Shoreline Amphitheatre

Acoustics and sightlines

Before the Imagine Dragons concert, a few of us wandered the Shoreline venue making some notes and otherwise just seeing what was offered. As one might expect, the 100s seats, closet to the stage offer the best viewing of the band and the best opportunity to take photos using “non-professional” cameras.

• The Box Seats (VIP) were rather nice. Though perhaps as far back as you’d want for taking photos, they offered the best view of the show. By that I mean that up close (In the 100s sections) we were never really able to take in the whole show without looking around. That of course wouldn’t be true for all shows, but certainly for big productions with high and wide stage effects. The VIP seats were better to see the entire stage for certain.

• The 200 seats at Shoreline Amphitheatre were very good, offering a great view of the show and stage. Just a tiny bit farther back and for much of the show just a bit too far to take photos well without a very nice camera. I will note that there is a secondary “stage” used by performers to mix with the crowd that is sometimes setup where the 200s and the front of the lawn get excellent views.  These seats would likely be great for photos of that smaller performance area, whereas the 100s didn’t let you see it all that well.

• The Lawn Seats at Shoreline Amphitheatre are General Admission and really a mixed bag. They provide a fairly inexpensive way to hear a live performance. The view of the stage wasn’t very good (everything is just too small), but they do provide some huge video screens so you can still watch “up close”. If you are going with lawn seats, get there early (as soon as parking opens), line up, get in and setup your spot. It would be smart to bring a blanket or short lawn chair (the size/type is restricted by the venue so check ahead that yours are ok). Once you are setup, sit back, relax, and enjoy a picnic performance atmosphere.

• The acoustics at Shoreline are perfectly acceptable. The shows are loud, so much so that I suggest you use some foam earplugs. (I found that for some concerts they give them away free at the medical help booth.) Since this is an outdoor venue, there just aren’t any strange sound reflections or echos to consider. Get yourself a good view and it’s likely you will hear the show pretty much as the sound techs felt you should.

Merchandise and Food

Souvenirs, food and drinks

Shoreline Amphitheatre offers tons of places to buy souvenirs, food, and drinks.

• The souvenir booths are setup so you can get that concert Tee, hoodie, or jacket you always wanted. The latter two very useful if you’ve forgotten that this is an outdoor venue and on some nights gets a tad cool being fairly close to the water. I found these booths to be fairly typical. They offered the designs from the performers to match the show, and often some older or more general designs. The prices were outrageous, but nothing unexpected given the context. Expect to drop anywhere from $20 to $200 or more if you want that awesome jacket. The lines were pretty much as you’d expect, but they moved fairly quickly. Early shopping worked best for us as the selection of sizes was still good and the lines short.

• There were amazing numbers of things to eat. The VIP lounge (at Crate & Barrel) had an excellent buffet with assorted Mexican food and some superior drinks. Booths spread around the venue offered assorted foodstuffs. We tried random food from garlic fries to BBQ. It was all quite good considering it was delivered fairly fast. By far the best food we found was the wood fired pizzas! They cost no more than anything else but they tasted superb and were fresh and hot. Even the line wasn’t so terrible for them at the point we arrived. They didn’t look like a spot setup for all concerts (as you can see from the photo) but if you see them, go for the pizza of your choice. Ours tasted great!

• There were MANY drink stands. In fact,  I’d say more than food vendors. They served beers and mixed drinks. We tried a few beers and found them to be average quality and served nice and cold. The mixed drinks we had were even better. They had a fairly high price again, but the bartender / server poured a liberal shot into a single and almost 3 shots into a double. Combine that with some good mixers and the next thing you know you are having a wonderful time at the concert while sipping on a double gin and tonic with fresh lime.

Getting There

Parking, Mass Transit, and a speedy Exit

Parking can be quite a pain at Shoreline Amphitheatre. I’ve been here many times and really if you end up parked in the wrong place you are looking at at least 30 minutes just to get out of your lot onto the crowded surface streets. Take care to plan for your exit or suffer in silence as 100s of cars pull ahead of you.

• We have two suggestions for parking, one fairly expensive and one much less so. First the money answer to the problem… pay for VIP / Preferred parking.  That will cost you another $40 or so on top of everything else, but you will get access to the closest in public lot. If you want to put up with a fairly short walk, park near the exit to the main road and walk across the lot. Also, back into your spot if you can. That way after the concert it’s a short walk to your car and a quick jump onto the surface streets. In other words, YOU will be the person getting ahead of everyone else. Even if you can’t work it so you get that area, VIP parking is all still good; just expect a 15 minutes wait as others leave before you should you park at the venue end of the lot.

• The second suggestion is to park in Lot E. It is a nice tree lined walk to the venue (about two large blocks). Again, get there early so you can park at the front of Lot E and be in the first to leave area. The excellent part about Lot E is that it has a nearly private “back” road exit that goes behind the Venue and meets up with the 101 freeway. Pretty much the only people taking that road after a concert are the people from Lot E so it works out really well. We made it out in about the same time as VIP parking and it didn’t cost and extra $40 bucks! (Oh, and another great thing about Lot E… at least when we were there… vendors at the lot selling bacon wrapped hot dogs with loads of great toppings for $5! By far the best value for money on food of our whole night was a couple of those dogs!

• Mass Transit wasn’t really an option for us. I hear that there are shuttles that can bring you in from farther out parking areas intended to reduce the traffic in the area. We didn’t try those, so if you know about them, drop us an email and we will add your comments (good or bad) here to help others.