The Fine Line Music Cafe
Website(612) 338-8100
Venue: The Fine Line styles itself a “classier” music venue, and is housed in a double decker bar in downtown Minneapolis.
Booking: The Fine Line attracts a strange mix of local talent and “has-been” national acts. Chances are if the band was popular ten years ago and are coming through town now, the Fine Line is where they will play.
Concert Experience: The Fine Line has decent sound and lights, but the interior design makes it a very uncomfortable club to be in if it is even remotely crowded. The small balcony is easily overwhelmed, and valuable space is mostly taken up by expensive dinner tables where people pay more to eat dinner while they watch the concert. The venue tends to attract an older, suburban crowd who occasionally gets embarrassingly drunk on Michelob Golden Drafts and Red Bull Vodkas with cringe-worthy results.
Drinks: The Fine Line will often advertise drink specials for shows, and then pretend to know nothing about them once they get you in the door. Cocktails, beer, and wine are available at prices that are designed to gouge middle aged suburbanites for all they are worth.
The Staff: The support/technical staff at the Fine Line are generally amiable, but it can take a long time to get the bartenders to notice you.
Parking: The Fine Line’s situation in the “club district” makes it real tough to find a parking spot most times.
The Inside Scoop: If you are at the front of the club when it is crowded it is often faster to go upstairs, across the balcony, and back down again than it is to try and press through the main floor.