The Cabooze Review

The layout of the venue is a little odd (the venue is wider than it is long, and people seem to be constantly wandering past if you are standing in the back 1/3 of the crowd), but the Cabooze has the right dive-like atmosphere for a metal show.

It's a cozy venue, but the layout is odd for a concert. It's fun to push thru the crowd to try and get to the bathroom. Overall a good place.

Great atmosphere went for a concert well done will go again.

Nice place for Saturday/Sunday night. Great venue for heavy bands

Very nice atmosphere in the back, bartenders are friendly and fast. Entertainment was great not a bad spot to watch from!

Good place to see live music and have a few drinks.

Perfect combination of dive bar and concert venue. The atmosphere is definitely right for those who want to go see a live musical performance at their favorite Watering Hole.

Always good music at the Cabooze! Bartenders always attentive. Good pool tables. Most is standing room. This venue is showing it's age but still a fantastic venue for music.

Good concert venue for small artists. Was clean and bartenders were friendly. Need more places to park thou

Behemoth was outstanding as usual, but At the Gates were just phenomenal.

Amazing venue! Was so close to the stage and hung out with the opening acts after the show! Parking was a bit hard to find but once you're in there, it would be hard not to have a good time.

Still think the stage is in weird place but they have metal shows.

Dive. Small spot. Great live music. Cheap tickets and not a bad seat in the place. Standing room or lots of benches/seats. Outside patio. I can t seem to figure out the lack of parking situation in that area, so I usually Uber. Good bar staff. I believe the place next door is called The Joint and enjoy going there for one last drink after a show. No complaints (outside of parking)!!

Loved this place!! Have seen two shows the and both were great, one was outside and used the whole lot next door. The other used both bars and the outback smoke shack, that includes a covered pavilion, outside tables, and a place that serves food!! There's both were good, and had pretty much anything you could want for the bands that were there.

Great staff. This is a Minneapolis music scene staple.

Great place to see a live music show. There's multiple bars, an outdoor patio with a gas firepit, and an upper lounge level. Always good times, but 4 stars not 5 because parking can be a nightmare.

Small-ish venu but great! Awesome smoking patio and you can take your drink out. Drinks are very reasonably priced. I believe its cash only but they do have an ATM.

Small, intimate venue. Great place to get close to the band.

Every time i come to a show at the Caboose i leave in a better mood. Great venue with alot of history. Its also right on a lighy rail stop so you really dont need to worry ablut parking if you take that route.

Interior layout is not made for Metal shows, there's a weird hourglass shape where the stage is right in the middle, and super narrow. Oh, and the security guards are tools

Small enough that you're never far from the performer, but big enough to handle a serious crowd.

Classic Minneapolis venue that's hosted some great acts. The layout is odd though. The room is long and skinny and the stage is on a long wall so only a few people fit in front of the stage and most are off to the side.

Had a blast playing there. The staff is friendly especially the wonderful lady at the ticket desk. The sound on and off stage was great. The Cabooze is a landmark. Check it out.

It was a great place for my sons' first show,not too big. Great atmosphere! Loved it!

Questionable stage placement and rude employees. The stage is on the side of the venue instead of the back center. This means those poor people who didn't shove to the front would end up seeing a side view of the stage and miss most of the show. Also most venues will give out free water during shows, but not the cabooze, they will charge you $2 for a bottle and dont even give you the cap. Everything you encounter at the cabooze is just very questionable and sub par. Security there is ok when they arent getting girls numbers, checking them out, or ignoring douchebags who are slamming into other people and pulling their hair right in front of them. I have been here twice and will probably be back, but that is only because they DO book really great artists. I have seen Kreator, Obituary, Kamelot, and BattleBeast here. Sound quality is fair.

(Update: much better service the third time. They may have hired better staff or something. Im not sure exactly what happened, but it definitely gets a star improvement)

Definitely a grungy feel but cool in it's own respect!

Saw the lords of acid and genitortuers. Very cool venue!

Nice little venue. Intimate space with a rather large stage. Great for shows! Clean bathrooms.

It's fine. Average concert beer prices ($6-8). Average sight lines for shows, small enough that you feel close to the action.

I've seen many a metal band here since turning 18. Just a simple dive bar with cheap drinks and a great stage that books some awesome metal acts. Behemoth was the most recent.

Love the layout.. Not to mention, they do throw some gr8 concerts & shows.

Fun place! Small and weird stage setup... but still had a great time! Beers were $4. I saw the Michael Schenker Fest and they sounded excellent. Flipp opened and put on a good show.
Not the greatest place I have been to for a show, but it has a nice atmosphere!

Favorite venue in the cities. Always playing great music, and they have a nice patio connected to The Joint next door. They also have a lounge on the second floor which more venues need!

It's great I hope they never go away there are far too few live music venues in this town!

The bands we're outside, the service inside and outside was great.

I went on a Sunday night. The atmosphere was calm, and the staff was kind. Drinks were nice & strong. There was a coat check for a very fair price. Bathrooms well kept. Large area outside with a nice firepit. If there was anything I could have wanted more of, it would have been seating / chairs. But all around, a good place to go to. I'll happily go again.

Lots of fun. I know that it's normally more of a biker bar. I was there during an event for Go96 (local radio station). Great staff, fast, reasonable prices. Bathroom was, well... iffy.

Too big and noisy and the preformers were doing other groups songs than what was supposed to be exclusively just a tribute to one

It was the annual Jug festival. Just a bunch of old hippies getting together for good times. It's an annual event at the Cabooze

Fun venue that let's the crowd get close to the music.

A bit older, but generally well kept in spite of its age.

When it is crowded, it makes having a good view of the stage hard, but the sound is good in most places.

For so many reasons I love & hate this place. The bar was built right in front of the stage and the stage is built in the middle of the building at a 30deg angle. I just don't understand why they can't move the bar to be on the eather wall or both sides of the room for that matter to open up space for customers especially if they want to be a venue? It really takes away from enjoying the show and seems to cause many people to be surlier than usual Minnesota venue visitors.

A really throwed place ( it's a southern slang) the concert I saw felt more enjoyable because of how close to the stage I could be.

The Cabooze is the best place in the Twin Cities to listen to live music.

Very fun place to go see a show. There is a nice patio to hang out at and grab a drink aswell

It's alright, it's a Mpls stand by, good music (dj) young crowd, building is sliced in 1/2 with a biker bar, which always makes things interesting. Now, when I went, it was a Pride after party hosted by Grrrrrl Scouts, so the scene might be different when not catering to a specific clientele/or post event. Enjoyable, LONG bathroom lines.

Awesome venue, not too big and not too small. Love seeing shows here!

Place was super packed and it was raining so the patio was not usable. It also was very hot, not sure they have air conditioning.

Expensive drinks and terrible venue location...why is the stage sideways and it's so echoy...hurt my ears and made the music sound terrible

The venue can get crazy hot. Small but the sounds was decent. Amorphis and dark tranquility killed it.

Awful place to watch a band. Place sucks. It's a bar. You should not have to climb over a swarm of people to get to the bathroom. Only one bar open tonight. Good luck finding it. Horrible set up for a show. The stage goes in the back not in the middle. Stupid. Stupid awful.