El Corazon has rapidly become one of my favorite venues in Seattle hosting mostly bands of the rock genre and at a decent price. To date the most I’ve paid for a ticket is $33.00 and the best value was when I saw The Dollyrots for a mere $8.00. Technically El Corazon is a bar but they do offer “all ages” shows along with some “21+” shows. The majority of the shows will consist of at least one main touring headliner (sometimes more) and there’s always at least one, if not two, local bands opening.

It’s located in the middle of Seattle on the corner of Denny Way and I-5. A nice thing is this place is easy to get to, easy to get out of and there’s a $2.00 parking lot less than a half a block away.

First impressions of this place reminds me of an old party basement from my high school days with it’s flat black walls and low ceiling and old tile floor. It’s the perfect ambiance for rockin’ out.

It’s a rather elongated narrow room, roughly 40′ from the front of stage to the back of the room, that’s set up in a unique fashion.  The stage is 3′ off the floor then about half way back towards the back wall there’s a short stub wall up on a “terrace” with 3 steps on either side.  What’s nice with this is if you aren’t into “moshing” or “circle pitting” then you can stand slightly above the crowd with a good view of the stage and not be concerned about getting hit by the moshers.

Then, about 5 more feet beyond the stub wall is 2 more steps to another terraced level about 5′ wide then there’s the back wall with a full length bench. If you look at my previous blog on Bad Religion, the picture and video were taken from this top terrace.

If you are one who enjoys liquid refreshment this place also has 2 bars. The main bar is located away from the main floor and there’s a small sub bar separated from the main  floor by another short stub wall so those who chose my have a drink while watching the show providing of course they have proper ID.

Show wise it has a large stage 21′ x 16′ with a great sound system and decent stage lighting. On the down side it has poor ventilation (really noticeable during a sold out show) and there’s a couple of very badly placed poles which can hamper the viewing for a few folks but the alternative is a collapsed roof.

Overall the staff’s pretty decent, simple search methods and decent crowd control just don’t drink in line as the fellow in front of me found out.

All in all I like El Corazon. I’ve been there during a sell out, an audience of 800 and I’ve been there when I was 1 of a crowd of 5. For me, it’s always a good time.