The Warfield, also known as The Warfield Theater, is a 2,300 seat music venue located at 982 Market Street, San Francisco, California. It was built as a vaudeville theater, and opened as the Loews Warfield on May 13, 1922.[1]
Contents |
In the 1920s, The Warfield was a popular location that featured vaudeville and other major performances, such as Al Jolson. The theater opened as the Loews Warfield, named after David Warfield. It later became known as the Fox Warfield.
More recently, The Warfield had an appeal as a rock concert venue because it has more intimacy and better sound quality than an arena, yet has an occupancy of over 2000 persons. Like many historic theaters, its main floor had the seats removed in the 1980s for general admission and dancing. Prior to the removal of the seats, Joe Strummer of The Clash once refused to play unless the first two rows of seats were removed to allow for dancing.[2] It is a favorite venue for performance among many entertainers.[3]
The Warfield served as a home for the Grateful Dead for many years. In 1980, the Dead played 15 sold-out shows there, featuring both an acoustic and two electric sets. The shows were a celebration of the band's fifteenth anniversary and done as a show of appreciation for their loyal fans. These, along with a sold-out 8 night run at New York's Radio City Music Hall were recorded for release as two double albums; one, all acoustic called Reckoning, the other, electric, called Dead Set. Jerry Garcia also made the Warfield a second home, performing a record 88 times there with his various side bands, when not touring with the Dead.
Bob Dylan played 14 shows at the start of his first Gospel Tour in November 1979, and again 12 shows in November 1980 during his "A Musical Retrospective Tour" at the Warfield.
As is common with large music venues, there are a great variety of musicians scheduled.
In 2001, thrash metal band Slayer recorded a home video there and released it as, War at the Warfield, in 2003.
On November 12, 2003, hard rock band Korn performed during a small club tour, which is a rarity for the band.
The Killers played there on December 12, 2008, after previously canceling their show on November 21, due to an unknown injury.
In May 2008, The Warfield changed management.
The final show with Bill Graham Presents performance by Phil Lesh ran until 3:30 AM, May 19.
The venue was closed pending renovations by new lessee, Goldenvoice/AEG Live.
The venue was scheduled to reopen in September 2008, with George Lopez to give the first performance.
In September 2011, Dream Theater played their first U.S. show with Mike Mangini on the Dramatic Turn of Events Tour at the Warfield. This was their first show in the U.S. without founding drummer Mike Portnoy.