Top Live Music Venues in St. Louis, Missouri

The Fabulous Fox Theatre. 527 North Grand. (314) 534-1111 The Fabulous Fox opened in1929 as one of the crown jewels in William Fox’s motion picture empire. It was designed by C. Howard Crane and built to the tune of six million dollars, an unheard of cost at the time when movie tickets were a quarter. Fox’s wife, Eve, filled the place with paintings, sculptures, and furnishings gathered from her travels around the world for the astronomical sum of $700,000. The first thing that you see when you enter is the grand staircase covered with a royal purple carpet. Fierce rajahs armed with wicked curving scimitars glare down from their niches in the lobby. Indian Vishnus meditate on either side of the stage. From the dome in the auditorium hangs a 2,000-pound chandelier, 12 feet in diameter and glittering with 2,264 pieces of jeweled glass. A giant Wurlitzer organ, one of only five of its type ever built, sits underneath the main stage, ready to rise from the depths in a spectacular blaze of light.

In 1981, the Fox was completely refurbished at a cost of well over two million dollars. Thousands of feet of ornate plaster were meticulously restored. 4,500 seats were completely re-upholstered and restored. 7,300 yards of carpet were woven in the original elephant pattern, even the 108 foot high ceiling was vacuumed. State-of-the-art sound, lighting, and stage equipment was installed, making this one of the most unique and certainly the most lavish places to see live music in the St. Louis area, or even the country for that matter. The music ranges from Broadway plays to nationally touring rock bands and everything in between. It’s the only place where it is suggested that you take a tour (every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday at 10:30 a.m.) before you attend a concert there. At least arrive a few minutes early to check the place out.

Blueberry Hill 6504 Delmar Blvd. (314) 727-0880. The owner of Blueberry Hill, Joe Edwards, has almost single-handedly rebuilt the Delmar Loop entertainment district over the past number of years, recently expanding the district east into the city with the building of the Pageant Theatre. Blueberry Hill is probably the only nightclub that has been featured in the Archie comic books and is the home to legendary rock and roller Chuck Berry, who performs there on a monthly basis. Several vintage jukeboxes warm the hearts of anyone over thirty, there are two live performance areas downstairs and room after room is jammed with collectables from the 1950’s. You can check out Chuck Berry’s vintage Gibson guitar on display as soon as you enter and grab a bottle of Rock and Roll Beer, that bears the likeness of a Fonzie type character who exclaims “I sold my soul to Rock and Roll.’

Venice CafÃ?© 1903 Pestalozzi Street (314) 772-5994. If you could break this place down, the Venice CafÃ?© would be two parts Graceland, two parts amusement park, three parts thrift store, twp parts New Orleans, and one part Grateful Dead concert. The first thing that catches the eye is the psychedelic-painted VW microbus sitting on the parking lot. You almost expect the thing to be filled with long hairs in tie-dyed T-Shirts and bell-bottom jeans. The nest thing you notice is the patio: an endless mosaic of irregularly shaped tiles and broken bits of mirrored glass make up the patio archways, walls and floors. Once you get inside you will feel like you are in a thrift store that has blown up. A really cool thrift store that is. Vintage lunch boxes dangle from the ceiling as well as a four foot sandwich made of Styrofoam. Lighting is in the form of a dozen 1960’s candy-colored swag lamps. The music featured here is a combination of blistering Blues and cool Caribbean and Reggae.