Your official guide to the hardest-biting musical venues in the D
By Chris Handyside Photography by Marvin Shaouni

Besides a little business known as the auto industry, Detroit’s number two export worldwide is a rich offering of sonic goods. From its legendary place in the history of the blues via juke joints to its status as the home of Motown, metro Detroit has always danced to its own beat.

In the ’80s, the city birthed the electronic dance music known as techno and hit-makers as diverse as the rock band the Romantics and R&B siren Anita Baker. More recently, acts such as Kid Rock, Eminem and The White Stripes have kept Detroit’s brand name alive in the imagination of music lovers.

None of this alchemy would have been possible, however, if the area didn’t have a rock-solid foundation of supportive venues for live music. On any given night in the metro area, you can scan listings for hundreds of establishments providing a home base for the city’s music scenes.

Here, then, is a down-and-dirty tour of some of the best places to catch a live buzz in The D.

Baker’s Keyboard Lounge
It may come as a surprise to some that the city that can claim to own the “world’s oldest jazz club” is not New Orleans, but Detroit. But there it is. Baker’s Keyboard Lounge has been operating continuously for 74 years, hosting a revolving door of who’s who in the jazz world — from traveling jazz players to local cats moonlighting between session gigs at Motown and more recent R&B greats such as Anita Baker, Aaliyah and others.

Weekends find the timeworn mid-century chic joint on Detroit’s northwest side packed with aficionados digging bop, modern and R&B headliners.

Blind Pig
Ann Arbor, metro Detroit’s neighbor to the west, has its own storied rock history. The city lays claim to the Stooges and boasts a strong presence in Detroit’s ’60s rock scene. Since that big bang 40 years ago, its fertile music landscape has just kept producing.

And for the last 30 years, rock, blues, jazz and other acts have found a stage at the Blind Pig. Sure it serves the beer-special and jam-band crowds that fill the University of Michigan’s campus dorms each year, but it has also played host to early shows by R.E.M., Nirvana and other soon-to-be-household names. But its bread-and-butter is local indie, rock and hip-hop.

Bohemian National Home
Heading west out of downtown via Michigan Avenue is an out-of-the-way haven for experimentalism that might as well be the very embodiment of Detroit’s underground experience. Bohemian National Home is an unassuming square block of a building that used to function as a social hall. Over the past few years, it’s been reclaimed by Detroit musician Joel Peterson and his merry band of renaissance artists and turned into a landmark and safe haven for experimental jams, avant jazz and folks making music on the edges of rock.

The Crofoot
The Crofoot is the newest kid on the metro Detroit music menu, but it’s made its presence known thanks to a savvy combination of diverse and consistently interesting bookings and great sound. The Crofoot’s architectural and sound amenities are a big deal for the city of Pontiac, a town with a reputation for make-do and force-fed venues. In just its first few months of operation (the doors opened in the fall of last year), the Crofoot — along with its adjunct venue the Pike Room – has hosted the cream of the local crop, as well as hot touring acts from New York and more left-field fare like a meet-and-greet with film director John Waters.

Lager House
The garage rock for which Detroit is now well known for sowed its seeds at a defunct joint called the Gold Dollar. Once that scene made its mark and bands started to get signed, the Gold Dollar shut down and the Lager House — a formerly anonymous tavern in the shadow of the shuttered Tiger Stadium — took over the scenester clubhouse role. For years, it acted as a de facto Detroit rock hipster epicenter. It’s recently been taken over by new ownership that’s cleaning up the place a little bit and offering an improved sound system and a more eclectic lineup of jazz and blues as well as the rawk that is this joint’s calling card.

Magic Bag
Ferndale is a funky inner-ring suburb of Detroit proper, and the Magic Bag is a cultural landmark connecting city and suburb with jams of the rock, blues and indie variety as well as weekly second-run “Brew ’n‘ View” evenings. On any given week, the theater’s marquee is as likely to tout a hot up-and-coming Detroit act as a reunion tour by a late-great-reunited ’60s rocker or blues man. Folks keep coming back because the Bag’s intimacy creates a rock-solid connection between artist and audience and the sound is among the best in town.

Majestic Theatre/Magic Stick
The Majestic Theatre Center is the anchor of Detroit’s Midtown entertainment district. Its reputation as a must-stop spot on any nightlife tour of Detroit is well earned. There are three spots for music mavens here. The DIY punk shows in the downstairs Garden Bowl draw the downtown scene illuminati for a dose of kick; the 1,500-capacity Majestic Theatre offers a diverse lineup of music, from reggae to alternative rock, in its cavernous space; and the 500-capacity Magic Stick really keeps the complex humming.

It’s the de facto home court for established locals like Blanche, The Hard Lessons and other big draws, while also playing host to the most critically acclaimed and indie-popular up-and-coming touring acts from metal to country, with a distinct emphasis on the indie side of the rock spectrum.

Saint Andrew’s Hall/The Shelter
If you’ve seen the Eminem biopic 8 Mile, you’ve seen parts of this downtown hot spot already (the climactic rap battle was shot at the Shelter and several exterior shots were grabbed outside the main hall). Saint Andrew’s Hall and the Shelter have played host to several (rock-band) generations of artists over the last 25-plus years. The hall’s big room has been a must-stop for touring circuit bands that have “made it” and are rolling through Detroit. It’s also a Mecca for up-and-coming locals, having headlined everyone from local-popular hair metal acts to cartoon thug-rappers Insane Clown Posse. Downstairs, the littler brother joint, the Shelter, is the proving ground for indie acts destined for the big room.

Small’s
Hamtramck is a traditionally Polish enclave surrounded by the city of Detroit. It’s also a city that, over the past 15 years, has established itself as a hotbed of live music nightlife. Small’s is as good an entry point as any to the dozens of bars in the city that offer live rock, pop, blues, R&B and other jams on weekends and weeknights. Started and run by longtime denizens of Detroit’s rock scene, Small’s caters to people who seek a good buzz and great music.

The Works
Aside from automobiles, metro Detroit is perhaps best known for exporting a brand of electronic dance music known as techno to the outside world. And 25-plus years after techno burst from the 313 (Detroit’s primary area code), it’s still alive and well in its hometown — even if the hardcore brand of the style is still a relatively underground phenomenon. The Works
is a blink-and-you-miss-it spot on the
near west side that caters to purists and groove aficionados.