Live Music entertainment in Mexico
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Plaza Fiesta Mall
What La Revo is to gringos, Plaza Fiesta mall is to locals. The dozen or so bars and restaurants here are great places to knock back a few tequilas and hear the local rock and DJ talent thrash (or spin) it out. It's unique because you can take your pick simply by walking door to door.
The bars include Sambuca (a Brazilian-themed place), Monte Picacho (live rock en español - Spanish-language rock - Sunday through Thursday, DJs Friday and Saturday), Callejón del Ambiente (great for '80s music and the diverse crowd), Bar Sótano Suizo, El Bunker, Indestruckt (for the industrial and garage scene) and Pancho Villas ('tequila, tacos & rock-n-roll!').
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El Parián
You can pay your respects to the mariachi tradition in its home city. The Plaza de los Mariachis, just east of the historic center, is an okay place to sit, drink beer and soak in the serenades of passionate Mexican bands. But you'll be happier at El Parián a garden complex in Tlaquepaque made up of dozens of small cantinas that all share one plaza occupied by droves of Mariachi. On the weekends the bands battle and jockey for your ears, applause and cash.
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Café Finca la Chiquilla
This place, directly across from Don Pepés, is one of a kind, a great little spot with occasional live music, a full bar, and coffee that is not only freshly ground and roasted, but even grown and picked by the owners from their coffee plantation in Puebla. It's very popular with locals and tourists alike. Meals are also served for around $40 to $70.
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La Bella
At night, macho mariachis lurk around Callejón de los Sapos - Calle 6 Sur between Avs 3 and 7 Ote - but they're being crowded out by the bars on nearby Plazuela de los Sapos. These rowdy watering holes, especially La Bella, are packed basically every night of the week. After dark, many of these places become live-music venues.
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Tropicana Bar & Grill
Part of the Tropicana Inn, the Bar & Grill is a huge space, with garden views and a generous menu of Mexican and American faves. Popular with travelers and locals alike, it's renowned for its super-fresh seafood and signature dishes such as baby-back ribs. There's also live music and dancing as the evening wears on.
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Cervecería
While other Zona Dorada nightspots try to outdo themselves with flash and style, this drive-in, park-like spot guarantees its success with one simple hook: cheap beer. One liter is just 28 pesos. Norteño and country bands kick off around 21:00 and the earthy crowd makes for great people-watching.
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Sandbar
A great place to escape the madness is this low-key bar on Playa Médano, next to the Hotel Meliá San Lucas. Here you can sip your drink snuggled into a comfy beach chair while toasting your tootsies beside a crackling bonfire right in the sand. There's live music on weekend nights to boot.
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Fandango
One of a trio of interconnecting bars in a corner building known as La Casa de los Perros (House of the Dogs), La Embajada is popular with a student and international crowd for its rock music, magazine-style montage decor and drinks from tea, coffee and chocolate to beer, mezcal and wine.
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Librería Cafetería Teorema
This wonderful bookstore-café, the epicenter of Puebla’s bohemian cultural life, recently changed locations and is struggling to regain its stride. But in the evenings it still fills with a mixed crowd of students and professors, listening to different genres of live music from 9:30pm to 1am.
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Bar 1900
An elegant and historic bar fronting Zona Rosa’s Radisson Plaza Gran Hotel Ancira that, except for the big-screen TV, maintains much of its old-time ambience. Guitarists sing classic norteño tunes most nights, and there’s a particularly good selection of whiskey and tequila.
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Casa de la Salsa
Locals converge to shake their collective ass to a rocking four-piece band on a raised stage in this dark, cavernous club. Don’t worry, this is not one of those snooty, show-off salsa clubs, so feel free to get loose. Tequila and beer are priced to move if you need liquid courage.
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Hard Rock Cafe
What more is there to say about this famous chain of cafes? You may not be the kind of homogenophile that's longing to add another identical t-shirt to their collection, but it's worth checking out this particular version, as it has live music most nights of the week.
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Velitas
This popular little seaside palapa on Blvd Camacho could be romantic with its tiki-torch ambience or just a laid-back place to grab a cocktail while checking out the ocean and the people strolling past on the boulevard. On weekends there’s live music.
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Campanario Bar
Pátzcuaro seldom parties, but you can toast the saintly Quiroga at the airy sidewalk tables or in the cramped black-lit environs of Campanario Bar, which offers live bands on occasion. If the Pátzcuaro night has a pulse, this is its heart.
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El Tapanco
At this upstairs 'attic,' look for live rock and trova bands on Fridays and Saturdays. Afternoon drinks come with botanas, and cooler evenings are a swell time to munch on pizza (around $100) washed down with a michelada.
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Las Varitas
A great place to escape the tourist scene, loud and local Las Varitas hosts live Mexican bands, from rock en español (Spanish language rock) to banda (raucous brass-band music with vocals). Women get in free 21:00 to 23:00.
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Again & Again
For a taste of the local pop-music scene, join the youthful crowd here, where gringos in shorts are rarely seen and live bands rock the house every Thursday and Saturday night. On Friday it's a disco, and the dance floor is packed.
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El Circo
A slightly hipper venue across the street from Bar Revolución. A reggae-rock band normally plays in the front bar, while the larger electro-pop dance room in the back opens Thursday to Saturday. Both are usually packed.
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Casa de la Trova Tabasqueña
Casa de la Trova Tabasqueña Trova artists play once or twice most weeks, usually at 20:00 Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, at this café-style venue next to the Museo Regional de Antropología.
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Las Pulgas
Pop in the earplugs and grab a dance partner - Las Pulgas showcases everything from live and recorded banda (brass-band with vocals) and norteña (country style) music to cumbia and merengue.
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Café del Jardín
The Jardín has a peerless position beneath the arches at the southwest corner of the Zócalo. In the evening you’re likely to be serenaded by one of the funkiest marimba ensembles in the country.
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Cubo Bar Alive
Despite the competition elsewhere in the Zona Dorada, Cubo has been the spot to shake your thing for years. Live music gets the crowd crazy: not a chair, table or pole remains un-danced on.
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Café Calicanto
Enjoy live jazz and trova (from 8pm Tuesday to Sunday), luscious cocktails, big sandwiches, light snacks and a very diverse crowd on the tree-lined patio of this intimate café.
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Cactus Jacks
Cactus Jacks does karaoke Wednesday through Saturday nights and hosts the occasional live band. Pool tables and a large-screen TV (showing sporting events) help bring in the night owls.
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Nina’s
Nina’s is one of the best places in town for live música tropical (salsa, cumbia, cha-cha, merengue etc); it has a smokin’ dance floor, variety acts and impersonators.
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