Best of Boston

2004 Best Club for Live Music, Small

The Paradise Rock Club

You wouldn’t usually think of a rock club as the place for poetry. But the Paradise’s regular habit of mixing literary readings with hard-rocking indie bands adds a welcome bit of boozy erudition to the local rock scene (not to mention one of the best singles scenes for literary twenty-and thirtysomethings). Not everything at this long-standing rock club is so namby-pamby, of course: The spacious back room where U2 once graced the stage still shakes with the bass and drips with the sweat of rock bands on the verge of hitting the big time.

967-969 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, 617-562-8800, crossroadspresents.com/paradise-rock-club/