Elbo Room: User Reviews

I went out to the...
By Jessica M from Chicago, IL, August 21, 2004

Overall rating:

I went out to the Elbo Room last week and had the best time ever. I recently moved to chicago because of work, and was looking for a cool place to hang out. I found it. The drink prices are better than anywhere else in the city, they have $2 cans of old style and schlitz, and their staff was really cool. their doorguy was really cute(i love piercings and tattoos) he had his dog with him, and he made me feel welcome coming into the club. the whole place has an intimate atmosphere, being dim but with comfortable couches to sit on, and the music in the lounge and downstairs(where the bands play) was great. I recommend the Elbo Room if you're just looking to hang out and have a good, cheap drink and some good conversation, or if you're looking for some great live music. I'll definitely be there more often!

From a live music standpoint,...
By Sam Pelter from Chicago, Il, April 18, 2003

Overall rating:

From a live music standpoint, don't expect to see much in the way of anything "cutting edge" at this club. Most of what you'll see are novice local bands, the occasional funk collective, and 80's has beens looking for a place to play. This makes for a rather disappointing night if you're looking for the best of what Chicago music has to offer. The live area is a depressing concrete walled hole with bad sound to boot. Fortunately for elbo room, it's post collegiate lincoln park clientele doesn't know the difference anyway. Word on the street is some of the better bands that played there in it's mid-90's heyday have grown disillusioned with they way they have been treated on return visits so expect the quality of the entertainment to become even worse in the future. Like all places, you may see a great band there once in a while, but on average, I wouldn't bank on it.

I was there the other...
By Just A Girl from Chicago, IL, November 12, 2002

Overall rating:

I was there the other friday to see a band and the IGNORANT bouncer wouldn't let my 24 year old friend in because in her license she has brown hair, and now she has blonde hair. This bouncer needs to get a life and realize that women do dye their hair. He completely gets a power trip off of turning people down. He must of had a miserable life or something. Nobody else who worked at the bar, not even the manager would listen to us or try to assist us. My friend had a checkbook, a credit card, and even a state ID with her name on it. This place sucks and I am definitely going to spread the word. So if you plan on going here, you better make sure that your license is recent and you haven't caught the idiot loser bouncer on a bad day.

I got to catch one...
By John Green from Milwaukee, WI, October 1, 2002

Overall rating:

I got to catch one of my favorite bands off ALL TIME (Dovetail Joint) play on Saturday. This was my first time at The Elbo Room and it kicked ass. It was definately an AMAZING show and it sounded great. You feel so connected to the band there because of how close you can get. I wouldn't have normally come down from Milwaukee but it was the last show as Dovetail Joint. I will return to see them there again, this time as Ivory Wire. ROCK ON!
PS: I had no problems with the staff.....they were really cool....then again I had an ID that wasn't expired.