Cobo Arena

Tucked into the riverside convention center, the 12,000-seat Cobo Arena was the Pistons’ home from 1961 to 1978 — the intimate, knowledgeable-crowd era that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar once called the best fans in the league. The Pistons never won much here and eventually chased suburban dollars out to the Silverdome in 1978, but Cobo’s real fame turned out to be musical.

Its horseshoe shape and acoustics made it a legendary live-album factory. Bob Seger recorded “Live Bullet” here in 1976 — the record that finally broke him nationally — and KISS (“Alive!”), Journey (“Captured”), and Yes all cut live tracks within these walls. In 2015 the arena was gutted and reborn as the Grand Riverview Ballroom inside Huntington Place (the old Cobo Center). The Pistons’ shots are long gone, but Seger’s roar still echoes off this riverfront.