Are you ready for some football? With US Bank Stadium’s first football game coming up this weekend, there’s a lot of anticipation about what to expect from the billion dollar facility. But when it comes to the stadium’s other big money maker - concerts - the opening weekend of performances didn’t get all rave reviews.

Country singer Luke Bryan headlined on Friday with opening acts Little Big Town and Dustin Lynch. I was so lucky to be in attendance myself, and I had a blast. There are a few minor things I didn’t care for, which I will get to, but overall the performances were great.

However, many others in attendance had plenty of things they felt went wrong, with the biggest problem being the acoustics.

The stadium, which promises to host several concerts each year, has a fancy ceiling that consists of half glass. Yes it looks pretty, but according to the Star Tribune, it’s effect would make a sound engineer cringe.

Feedback from concert-goers was that the sound was just too overwhelming. The echo was enough to make your head hurt and it sounded like a ball being forced around a pinball machine.

A common response was that the stadium will be fantastic for football, but the developers didn’t put enough thought into the sound aspect for musicians.

Saturday’s show, Metallica, seemed to get better feedback, but lets face it: it’s a rock concert. It’s going to be super loud no matter how the acoustics are. And rock fans are more apt to let that slide than a country music fan, who is used to ‘less intense’ sound effects.

Luckily, the artists themselves didn’t seem too concerned about the sound issue. They didn’t focus on it publicly. Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild said “Good Lord, this place is huge!” She also referred to it as “awfully pretty.”

What bothered me more than the sound was other issues that were in play. And trust me, I heard these same responses from many.

There was poor signage overall, especially when it came to the restrooms. And the women’s restroom line (per usual) was absolutely obnoxious. I don’t remember it being this bad at TCF or even the Metrodome. There were times women would be stuck in line close to a half an hour just to get in a stall. A half an hour in concert time is an eternity! You miss so much!

But this wasn’t enough for me to be ‘upset’ with the stadium or my experience. If I had to pick one thing that really irked me, it would be exiting the stadium. We were stuck for quite awhile just outside stadium doors.

There was a narrow pathway along the walls - one side had sharp rocks and the other was barricaded by a fence. It was dangerous. Not enough space for such a big crowd and the line wasn’t moving fast enough. People were shaking the fences and yelling, and it was pretty intimidating. I would hate to be stuck in that spot if any kind of emergency were to happen.

However, with the Vikings’ first at-home football game on Sunday, I’m sure staff will be more aware of issues and trained more efficiently by then. We need to give the stadium a break. It was its first concert. Any establishment or business has glitches when they first open. It just takes time and people need to be patient. I’m pumped for what US Bank Stadium will bring in the future and cannot wait to attend this Sunday’s game! Go Vikings!

Source: The Star Tribune


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