raving about because, well, even in 2003 they didn’t strike me as especially interesting. I have nonetheless seen numerous bands at HOB, and usually I am just forced to marvel at my advanced age when a band I love plays this venue. «Damn,» I typically think, «I must be old, because I remember seeing them drunkenly fall off a stage in front of 9 angry rednecks in semi-​rural Kentucky not so long ago.» Sadly, this is the kind of venue that makes you wish your favorite band was a bit less successful, so that you could see them somewhere civilized like the Sinclair or fun like Great Scott.
I don’t know the history of this room, and I don’t really care, but it kind of seems like they knocked down a wall and combined two rooms to make this single big one? The sound is terrible, all muffled and indistinct. There’s also no ambiance to speak of — just a big, anonymous, Concert Room. Drinks are expensive, but you already knew that.
There are some sweet spots for the sound (on the floor, closer), but no place to escape the virgin concertgoers who lack manners, sense, and conscience. They will crowd you, cram their elbows into your spine, spill beer on you, wear costumes, talk rudely through the opener or headliner, and generally behave as if they are two seconds away from the frat/​sorority house.
HOB does have a coat check, but it charges an outrageous $ 5 per item. In the winter months, you really have no choice, and you of course also must tip the coat check attendants because I’m sure the greedy owner of this venue keeps the coat check money.
This room only exists because Boston seriously lacks in venues larger than the Paradise/​Sinclar and smaller than the HOB. They end up booking acts that really should be playing rooms more like the size of the 930 Club in DC, just because there’s nowhere else for these bands to go. Houndmouth at the HOB? The only thing more wrong than the existence of that band in the first place is that I reached a place in my life where I decided it was ok to go to the HOB to see them.
We all end up at the HOB some time. That doesn’t mean we’re going to like it.

House of Blues never disappoints. Well organized and always great shows. Love that you get in first if you eat there prior to a show.
Just finished seeing Interpol here tonight and the bartender Robert knew exactly what my husband Dustin and I were drinking the moment we walked up to the bar. I love that!
Great shows and great customer service!
The food isn’t best and it’s pricey but we usually o my attend for a show and not the cuisine.

Great venue to see a show. LOTS of bars! Friendly staff. Beautiful space. Well handicapped accessible. (Audio Frequency Induction Loop System)
The venue isn’t too large, but books a great assortment of acts, and usually acts that I love. It’s nice, and semi intimate.
Save yourself a bit of the cost of parking, and go to the lot right around the corner.
We actually ate at the restaruant before the show. It was really nice, and the staff was friendly. Prices were decent, and we got to be let in the side door instead of wait in the line. We were a few minutes after doors, and we still made it to the floor before most of the crowd.

I was in town on business and after meeting some nice young ladies at the hotel bar, we were invited to see Stone Temple Pilots at the House of Blues.
First off, this is a really great venue to see a show. It has 3 tiered levels all of which provide a great view of the stage. So if you are looking for a more intimate type of venue to check out a show, this is it! The sound is also phenomenal, but it is not so bone crushingly loud that being able to conversate with folks near you becomes completely impossible.
There are also tons of bars scattered throughout, so you are never more than perhaps 30 paces or so from your next cocktail. Prices for said cocktails are fairly astronomical, and sizes are quite small, but such conditions should be fairly expected given the location. I did manage to find one bartender in particular that made nuclear strong drinks, and I made sure to seek her out for subsequent drinks to get more bang for my buck.
I can definitely see coming back here next time I am in town, especially if it involves a band that I would really like to see. I had a total blast at the STP show, and the random girl I met and made out was not half bad either. Score!

***Don’t buy a ticket for the second floor***
Thankfully I am an up front lady with no shame and politely asked a six foot tall man to stand with his legs together so I could fit in on the railing. If I had not done so I would have had literally zero visibility of the band.
Sound was good, staff was pleasant. Coat check is definitely chaotic at the end of the night.
Not my first choice for a venue, but I would totally come back if it’s the only option to see a favorite band.
I would also avoid this place if there is a baseball game happening simultaneously. Fenway is literally across the street and I can’t imagine that parking is an option when Red Sox nation is also in the vicinity.

This is a great venue if you’re not on the second floor. Second floor is miserable because everyone lines up along the railing and you’re left unable to see. They even have two banners on each side that they hang that eliminates a large portion of room that you could potentially stand at to actually see the concert.
They do have televisions that show the concert. But why would I come to a concert to watch it on a television?
All in all, a nice venue but be careful where your seats/​standing is located. Be sure to get the ground floor or sitting where you can actually SEE the concert.
Otherwise not bad, drinks are cheap enough and there is enough parking in the area that makes is easily accessible.