The Coolest Concert Venues in the U.S.
From epic outdoor amphitheaters to historic concert halls, these cool concert venues are worth the trip.
There’s no greater feeling of together-as-one unity than being in a packed venue singing along to your favorite artist—and surely your town has a club, theater, or stadium that’s fair to call the best in the area. But sometimes you want to up the ante and travel to a venue that’s special for both an audience and an artist: steeped in history, surrounded by beauty, or embedded in a community known for its live music scene.
If you travel for shows, you’re not alone: according to AAA and Bread Financial, three in five millennials and Gen Z members have traveled or are planning to travel more than 50 miles for live events including concerts, sporting events, comedy shows, and book readings. Tons of ink was spilled on the recent influx of travelers for Taylor Swift’s Eras tour, but the truth is that traveling for shows has been part of the concert-going tradition for generations: just ask anyone you’ve ever seen wearing a Grateful Dead or Phish shirt. They’ll regale you with tales of parking lot burritos, near-miss set times, and the greatest venues in the US—20 of which are also listed below, so you don’t need to sit through a bearded dude’s ramble about whether or not heady burritos should include beans (they absolutely should).
Morrison, Colorado
Red Rocks is the gold standard of iconic music venues in America, full stop. Any hardcore music fan that has the resources has made the pilgrimage to the striking 9,525-person venue, which is instantly recognizable from its massive natural rock walls, and any artist that plays Red Rocks for the first time considers it a sort of graduation to the next level of fame. It’s not genre-specific either: this past year’s schedule included EDM staples like Porter Robinson and Zedd and also veteran rockers like John Fogerty.
George, Washington
Once Red Rocks is crossed off the bucket list, most music fans' next-most-important stop is often The Gorge in George, Washington. This 27,500-capacity amphitheater overlooks (surprise!) a gorge, with striking cliffs, running water, and the sense that you’re in music heaven in the middle of nowhere. You sort of are: one of the downsides of the Gorge is there’s not a ton of infrastructure around it, which means you’re likely going to camp either onsite or in a side lot. The upside, though, is that the party doesn’t need to stop whether you’re there for Luke Combs or Dave Matthews.
Hollywood, California
If you’re shocked that our outdoor-theater pick for LA isn’t the far more iconic Hollywood Bowl (which is also a great place to see a show!) then you’ve never been to the Ford: the 1,200-person venue is near the Bowl and also a partner with the LA Phil, but offers a much more intimate and equally beautiful experience. Alt-rock pioneer Beck climbed up the cliff that serves as the open-air theater’s backdrop during a show last year, and Finneas recently scheduled a special one-off show at the Ford as well.
Las Vegas, Nevada
There’s literally nowhere in the world like Las Vegas’s Sphere, an 18,000-capacity venue built inside a gigantic sphere visible from the Vegas Strip, with a venue that includes an immersive, nearly 360-degree screen and over 160,000 speakers purpose-built for mind-blowing sound. Over the course of residencies—from U2 and Phish to Dead & Co and The Eagles since it opened in 2023—that screen has been transformed into the Vegas landscape, a video-game-esque rainbow road, the inside of a dog’s mouth (thank you, Phish), and, ironically, some of the venues on this very list. The possibilities are endless, and the upcoming New Years residency from EDM artist Anyma will also open up the genres that can experiment with the tech as well. And it’s not just for music—the Sphere has also hosted nature movies, a U2 documentary, and sporting events.
New Orleans, Louisiana
Though the tiny Preservation Hall venue has only existed in the French Quarter of New Orleans since 1961, the traditions celebrated there stretch back for generations: on any given night you’re likely to find veteran New Orleans horn players and singers and percussionists playing with no electric amplification to a room of stone-quiet music fans often moved to tears by the organic nature of the music. Famous fans who have recorded with the ever-changing Preservation Hall Jazz Band run the gamut from the Foo Fighters and Arcade Fire to the Rolling Stones; it’s not a rarity to find a famous fan among the reverent crowds that fill the 100-person room for twice-nightly performances.
New York City, New York
New York isn’t lacking in the classic-venue category, and surely some who read this list will lament that we didn’t include Madison Square Garden or the Beacon Theater or the Mercury Lounge. But for our money the Brooklyn Bowl is the best venue in NYC. Founded by beloved concert promoter Peter Shapiro, it’s not just a hybrid bowling alley/restaurant/music venue but is shockingly great at all three roles, which means you can grab wings and hit a few strikes before getting down to anything from Taylor Swift dance parties to jam-country guitar-slinger Daniel Donato. The Bowl’s now a franchise: the Las Vegas location is totally worth a visit as well.
Santa Fe, New Mexico
It’s impossible to describe Meow Wolf to someone who’s never been: the artist collective creates multi-room immersive psychedelic experiences (also in Vegas, Denver, and Texas) that feel completely transportive and exceedingly creative. So it’s no surprise that the venue that exists within their inaugural Santa Fe campus books avant garde artists like Buckethead and indie darlings like Soccer Mommy as well as stained-art workshops and mask-making classes. If you’re going there for a show at night you’ll want to spend the day exploring the art first.
Washington, DC
Since 1980, bands on their way up have stopped by the 930 club, which means that it’s hosted many eras of alt-rock darlings including REM (in its early days as a 200-person room in its old location), Smashing Pumpkins (who opened the current 1200-cap location in 1996), and MJ Lenderman (who sold out a show there this October.) Great sightlines and sound have made it a rock mainstay: Billboard, Rolling Stone, and Pollstar have all called it the best room of its size in the world.
Austin, Texas
It’s really, really, really hard to name just one classic venue in Austin—sometimes considered the live music capital of the world—and there are dozens of nominees for best venue in the city. That list includes the Continental Club (dark, dingy, sweaty, electric), ACL Live (pristine, amazing sound, great sightlines), and Hotel Vegas (outdoors, cheap beer, psychedelic). But Stubbs has them all beat: it’s located on Red River street in the heart of Downtown, and the slope of the viewing area for the outdoor stage makes the 2500-person space (which has hosted Metallica, Arcade Fire, and Lizzo among zillions of others) feel small, while the indoor stage (which has a 200-300 person capacity) has occasional local acts and a weekly gospel brunch. Added bonus: instead of tepid pizza or bad burgers like so many venues, Stubbs BBQ serves, well, Stubbs BBQ, meaning you can get a crazy-good sausage roll as a bed for your Shiner Bocks.
Pelham, Tennessee
Sure, maybe you’ve seen an underground show, but have you ever seen a show…underground? That’s what you’ll get at The Caverns, an absolutely breathtaking 1,200-person venue about two hours from Nashville. The venue is in literal caverns, so the audience and the band are surrounded by rock walls for, well, rocking. Recent shows include the bluegrass Cavefest (with The Sweet Lilies and beloved banjoist Bela Fleck), and electro Breuer.
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Some venues are must-visits specifically for the legendary artists that made the stage their home on the way up, and First Avenue is definitely one of those places. The 1,200-person space will forever be known as the home club of Prince, and therefore a must-visit for anyone who considers funk an important part of their lives. It’s worth noting that The Replacements, David Byrne, and the Fugees all rolled through there back in the day, too. Of course they still book must-see acts like PJ Harvey and Juvenile, but as a must-visit mecca, it’s all about the Purple One.
Asbury Park, New Jersey
In just the way that First Avenue will forever be associated with Prince, the tiny Stone Pony in Asbury Park, New Jersey will always be the home to the Boss. Bruce Springsteen and his band cut their teeth here and occasionally come back for surprise visits. Every act that’s ever been inspired by Springsteen has also come to pay their respects, including super-producer/Bleachers frontman Jack Antonoff, who throws his Shadow of the City festival outside the Pony every summer.
Berkeley, California
Northern California’s most beloved amphitheater is right on campus at UC Berkeley and is a favorite of large acts looking for a slightly more intimate experience. 8,500 people can smoosh their way into the space, which is about half the size of the venues that recent acts like Kaytranada and Leon Bridges are playing on the rest of their current tours. Getting in can be a pain—since the whole space is often sold as general admission, lines start hours before shows, and there’s a whole culture of can-you-or-can’t-you reserve a space—but the chilled-out NorCal atmosphere (both vibe and climate wise) makes up for any frustration.
Chicago, Illinois
The roots of the blues run deep through Chicago, and if you’re there on a music trip you’ll definitely want to pop into one of the old jazz clubs in town. (The Green Mill, though now somewhat of a tourist trap, is the classic, but there are tons of other options as well.) The Riviera— known as The Riv—is one of those gorgeous old theaters that needs to be seen to be believed; a 2,500-cap spot that has hosted Weyes Blood and Cuco and often hosts residencies from local heroes Wilco. The French Renaissance architecture of the building means both a beautiful ceiling and great sightlines, though if you’re prone to dizziness you may want to find seats on the floor rather than the ultra-sloped mezzanine.
Burlington, Vermont
If there’s a jammy bone in your body, you’ve probably, at some point, tried to get to Nectar’s, the namesake of Phish’s classic “A Picture of Nectar,” and a mecca for jamband fans ever since that band broke through in the '90s. Phish a little fuddy-duddy for you? Well, millennial jamband heroes Goose have played there nine times, and the stage has hosted other up-and-comers including Eggy and Magic Beans.
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is one of the country’s great music cities, and its history runs concurrently with The Ryman, formerly the home of the Grand Ole Opry and still one of the most important venues in the world for anyone with a bit of twang in their picking. Recently-rising artists like Sierra Farrell and Marcus King have had breakthrough shows there in the past few years. If country isn’t your thing but you still want to experience the history, they have tours of the room as well as shows from out-of-genre stars like Vulfpek funkster Cory Wong and popster Shawn Mendes.
Honolulu, Hawaii
Unlike most of the offerings on this list, the pull of the Shell isn’t its history, or the layout of the venue, it’s that it’s in Honolulu, Hawaii, meaning if one of your faves is playing this 8,500-person venue you have the perfect excuse to visit the islands. The location can’t be beat: Waikiki Beach is right across the street and you’ve got a view of Diamond Head while looking at the stage. Plus, they do get big acts: Incubus and comedian Matt Rife have both played there recently.
St Louis, Missouri
Beloved by both artists and fans for its jaw-dropping 1920s-era architecture and art, the Fox has something incredible everywhere you look, from the Siamese Byzantine-designed grand lobby complete with massive columns and a carpet originally imported from Czechoslovakia to the restored one-ton chandelier that hangs in the 4,500-strong main auditorium. In addition to acts like Sturgill Simpson and Khruangbin, the venue hosts many touring Broadway productions as well as standup comedy from Iliza Schelsinger and Tom Segura, among many others.
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit’s reputation for charming griminess is bolstered by El Club, which, since 2016, has become a hang for anyone trying to catch the next-big-thing coming through Motor City. Brockhampton, Doja Cat, and Billie Eilish took this stage on their way up, playing to 450 fans lucky enough to understand the assignment early: you never know what arena superstar you may see next.
Atlanta, Georgia
Opened as a church in 1911 (of course), the Tabernacle has become a can’t-miss live-music venue for bands touring through the Southern US. 2,600 people can fit in the general admission floor and wide, seated balcony, giving it both a club and a theater atmosphere depending on who’s playing, which can be anyone from Elle King to Becky G to the Hives.