Musikfest Cafe, SteelStacks dominated
When ArtsQuest Center, and its Musikfest Cafe, opened at SteelStacks in Bethlehem in 2011, it faced big competition from Allentown’s former Crocodile Rock Cafe — then perennially among the Top 100 clubs in the world by ticket sales, and at its peak for bringing top musical acts into the Lehigh Valley.
As the SteelStacks campus grew, so did its competition. Sands Bethlehem Event Center opened in 2012, and quickly became among the busiest and best-drawing music venues in the world. Allentown’s PPL Center, with its 10,000 capacity, followed in 2014. Both were keen on making big splashes with bigname acts.
But ArtsQuest Center and SteelStacks continued building and steadied its course.
In 2018, the Musikfest Cafe at ArtsQuest Center in Bethlehem was Lehigh Valley Music’s Venue of the Year for Lehigh Valley area audiences.
Musikfest Cafe not only had 23 concerts this year that, because of their prominence we chose to review, but also two of those shows — The Struts and Richard Thompson — were among our Top 10 favorites for the year.
The Struts might have been Musikfest Cafe’s best show in its history.
Four other shows at the venue, for a total of six, made our Top 50.
No other venue drew us to even half as many shows, or had as many in our Top 50 list.
Add to mix the 10 concerts we saw at Musikfest’s main Steel Stage and other SteelStacks venues — the seven we saw at SteelStacks’ Levitt Pavilion and the three in the ArtsQuest Center’s Blast Furnace Room — and SteelStacks accounted for 43 shows — almost 29 percent of the 149 concerts we saw this year.
More impressive is the fact that 10 of the SteelStacks shows made our Top 50 — accounting for 20 percent.
Musikfest Cafe and the other SteelStacks venues did that by consistently offering interesting shows. There were big ones, such as The Avett Brothers at Levitt, and Jason Mraz and Styx and Joan Jett at Musikfest. Top shows at Musikfest Cafe included Low Cut Connie, Scranton punk rockers The Menzingers, Nick Lowe, Ronnie Spector and Nils Lofgren, all at Musikfest Cafe.
Those shows were new, different and well-chosen. And there were a lot of them, and ArtsQuest was willing to take chances. The Gary Clark Jr. concert at Musikfest wasn’t a huge draw, but it was a great show that helps build an audience.
Musikfest Cafe is just two years from its 10th anniversary, and it seems to be hitting a stride. On Wednesday, ArtsQuest announced even more festivals at SteelStacks. It will be an exciting 2019.
Here are our choices for the other best venues for 2018 for Lehigh Valley music lovers:
2. Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia Wells Fargo Center isn’t in the Lehigh Valley, but the proximity of the Philadelphia arena, which this year was No. 9 in the world and No. 3 in the United States based on ticket sales, means it draws a lot of people from the Valley. We saw five concerts there in 2018 — four of which made our Top 50 list, including Justin Timberlake and Pink.
3. Sands Bethlehem Event Center Sands Bethlehem Event Center had fewer shows this year — its seventh year. We saw just nine concerts there in 2018, with just three making our Top 50 and none in our Top 10. But with shows by artists such as Steven Tyler, Britney Spears and Barry Manilow, it still has the ability to draw big names. Mariah Carey is coming in April, and will be the best-selling artist to ever play the center. Simple Minds was our favorite of its concerts this year, showing the venue still occasionally can surprise.
4. PPL Center, Allentown
In 2018, PPL Center had some really big concerts — the start of Elton John’s Farewell tour, the start of Ozzy Osbourne’s Farewell tour and Bon Jovi. Two made our Top 50 list — John at No. 2 and Bon Jovi at No. 23. But we only saw eight concerts there because the venue has more other types of entertainment, including hockey and family shows. It has three concerts scheduled so far this year — James Taylor on March 1, Kelly Clarkson on March 9 and Mercy Me on May 10.
5. Sherman Theater, Stroudsburg If not as consistent at Musikfest Cafe, Sherman Theater also often gets the right shows. We saw four concerts there this year, with two in our Top 25: Andrew McMahon in October coming in at No. 6 and Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park on his first solo tour at No. 25.
6. Pavilion at Montage, Scranton The Pavilion at Montage is not in the Lehigh Valley, but like Philly’s Wells Fargo Center it draws crowds from our area, especially for high-profile events such as Willie Nelson’s Outlaw Festival with Van Morrison — our No. 3 concert of the year — and the annual Peach Festival, which was one of our Top 20 Concerts due to its Dickey Betts set.
7. Allentown Fair
Last year was a down year for the fair, which offered five shows rather than its usual six, including one comedy concert. Still, three made our Top 50: Sugarland at No. 17, 5 Seconds of Summer and Niall Horan.
8. State Theatre, Easton
While popular music isn’t necessarily State Theatre’s forte — we saw just four shows there in 2018 — it occasionally hits big. None was bigger than this year’s No. 1 concert of the year — and one of the best we’ve ever seen -the Boak’s Bash sold-out retirement celebration for Martin Guitar’s head of artist relations, Dick Boak, which featured John Mayer, Steve Miller and more.
9. Penn’s Peak, Jim Thorpe
Penn’s Peak is busy, consistent and occasionally very good, with a lot of country, classic and hard rock. We saw six shows there in 2018, including REO Speedwagon at No. 37 and Sara Evans as a Top 50 honorable mention.
10. F.M. Kirby Center, Wilkes-Barre Kirby is also outside the Lehigh Valley area, but one of the best mid-size venues booking interesting shows. We saw three there in 2018, and two made our Top 50: E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt and his Disciples of Soul, and, at the end of the year, the multi-act Let It Show with the Lehigh Valley’s Sabrina Carpenter.
11. Ardmore Music Hall
Another bit of a drive, but well worth it, as the Ardmore also books consistently interesting and diverse shows. The concerts we saw at the venue in 2018 both made our Top 50, with Willie Nile and John Eddie at No. 9. Television came in at our No. 30.
12. Electric Factory (Franklin Music Hall), Philadelphia
The Electric Factory is another Philadelphia venue to which Lehigh Valley-area residents will travel because it offers interesting shows. The two we saw there in 2018 were great in that way: up-and-coming retro rockers Greta Van Fleet and indie-music darlings Matt and Kim, both of whom made our Top 25 concerts of the year.
13. Sellersville Theatre 1894. We saw seven concerts at this small and busy venue in 2018, with The Alarm our No. 8 favorite.
14. Parx Casino, Bensalem. We saw four shows there, with Paul Rodgers at No. 12 on our list.
15. OneCentreSquare, Easton. We saw four shows at this 18-month-old spot, with Richie Ramone at No. 29 on our list.