Grande Ballroom

01 / The story of this place

Make time for these

The Grande was built in 1928 to a design by Charles N. Agree, with shops on the ground floor and a Moorish Deco dance hall upstairs used for jazz and big-band dancing. Promoter and teacher Russ Gibb, inspired by the West Coast rock halls, reopened it as a psychedelic rock hall on October 7, 1966; the MC5 were the house band and recorded “Kick Out the Jams” there on October 30–31, 1968, the Stooges, SRC, the Rationals and Ted Nugent played regularly, and touring acts included Cream, The Who, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin, the Velvet Underground, Sun Ra and John Coltrane. The final show was on New Year's Eve 1972, and the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in December 2018.

1. Moorish Deco dance hall from 1928
2. MC5's “Kick Out the Jams,” 1968
3. Russ Gibb's rock era, 1966–1972