Editorial
The 8 best live music bars in San Diego run from a Kettner Boulevard rock club that launched a hundred careers to a City Heights dive that turns the volume up to punk. We read each for the stage first and the bar second: who plays, what the room pours and the night to show up. From the legendary Casbah to a Spring Valley punk bastion, these are the live rooms our editors send you to.
Three rooms built the city's reputation for catching a band before it breaks, from a downtown landmark to a Solana Beach tavern.
The rest of the list lives in the neighbourhoods, the dive rooms and cocktail bars that put a band on a small stage most nights of the week.
For live music in San Diego, The Casbah remains the room that matters most, the place to catch a band before the rest of the country does. Soda Bar runs it close for new names, the Belly Up wins the bigger acts, and Til-Two pours the best cocktail beside a stage. Start at The Casbah and let the night spread into the neighbourhoods.
Priya Nair is barsforKings' senior cocktail editor and a former Punch contributor. She reads a bar by its menu first: how the list is built, the house spirits, and the one drink worth ordering.