Justin Kibbel
The five-year wait is over.
On Thursday, Sept. 27, the doors on The Sylvee, FPC Live’s new, 2,500-capacity music venue on East Washington Avenue, will be thrown wide to the public, ushering in the next phase of Madison’s evolving live music scene. Before the masses descend on the opening show by Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, we asked Matt Gerding, one of FPC Live’s triad of presidents, to help us compile a list of some of the things you might not know — or notice — when you’re standing and dancing with 2,500 of your new best friends.
So near, and yet so near
The Sylvee’s a standing-only venue (well, except for the VIP Lounge and the third-floor suites, naturally), which gives early birds the opportunity to camp out and score a spot right next to the stage. But even if you’re a disorganized latecomer who stumbles in halfway through the main set — and really, who hasn’t been there? — your sightline won’t suck. No matter where you stand in the venue, you’re never more than 85 feet away from the stage.
(And no, we don’t recommend bringing a tape measure to the show to confirm it.)
Yo, Barkeep, why so cold?
Chances are good you won’t find The Sylvee running out of your favorite alcoholic beverage in the middle of the set break. The venue has the largest walk-in-cooler of any bar in Madison. Which makes sense, when you consider the possibility of catering to the thirst of 2K+ patrons.
Knock on (Wisconsin) wood
Speaking of the bar, The Sylvee’s bartops are constructed from thick walnut harvested from the woods of Northern Wisconsin. Feel free to knock as hard as you like.
You think that’s weighty? You should see the stage
The Sylvee’s stage and production grid have been built to support a whopping 100,000 pounds of equipment. According to Gerding, that’s suitable for a large-scale arena act. Want to start taking bets on which band will be first to really take advantage of it?
Wait: Is that a line for the men’s bathroom?
By all accounts, The Sylvee has plenty in the way of restroom facilities to accommodate its patrons. But if those patrons are a little slow to get in and out of the stalls, you can blame the stall doors, covered with old tour laminates from Frank Productions’ multi-decade history.
So that’s where my copy of Born in the U.S.A. ended up
While we’re on the topic of multi-decade history, it’ll be hard to overlook The Sylvee’s massive used-cassette mural, made entirely from donated cassettes, built to honor Sylvia Frank, the venue’s namesake and Frank family matriarch. It won’t be hard, however, to see patrons crowded in front of it, squinting and pointing to figure out where their donated copy of Duran Duran’s Rio ended up.
The show that wasn’t
Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats is your official Sylvee opener, but a soft (hard?) opening featuring Avenged Sevenfold was originally scheduled for Sept. 24. The band scrapped its entire tour, turning what could have been a hard-rocking evening into the answer to a Madison-based trivia question.
Go ahead, snap and share
Anyone who’s been to a live show at the Overture Center or the Barrymore Theatre knows that a lack of reliable internet bandwidth can be a serious impediment to posting snaps and instas. That’s not likely to be an issue at The Sylvee. Gerding assures fans that the free wifi is up to the task of simultaneously uploading 2,500 videos of Rateliff rocking "You Worry Me.” Say it with us: Whew.
