When you’re on vacation, it’s fun to conclude a day of playing tourist or exploring nature with live music, perhaps with a meal or a drink. But when you’re far from home, you might not know the local joints to visit. Here are some resources that you can use to find live music while you’re traveling.
Yelp Listings
Yelp listings are a great way to locate live music. If you try a random search for live music and the town or city you’re in, you’ll find that Yelp listings tend to come up first, and the comments will give you a great sense of what type of music to expect at local institutions and what nights of the week to expect it. I recommend starting here and then checking Facebook, the location’s website—although Facebook is often more accurate—or calling to confirm if there will be live music on the date you are considering. These fan-favorite spots can be great places to hear the local musicians, and sometimes the Yelp comments will tell you whether there’s a band, a dance floor, or whether or not they play originals, etc.
Live music in the hometown newspaper
The local hometown newspaper can be a great place to research live music too. Most papers will have some sort of events section, particularly looking ahead to the weekend, and their arts or entertainment section, if they have one, may also have articles or sections devoted to bars, restaurants and venues with live music.
Follow your favorite band
The best way to experience the artists you already know is, of course, to follow them directly. Subscribing to email alerts are usually the best, but following them on social media is another great way to stay in the loop about where they will be playing.
Keep your eyes open
Another great resource is to just keep your eyes open as you vacation. Keep an eye out for posters featuring concert information. Sometimes, local restaurants have a sign listing the nights of the week they host live music and who is performing. Some of the best events I’ve attended I wouldn’t have known about if I wasn’t in the right place at the right time to learn about it.
Live music? There’s an app for that
My final method is to consider using an app to track your favorite bands in a particular town. Options available to download in the Apple app store include Songkick Concerts, Bandsintown Concerts, Yplan, Timbre and Last.fm—Last.fm even has a music festival matchmaker feature.
There’s no need to miss out on great music when you’re on vacation. Give these methods a shot and start incorporating more music into your life as you travel.
Ready to hit the road? Find your dream RV rental here. And if you enjoyed this article, you might also enjoy this article about visiting 16 national parks in 30 days, or this article on how to plan a trip to Navajo Lake.
