Been to both. Saw the Nutty Boys at the Dublin Castle (on Parkway) about 25 years ago.
There was also some Acid Jazz 'scene' going on around 1988-90 ish. Went to the Jazz Rooms a couple of times - as you say very pretentious. Impossible to listen the music when almost everyone is yakking...
A friend of mine is an acoustic engineer (different from a 'sound man' he tells me).
It has long been acknoweldged that the Brighton Centre is poor for acoustics - the worst part being the sound bouncing straight back off the back wall in to the auditorium. However, when Jeff Wayne's War of the...