The Districts on stage at The Electric Factory | Photo by John Vettese for WXPN
The Electric Factory is the 16th best venue in the U.S., according to Consequence of Sound
After culling opinions from readers and artists, music blog Consequence of Sound today published its list of the 100 greatest venues in the United States – and Philly made the cut in a few ways.
The First Unitarian Church came in at #63, and Union Transfer made it to #34 – both venues cited in CoS’s poll of musicians earlier in the week. But coming in all the way up at #16 in the list is Callowhill’s long standing, 3000-cap Electric Factory – which is notably celebrating its 20th anniversary season this year.
CoS’ Dan Bogosian calls it “arguably the definitive venue of Pennsylvania” and “the ‘made it’ venue for local punk,” and commends its longevity:
Since its reinvention on North 7th Street, it’s hosted everyone from Anthrax to Ratatat, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see Miley Cyrus, Faith No More, PVRIS, and Biohazard billed for the same week. Gotta love its hippied-out Ben Franklin logo, too, which adds the perfect shine to its age-old history, as if to say: We’re gonna stick around, and we’re gonna know what’s up before you do.
At the number 34 slot, CoS’ Collin Brennan talks of how Union Transfer is still able to make a 1200 capacity room feel intimate.
That latter quality probably owes to the bands that frequent the stage, many of which peddle in the kind of earnest, shout-at-the-top-of-your-lungs pop punk that has become Philadelphia’s calling card in recent years. Local acts Beach Slang, The Menzingers, and Modern Baseball have all filled this puppy to capacity with sweaty fans.
Brennan also sings the praises of the First Unitarian Church at the number 63 slot:
Sure, you’ve got your typical indie bands that aren’t likely to ruffle anyone’s feathers — your St. Vincents and your Frankie Cosmos.
But this church is so inclusive that sometimes the lineups clash with the setting in ways that border on hilarious (Chicago powerviolence band Weekend Nachos and hardcore punks Bane are both slated to perform in 2016).
It’s important to note, of course, that the First Unitarian itself isn’t doing the booking – they’re renting the room to the promoter (often R5 Productions), who brings in the bands. At the same time, pretty awesome / hysterical to see the “established: 1796” tag at the top of its entry.
All told, Philly’s representation in CoS’ roundup reads like a punk’s eye view of our venue landscape – which, the punk scene is amazing in Philly, but anybody who’s paying attention knows there’s a heck of a lot more going on than that. But while it would have been nice to see Johnny Brenda’s and Boot & Saddle (and any number of other amazing spaces) get a shout, it feels good to see Philly make the rankings all the same, especially as high as we got.
Check out videos from each of the venues below — and go behind-the-scenes at the Electric Factory in our Load-In to Load-Out feature here. You can also read the entries for some of our broader regional neighbors in the list: Mr. Small’s in Pittsburgh, the Count Basie Theater in Red Bank and the famous Stone Pony in Asbury Park.