The Abandoned Grande Ballroom: Detroit, Michigan

Back in the mid-1960s, rock 'n roll began getting just a little harder. The seeds began sprouting for acid rock, classic rock, and psychedelic rock, and the pop music scene changed once again.

One of the major places for these changes in rock was Mid-Michigan, with bands like The Stooges, MC5, Amboy Dukes, The Frost, Third Power, and many other bands like the Tidal Waves, Terry Knight & The Pack, The Up and The Unrelated Segments.

The venue that consistently brought all these bands – and others from around the world – to the local stage was the Grande Ballroom at 8952 Grand River in Detroit.

Get our free mobile app

The house band for the Grande (pronounced 'grandee'), was the MC5 who performed there more than any other.

The list of bands and performers who came to Michigan to play the Grande is staggering, featuring an ultimate “who's-who” of rock:
Cream, Grateful Dead, Chambers Brothers, Tim Buckley, James Gang, Fugs, Moby Grape, Vanilla Fudge, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, John Lee Hooker, Buddy Guy Blues Band, Canned Heat, The Byrds, Big Brother & The Holding Company (with Janis Joplin), Blood Sweat & Tears, Electric Prunes, The Who, Youngbloods, Eric Burdon & The Animals, Sly & The Family Stone, Troggs, Mothers of Invention, Traffic, Yardbirds, Procol Harum, Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Love, Blue Cheer, Jeff Beck Group, Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd, Spirit, Steve Miller Blues Band, Country Joe & The Fish, Albert King, Howlin' Wolf, B.B. King, Spooky Tooth, The McCoys, Ten Years After, John Mayall, Pacific Gas & Electric, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Moody Blues, Jefferson Airplane, Deep Purple, Lee Michaels, Iron Butterfly, Genesis, Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, Savoy Brown, Three Dog Night, Steppenwolf, Van Morrison, Commander Cody, Velvet Underground, Chuck Berry, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Joe Cocker, Rush, Golden Earring, Dr. John, Bo Diddley, Johnny Winter, The Turtles, T-Rex, The Kinks, Elton John, J. Geils Band, King Crimson, Blue Oyster Cult and many others. Whew!

Aside from the Michigan performers already mentioned, others who came to the Grande were Brownsville Station, Frijid Pink, Rare Earth, The Frost, Woolies, Rationals, SRC, Bob Seger & The Last Heard, and many, many more – some of whose names have shrunk into oblivion.

The Grande started out as a jazz dance hall in the 1920s, then became a 1950s dance club, a skating rink and a mattress storage facility; but the Grande finally earned it's legendary status in 1966 when it became THE rock venue in Michigan.

It was here where The Who performed the entire Tommy rock opera for the very first time.

So why did it close? The owner, Russ Gibb, began booking rock acts in larger venues, raking in more money.....and soon the Grande wasn't the center of attention anymore. On Halloween 1972, Blue Oyster Cult performed the last concert.
Then it closed for good.

In 2006, with the Grande now crumbling and rotting, the Chapel Hill Missionary Baptist Church purchased the building for $60,000. Advertising as the “future home” of Chapel Hill Ministries, it never happened. Two years later, the Grande Ballroom was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Even so, it continues to decay every year, with an open roof that lets the rain and snow in.....now there are bushes & trees growing in the stage area and former dance floor.

MORE MICHIGAN ROCK: