There’s no straight answer for why Tipitina’s has a banana for a logo: an inside joke? Homage to its juice bar origins? In any case, the beloved Uptown venue has been a NOLA institution since 1977, named for a song by blues legend Professor Longhair, who performed here until his death in 1980. Today, the lived-in space hosts local brass, funk, and swamp rock bands (Galactic, the unofficial house band, is a must-see) plus touring acts like Jenny Lewis and Kurt Vile.

This French Quarter indie venue is on its third life as a music hall, reborn in 2021 as the Toulouse after the pandemic claimed indie mainstay One Eyed Jacks (which had replaced the Shim Sham Club in 2003). Inside the classic Creole townhouse, on the stage just past the lobby bar, you’ll find a discerning mix of rising stars (Nourished By Time), buzzy rockers (bar italia), and indie gods (Arcade Fire) alongside local mainstays like Tank and the Bangas.

This Central Business District venue opened in 1921 as a lavishly appointed vaudeville hall, and it’s just as beautiful today, even after sitting empty and waterlogged for a decade after Hurricane Katrina. (It reopened in 2015 after renovations.) Today the 1,800-seat beaux arts beauty is home to the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra as well as popular midsize touring acts: Liz Phair, Jason Isbell, Kesha, and Tinashe have headlined in recent years.

NOLA’s most iconic jazz experience is still found at this 100-capacity shrine just around the corner from the debauchery of Bourbon Street. True to its name, the venue began in the ’50s as a space for intimate jam sessions from the city’s jazz legends, honoring their legacy in real time. Today, the club’s renowned house bands play up to four shows a day (Taylor Swift sneakily caught one of them in 2022).

Joy is a classic New Orleans story: built in 1947 as a state-of-the-art cinema, defunct by 2003, underwater after Katrina in 2005, and now among the city’s essential converted theaters. The 1,200-cap downtown venue has a keen ear for touring acts (Weyes Blood, Ethel Cain, Danny Brown, Scarface), but its best shows feature local treasures like BAAB, a “satanic” ABBA cover band with a shockingly faithful rendition of “Dancing Queen.”

Built as a vaudeville theater in 1906 and renovated as a concert hall in 2011, the Civic is the coziest of the city’s historic venues, and gracefully toes the line between mainstream and experimental programming. Big-name indie acts like Wilco and Mitski bump up against local mainstays like the swamp-jam Radiators along with a mix of emo, deathcore, and other niche sounds. The shiny bar serves craft cocktails, and the cashiers charge accordingly.

This national chain is ubiquitous today, but back in 1994 there were only two: one in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and one in New Orleans. As the oldest remaining venue in the franchise, this French Quarter institution has transformed a few times over, evolving from a ’90s rock incubator to a stage for ascendent rap royalty in the 2010s. These days, really, anything goes—come to see bluegrass pickers, late-career Black Flag tours, alt-pop stars like Rina Sawayama, or buzzy rappers like BabyTron.

Your best bet for live jazz is Frenchmen Street, the Marigny neighborhood drag that’s been called “the locals’ Bourbon Street” so often that tourists have caught on. Still, the stretch has mostly retained its character, serving up a full spread of NOLA sounds: jazz, blues, zydeco, and more. Amid the bustle is this no-frills club where the fanfare never interferes with the music—a rotating cast of local legends from Jon Cleary and the Absolute Monster Gentlemen to the Palmetto Bug Stompers.

The city’s best rock sanctum sits on St. Claude and has lived a few lives, most recently pivoting from Carnaval Lounge to its current incarnation: a windowless bar filled with taxidermy and an Ice Age mural out front. Recently, the club broadened its bookings a bit, welcoming weirdo electronic acts like Dan Deacon alongside New Wave shoegazers like Hotline TNT. Purists can rest easy: It’s still NOLA’s best bet for punk, death metal, and sludge.