House of Blues: The Joe's Crab Shack of music venues?

The Pièce de résistance

I made my first adventure to Houston's new House of Blues, run by the folks at Live Nation (Clear Channel), this evening to peep the new venue and watch the performance by The Ting Tings. Now I gotta say, the venue is big, clean, and the sound is GREAT. The stage is huge and the aesthetic is surely dramatic with the infinitely high ceilings and framing of the stage. There are minimum 3 bars running in perpetuity which makes getting a drink rather expedient despite a crowd of 1000 plus. Most importantly, the place was PACKED despite it being a Monday night. That surely is the best thing about it: The honeymoon with a new venue. Though sure to fade, this initial excitement is, well, exciting. Nonetheless, I gotta voice my grievances. First off, be prepared to pay to park. There is pretty much no way around it. Secondly, this venue is up 3 floors within a mega-mall type complex which solidifies it's rep as a big-box-brand venue. The security is tight yet friendly as Mike who spent 19 years running security at Numbers is greeting folks at the entrance. Now the toilets and bathroom in this joint are surely the Pièce de résistance. They are clean enough to eat off of and there is even free cologne available. No need to wash your ass before heading to the House of Blues. As for drink prices, make sure and call your bank and ask for an expanded line of credit. 1 drink + 1 shot=21 Bux! No bullshit. As for The Ting Tings, they were fun for about 7 minutes until I realized that this was turning into aerobics music. Boom-tat-boom-boom tat. Yeah. Yeah. Ting Ting. You know the story. All in all, my assessment is undecided as I am yet to see what kind of support this place will extend to the local music community on it's off nights. Will local acts have the opportunity to grace this stage often enough to make a difference. More importantly, will the local music community extend it's acceptance to such a place. Well, we will see. Anyways, they got some great acts coming so decide for yourself.Mike, former bouncer at Numbers of 19 years. A man among men.Monday night was a virtual cornucopia of scumbags. (see Dorsey)