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Regattabar
Why does Boston have such clean jazz clubs? Like Scullers, Regattabar looks just like a conference room in a hotel - in this case the Charles Hotel. They get big enough names (Irma Thomas, Slaid Cleaves) to transcend the mediocre space. As it only has 225 seats, you'll at least have a good view and the sound system is quality.
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River Gods
The decor of this small cramped room (max 45 people) leans towards kitsch with a cluttered assortment of sparkly leather stools and red velvet chairs that look too much like gothic thrones. Art-house movies and documentary footage project silently on the wall while DJs spin from a second-story alcove. Monday's feature a themed showdown, where you might see DJ Curtis attempt to one-up Captain Tipsy with country tunes.
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Ryles Jazz Club
Upstairs you'll find a largish dance hall where there are often early evening instructors on hand to get you primed to swing or merengue. One the first level you'll find a dining room. Both are done up with a natty jazz-inspired decor, and each has its own stage on which both local talent and national names play (Arturo Sandoval, Maynard Ferguson). A popular Sunday brunch makes a great time to visit, though you might need a reservation.
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Sacco's Bowl Haven
For an incredible time warp, head to Sacco's - an unchanged and slightly beaten-up treasure last renovated in 1950. Inside you'll find lots of worn wood lanes, faux-marble benches, a giant stuffed swordfish and old metal lockers. The game de jour is candlepin, the skinny pin game of the Northeast. If you ever bowl here you'll never want to go anywhere else.
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Scullers Jazz Club
This club books huge names (Dave Brubeck, Keely Smith, Herb Reed) in a relatively intimate room serving stiff drinks. Many prefer to buy a package where you get a three-course dinner plus seats practically in the laps of the performers. Though it enjoys impressive views over the Charles, the room itself lacks the grit you might hanker for in a jazz club and definitely feels like it sits inside a Doubletree Hotel (which it does).
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Sevens Ale House
Beach Hill's long-standing favorite looks old school, with its wooden bar placed under hanging glasses, and a few comfortable booths. A sedate crowd plays chess and either stares at a mural of a dying minuteman or admires a jersey singed by Doug Flutie. A single dartboard is in good shape.
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Shay's Pub & Wine Bar
A pleasant basement level bar, Shay's is a long-standing favorite among Harvard graduate students. It's a small wooden pub where you'll sit on a stool and pretend to look thoughtful. Out front is a small brick patio full of smokers jockeying for one of few tables. Shays stocks a decent list of English beers and a limited selection of wine.
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Shear Madness
America's longest running comedy operates out of the Charles Playhouse, situated on a sleazy street (don't worry, it adds to the mood) in a former church. Half-play and half-improv, the show features an outrageous gay hair stylist and various freak show characters in a whodunit-style performance where actors ad-lib the plot based on audience cues.
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Shubert Theatre
Administered by the Wang Center, the Shubert Theatre hosts dance and popular theater, such as the Boston Lyric Opera's Madama Butterfly or James Kirkwood's Legends! starring Joan Collins and Linda Evans. Like the Wang Theater, this one is an old architectural beauty, though smaller (1600 seats) and less lavish.
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Silhouette
Yes, it's an over-lit dive full of sticky tables, around US$7 pitchers of Pabst, overturned baskets of popcorn and several Keno monitors, but it still feels good on rowdy weekends - even with that ugly drop ceiling. Inside find bike messengers and philosophical college dropouts.
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Simons Imax Theatre
At the New England Aquarium, this IMAX bad-boy plays lots of educational films on a six-storey screen, in 3D. That way when you have a gander at Sharks, you'll actually feel like you're about to be eaten. Try not to poop your pants. They occasionally play IMAX versions of popular fare (eg Superman Returns ).
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Sister Sorel
A pleasantly cracked concrete slab forms the floor of this small bar, whose brick walls and bay window compete against images of roosters in various stages of abstraction in a historic vs. artistic battle. A few patio tables provide sidewalk seating in front of the charming building. No TV!
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Soho
The warm wood tones of this two level club evoke a kind of Scandinavian modern design. Since this is Boston, there are also TVs everywhere, including the bathrooms. The result is a confusing mix - yeah, there are a hundred young professionals dancing, but the West Coast feed of that Bruins game might also demand your attention. Despite all those TVs, watch out for the enforced dress code.
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Sommerville Theatre
This classic neighborhood movie house dates from 1914 and features plenty of gilding and pastel murals of muses in excellent condition. On offer are first- and second-run Hollywood hits, live chamber music, the Chuck Norris Film Festival and the Independent Film Festival of Boston screenings. The main theater is the biggest, best and oldest and has a balcony.
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Squealing Pig
This pub is a fries-and-gravy kind of place (on the menu) that attracts dweeby guys in long-sleeved dress shirts and aspiring engineers being trained at nearby Wentworth. The place looks ye olde English, though the wainscoting is fakey. Tunes are best characterized by 'Desperado', the Eagle's masterful ballad.
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Sullivan's Pub
Lady behind bar, 'You just sit there and look pretty.' Drunk old-timer, I've never looked pretty in my whole life.' Head to this archetypal local (everyone calls it Sully's) for more of such dialogue in a generic bar, beloved by its patrons because of its perfect ordinariness and lack of a trendy crowd.
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TC's Lounge
This extraordinarily awesome dive features a collection of faded posters of near naked celebrities (Farrah Fawcett), old beer ads, pinball and ugly bathrooms. A truly mixed crowd ranges from rising class Brazilian laborers to Berklee students to hard-core Sox fans. Expect cheap drinks and only two beers on tap, both shitty.
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The Burren
This cavernous and good-looking Irish pub seems to stretch back forever. Along the way, find plenty of booths, wainscoting and wooden floorboards well seasoned with split beer. In the rear room, there's a stage where mid-week open-mic sessions attract both the skilled and a lame J-Crew wearing mock-mohawks, trying to get punk sounds from acoustic guitars and making feeble attempts at jokes.
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The Comedy Studio At Hong Kong
The 3rd floor of this noodle house contains a low-budget comedy house with a reputation for hosting cutting-edge acts and where talented future stars (eg Brian Kiley, now a writer for Conan O'Brien) refine their racy material. They usually sponsor a comedian of the month and on Tuesday host a weird magician show.
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Toad
This laidback place never charges a cover and it's okay to bring in food from next door. It looks like a woody Irish pub. The remaining members of Morphine play here regularly. Only holds 62 people, but they are usually 62 pretty happy dudes.
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Toast
Descend through deep sidewalk cuts to a designy bar in the lower levels of a former police building from the 1920s. An assortment of DJs spin tunes for various theme nights. Wednesdays and Saturdays attract heaps of Goths and misfits, while Fridays have become one of Boston's most popular dyke nights thanks to DJ Susan Esthera.
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TT & The Bears
A dirty dive with two bars in two rooms, one of which provides partial refuge for those who discovered that, though the opening act might have an interesting name, not all local bands are actually worth listening to. So grab a beer and stuff some earplugs while waiting for Northern State, Wayne Hancock or The Detroit Cobras.
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Wally's
Old school, gritty and small, Wally's is the kind of place where someone on stage will recognize a high-caliber out-of-town musician in the crowd and convince them to play. It's been an institution since the 60s and is one of the most successfully racially mixed bars you'll find in Boston. A lot of Berklee students stop in and there are half-priced drinks before the bands start playing.
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Wang Theatre
Restored in 1989, this opulent 3600 seat theater with mural-covered vault and chandelier-festooned lobby are the definition of early 20th century grandeur. A variety of shows are presented, usually of the kind with a sizable budget for set design. See Broadway, theater, music, dance and live performances by celebrities like John Stewart. The Boston Ballet uses it as home base.
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Weggie's Pub
Stuffed with massive trophies from various competitions (the 38th Annual Chinese North American Invitational Volleyball Tournament, held in Toronto in 1982), Weggie's has been a neighborhood fixture for decades. Supposedly, the place was originally 'Reggie's', but the Chinese line cooks who come here couldn't pronounce the name. The loungie dive is characterized by cheap red vinyl, colorful lampshades and Formica.
