TRiP Santa Monica

Named LA Weekly's Best Neighborhood Music Venue, TRiP is one of the most reliably excellent small venues on the Westside, programming live music seven nights a week from a compact room at 2101 Lincoln Boulevard in Santa Monica. The interior is a classic dive bar aesthetic done right: exposed wood beams, concrete floors, walls adorned with portraits of icons like Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix, and a room that feels lived-in rather than designed. The stage is small, the sightlines are good from virtually anywhere in the room, and the sound system is consistently praised as the best in Santa Monica. The weekly programming is genuinely varied. Jazz Tuesdays bring some of the strongest acoustic playing on the Westside. The TripTease Burlesque night on Wednesdays is a local institution. Open Mic Mondays start at 8 PM with sign-ups beginning at 7, giving performers ten minutes and a real audience. Latin nights and acoustic sets fill out the calendar. Most shows are free, which pulls in a crowd of people who are actually there to listen rather than to be seen. TRiP is one of those rooms where the intimacy does the work. At under 100 capacity, there is no barrier between performer and listener. A pool table in the back, food available on select nights, and 16 craft beers on tap with more than 60 bottled options make it a destination even without a show. For music lovers who live on the Westside and want a neighborhood room that takes live music seriously without taking itself too seriously, TRiP is hard to beat.