Guide to Nightlife for the Greater Phoenix Area.
From pubs and piano bars to dance clubs, a gentlemen club, and Broadway-style productions, the Valley of the Sun follows up on blazing sunsets with the afterglow of varied nightlife.
Country-western tunes are big here, although Phoenix also indulges whims of jazz buffs, martini aficionados or cigar smokers, and more than two dozen gay and lesbian bars are clustered on Seventh Avenue and a stretch of Camelback Road. Overall, Greater Phoenix has an abundance of nightclubs, comedy clubs, and upscale lounges for everybody, especially downtown, to the north, and in Scottsdale and Tempe. Club Volume bills itself as downtown’s premier nightclub, while King’s Cocktail Lounge, home of Henry the Tilapia Fish, brags up having a mixologist from Miami. Bar Bianco is the place for hearth-baked breads and a glass of wine. For the gentlemen, Christie’s Cabaret waits on 32nd Street, and for dancing feet, there’s Scottsdale’s Axis Radius Dance Club, Myst and the Ballroom, and e4. The Big Bang in Tempe is Arizona’s hottest dueling piano bar. Harold’s Corral in Cave Creek recreates Wild West nostalgia for up to 600, while Johnny’s Uptown Restaurant and Music Club is the place for jazz amid French service sans pretense.
Downtown Phoenix claims the valley's greatest concentration of performance halls, including Symphony Hall on Adams Street, the elegant circa 1929 Orpheum Theatre, and the Herberger Theater Center. Major performing-arts venues also dot the entire region. Appearing at many valley venues are the Phoenix Symphony, Scottsdale Symphony Orchestra, Arizona Opera Company, Ballet Arizona, Center Dance Ensemble, Actors Theatre of Phoenix, and Arizona Theatre Company. While not the largest venue in town, Celebrity Theatre books popular acts for its revolving stage. Downtown’s Dodge Theatre seats up to 5,000 for top names and tour companies. Top artists also appear at US Airways Center, Chase Field (formerly Bank One Ballpark), Red River Music Hall, The Sundome, and at nightclubs. Given sultry air and star-filled skies, outdoor entertainment is popular in Phoenix. The top outdoor venue is Cricket Pavilion, a 20,000-seat amphitheater for Broadway to rock. The smaller Mesa Amphitheater holds concerts in spring and summer, and the Scottsdale Center for the Arts, stages outdoor performances in the adjacent Scottsdale Amphitheater at the Scottsdale Civic Center Mall. Scottsdale's Stagebrush Theatre features comedies, musicals, and the occasional drama, and The Arizona Jewish Theatre Co. stages plays by Jewish playwrights and with Jewish themes at Playhouse on the Park in the Viad Corporate Center.
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