Our first time experience was this past weekend to...

Our first time experience was this past weekend to see Culture Club. Very bad theater experience. We were surprised to see a full bar when we walked in; our experience at other venues is beer, maybe wine and a few house cocktails. On top of that, they allow you to bring the drink into the venue. Wow, very cool right?

What wasn't so cool, and actually shocking to us, is that the bar stayed open throughout the entire show. We've never experienced that and the effect was overwhelming. Our row was a constant parade of "excuse me's" and "I promise, this will be the last time", from literally a dozen different concert goers in our row. At around the 4th or 5th interruption, I attempted to tell them that this was very rude behavior, both to us and to the artists. Half of them were too drunk to even know I was talking to them.

Scariest of all was the thought that in ten minutes, these folks were going to be getting on the same roads we were. Really a lawsuit waiting to happen.

I called the next day and spoke with a very nice gentlemen and shared our first time experience. He was thankful for my comments and apologetic (not enough to offer us a refund though!), and I got the impression that the revenue generated by the alcohol sales was probably more important and than the loss of two future concert goers.

He assured me that this was not their normal crowd, but isn't that really beside the point? Maybe the price of drinks should be raised to reduce the volume of sales? Maybe drinks shouldn't be offered more than an hour into a show?

The experience was akin to something I'd expect in a bar, not in a "Center for the Performing Arts". I'm sincerely hoping my thoughts will be shared with the board and that some significant changes are made before someone gets killed by a drunk driver leaving this facility....