Last Tuesday evening, I attended my first live gig for almost nine years and the venue of choice was The Cotillion in Wichita, I say; venue of choice, more like the bands I wanted to see chose the venue, but I digress. The following is my opinion on many aspects of the audio, visual and customer experience.
The Cotillion is easy to find just off the US-400 highway westbound, one block west of Maize Rd with plenty of free parking spaces including disabled parking out front of the venue. Getting into the venue was also a straight forward experience, having to submit to a quick pat down from security, then show my e-ticket on my phone to gain access to the venue. Inside the venue, it’s basically a huge dome with bars and seating around the outside and a central domed floor area with the stage at the front of the venue.
The stage itself is half dome shaped with lighting illuminating the interior the white painted arch; with six moving head lights overhead and a four element line array speaker system flown on either side of the stage. Above the speaker array are dual high-intensity white flood lights and RGB LED PAR cans to illuminate the crowd in the main floor area, plus 12 PAR cans to illuminate the stage area.
At first, I thought the sound was very bass light, I was sat with my wife, just outside the dome behind the sound mixing position, which you’d think would have good sound as that’s where the sound is being mixed from. But later in the gig, I wandered into the main floor area and the sound came alive, suddenly I could feel the bass and the thump of the kick drum that was missing from the edge of the dome.
Now, we come to some things that I thought could be better, first thing is having a cash only bar in the year 2017? At a time where more and more people carry no cash using debit/credit cards instead. There are ATM’s available inside the venue, but that is an extra cost in the shape of convenience fees on top of the inflated prices for drinks, which is par for the course in live music venues throughout the world.
Second thing that could have been better, in my opinion, is better use of the lighting rig for all the bands, the first three bands, Trapt, Sick Puppies and Drowning Pool had inconsistent use of the lighting rig and no smoke was released to highlight the lights for the support acts, which created a lesser atmosphere than that of the headline band, Scott Stapp of Creed, who had full use of the lighting rig and smoke machines, creating a more immersive experience for all, lighting is as important as sound in my view.
I enjoyed the gig overall, despite the perceived issues outlined above, it’s a great venue with a lot of potential flying the live music flag for Wichita. The Cotillion is a mid-size venue that hosts a lot of bands, unlike the bigger venues which seem to be more about sports events than live music. I definitely want to visit the Cotillion again, Stone Sour in October, as my birthday gig would be nice if I can get a babysitter.
My views are based on a single visit, other events might be different, however, I can’t comment on those!
