Rolling Stone magazine recently identified the country's top 10 music venues, which it called "
The Best Big Rooms in America."
First Avenue in Minneapolis came in at number three on the list, with a major nod toward hometown musician Prince. "Throughout the Eighties, he and the Revolution were sort of the house band here--you can see it all in the famous concert scenes in Purple Rain," the article noted.
The club was also a key staging ground for the city's punk-and-hardcore scene, the article continued, noting that bands like the Replacements, Hüsker Dü, and Soul Asylum got their start on First Avenue's no-frills stages.
The top two "best big rooms," according to Rolling Stone, are 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C., and The Fillmore in San Francisco.