The Marble Bar on Holden Street in Detroit is an industrial venue featuring indoor and outdoor spaces for EDM DJs and dancing, plus a full bar. Sound system tuned for techno.
Tip: Outdoor patio is the summer move; ticketed shows headline most weekends.
Address: 1501 Holden St, Detroit, MI 48208
Magic Stick in the Majestic Theatre Center on Woodward is one of Detroit's essential small rooms for live music. 200 seated, 700 standing, ten billiard tables and a jukebox.
Tip: Above the Garden Bowl, in the same building as the Majestic. Indie and hip-hop bookings.
Spot Lite Detroit on Beaufait Street is a multifaceted venue with a dance club, gallery, bar, coworking space and record store in a converted Beyster Lumber warehouse.
Tip: Cairo Coffee in the daytime; the bar runs through 02:00 most nights. Vinyl release nights are the editorial pick.
Menjo's Complex on West McNichols is Detroit's historic LGBTQ+ dance club since the 1970s. Three rooms (Menjo's, Eagle Leather Bar, Olympus Theater), the original 1976 disco ball Madonna danced under.
Tip: Friday and Saturday nights run dance floors; Eagle Leather Bar is the leather-and-bear side. Open through 02:00.
Cliff Bell's on Park Avenue has poured cocktails and presented live jazz in Detroit since 1935. Reopened 2006, the canonical jazz room and supper club in the downtown core.
Tip: Tickets for the band run separately. The dining room is half the room; cocktails at the bar.
Baker's Keyboard Lounge on Livernois has poured drinks in Detroit since May 1933 and started booking jazz pianists in 1934, the oldest continuously operating jazz club in the country. Steinway piano picked out by Art Tatum in the 1950s.
Tip: Only 99 seats; tilted mirrors let the audience watch the pianist's hands. Cover varies by act.
Aretha's Jazz Cafe inside the Music Hall on Madison Street in downtown Detroit honors Aretha Franklin with live jazz nightly. The newer of Detroit's two anchor jazz rooms.
Tip: Music Hall hosts simultaneous larger shows; Aretha's downstairs runs the intimate jazz program.
Magic Stick in the Majestic Theatre Center on Woodward is one of Detroit's essential small rooms for live music. 200 seated, 700 standing, ten billiard tables and a jukebox.
Tip: Above the Garden Bowl, in the same building as the Majestic. Indie and hip-hop bookings.
