Massachusetts Concert Venue Is Largest in New England

The first concert I remember attending was a John Denver concert at the Boston Music Hall. I was 16 at the time. My parents brought me to the show.

In the early 1970s, you bought concert tickets at Music Box on Acushnet Avenue or sent money to the box office to reserve. There was no online, never mind Ticketmaster.

I've been to many concerts since that John Denver show 50 years ago at venues of varying sizes. This show, May 10, 1974, at the Music Hall in Boston, will always be special because it was my first concert. Stadium shows were not a thing yet.

Get our free mobile app

Boston Music Hall is now the Wang Theater, and John Denver and my parents have all passed on.

Through the years, I've attended concerts at small, intimate settings such as the Warwick Musical Theater, Cape Cod Melody Tent and South Shore Music Circus.

Then came the Providence Civic Center (now Amica Mutual Pavilion), the Boston Garden, Worcester Centrum, Schaeffer, Sullivan and Gillette Stadiums, Fenway Park, McCoy Stadium, Tanglewood, Great Woods (now Xfinity Center), Foxwoods, Mohegan Sun, the Zeiterion Theater and a host of smaller clubs and halls that featured shows.

Of all the concert venues I have attended, and you no doubt have been to more, I had never heard of what is considered the "largest, general admission concert venue in New England" until recently.

Roadrunner, located at 89 Guest Street in the Brighton section of Boston, opened on March 14, 2022, inside the New Balance building. Its website says Roadrunner has a capacity of 3,500 people.

Roadrunner has a lot of upcoming shows listed on its website, though I must confess there aren't many artists I am familiar with – but music, like all art, is subjective. Enjoy as much of it as you can.