Houston's 5 Best Live-Music Venue Web Sites

By Jeff Balke Thu., Oct. 18 2012 at 6:00 AM

1. Fitzgerald's

Look and Feel: 8
Ease of Use: 8
Calendar: 9
Updates: 9
Mobile Friendliness: 8
Overall: 8.4

It's been a good few years for the venerable music establishment in the Heights. New owners have gussied up everything and that includes the Web site. Wisely, it is short on flair and long on the important stuff like shows and news updates. The calendar is great and the ticket system goes right to their vendor, quickly and easily. The site is obviously well-maintained and updated regularly.

The one quibble I'd have would be with the layout's overall width. The desktop version is too wide even for larger monitors. It would help if it were slightly narrower. The first time I opened it, I had to increase the size of my browser window to keep from scrolling left to right.

Recommendations: Fix the desktop width. Change the words "Coming Soon" to "Upcoming Shows" so people don't mistake it to mean "Under Construction," since that is commonly used shorthand on the Web.

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Location Info

Venue

Map

Warehouse Live

813 St. Emanuel, Houston, TX

Category: Music

8 user reviews	Write A Review
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Show additional locations »

McGonigel's Mucky Duck

2425 Norfolk, Houston, TX

Category: Music

Firehouse Saloon

5930 SW Freeway, Houston, TX

Category: Music

Nutty Jerry's (Winnie)

18291 Englin Road, Winnie, TX

Category: Music

Fitzgerald's

2706 White Oak, Houston, TX

Category: Music

Tags:

Firehouse Saloon, Fitzgerald's, Mucky Duck, Nutty Jerry's, Warehouse Live, Websites

We Recommend

paul

I disagree with your assessment of the Fitz website. I would like to see, at a glance, the price of each show, and, ideally, a description of the bands playing the show One has to click a link, for each show, to find that information. Other websites (e.g., Empty Bottle, Chicago) handle this in a much better fashion. It would also be nice to be able to see, at some point before the show starts, estimated set times posted somewhere...I suspect a lot of places, though, want you to simply guess.

And, why does Walters not make a priority putting their info. on some website? Their new site has been open long enough to do something, I would think.

Bill Grady

Why bother? http://www.spacecityrock.com/shows/

H_e_x

I finally found the Walters website. Looks like it hasn't been updated since June. They used to have an alright website, I wonder why they got rid of it after the move?

jeffbalke topcommenter

@H_e_x I didn't mention it in the story, but I do get that websites are expensive and a pain to maintain. It's tough for ANY small business to maintain a decent web presence. But, if you are established, you need some of the absolute basics to make it easier on your patrons.