Broadway’s honky-tonks run cover bands through the same 40 songs on a loop, free to walk into and loud past midnight. That iconic Nashville outing is worth at least one night of your trip; however, it will get tiring quick every night without a break. The city has plenty more to offer within a few blocks of the strip, from a piano bar the crowd controls to a symphony hall to a 1948 jazz basement.
The best place to start, Pete’s Dueling Piano Bar, sits on 152 2nd Ave N, where two pianists play whatever the room requests, so no two nights run the same setlist. Reserve a table before the weekend fills and let the crowd, including yours, decide what gets played.
Pete’s Dueling Piano Bar
A honky-tonk hands you a fixed setlist and a band you do not control. Pete’s flips the script. Two pianists take song requests from the crowd all night at 152 2nd Ave N, playing whatever the people ask for. Your table can be the one to send up a request, which the pianists will then play on your behalf, and you’ll discover friends among a room full of strangers as you end up singing along to the same song.
The venue covers more than 10,000 square feet with a capacity of 485 and three full-service bars, comfortably seating big weekend crowds without a fight at the door. A 50-foot LED screen runs behind the pianos. The crowdsourced format keeps the audience on high energy rather than leaving it all to the stage. The night moves at whatever pace you set it at.
Doors open Wednesday through Sunday at 6:30 PM, the show starts at 7:30 PM. The venue is 21 and up with credit card only for admission. Weekend tables downtown are in high demand, so booking ahead beats the walk-in line. Visit Pete’s Dueling Piano Bar to lock in a table before the night fills.
Ryman Auditorium
Ryman Auditorium stands a few blocks off Broadway at 116 Rep. John Lewis Way N, a 2,362-seat concert hall built in 1892 as a tabernacle and known ever since as the Mother Church of Country Music. After the Grand Ole Opry broadcast from its pews for three decades, touring acts of every genre have kept the calendar full, from country to rock all the way to comedy.
The Ryman is not like any honky-tonky or a walk in bar, it is a ticketed, seated concert. The wooden pews and curved balcony throw sound with a clarity that performers and audience members talk about for years afterward, consistently placing the room on best-sounding-venue lists. When you want to bet it all on one performance giving the most, the Mother Church delivers the results and the history in the same ticket.
The Listening Room Cafe
The Listening Room Cafe sits a few blocks off Broadway in SoBro at 618 4th Ave S, putting the songwriter, not a cover band, at the center of the room. Two shows a night bring three to five writers to the stage in the round, each performing songs they wrote, some of which you may recognize from the charts, performed by other artists. Southern-inspired plates and craft cocktails come to the table while they play.
Conversation drops to a hush when the performances start rolling, the opposite of the Broadway roar a block over. Between songs, the writers tell stories and fun facts about their lyrics, shining new lights on hits you may have heard a hundred times without thinking about them too much. Monday nights bring Song Suffragettes, a long-running all-female round, for a bill you cannot catch anywhere else downtown.
Schermerhorn Symphony Center
Schermerhorn Symphony Center anchors SoBro at One Symphony Place, across from the Country Music Hall of Fame, home to the GRAMMY-winning Nashville Symphony. The 1,844-seat Laura Turner Concert Hall follows the European shoebox design, with 30 soundproof windows that shine natural sunlight in the room, unlike most concert halls that keep theirs sealed and dark.
Perhaps nothing on this list sits further from a honky-tonk than a full orchestra which goes well and beyond strict classical. A single season runs pops nights, jazz, and live-to-film concerts where the symphony plays a movie score in real time as the respective scenes play overhead. Tickets start around $29. A night at the symphony costs less than you may have been led to think, certainly less than a round of weekend cover charges on Broadway.
Skull’s Rainbow Room
Skull’s Rainbow Room hides in the basement of the historic Southern Turf Building at 222 Printers Alley, a supper club that has run since 1948. Live jazz bands play nightly in what the room bills as the only dedicated jazz lounge downtown, with a late-night burlesque show taking the stage Thursday through Sunday.
Printers Alley worked as Nashville’s after-hours district long before Broadway became a bachelorette strip. Skull’s keeps that older, dimmer, distinctly southern version of the city alive. A table gets you everything that makes a night in one room: French-American plates, a craft cocktail menu, and a jazz trio a few feet away, without the neon or the crowds pushing past the door.
Match the Night to the Room
The right room depends on what you want out of the night. For a show where you want to feel directly involved and mingle with the crowd, Pete’s Dueling Piano Bar. For one artist and legendary acoustics, the Ryman. For the writers behind the hits, The Listening Room Cafe. For a full orchestra, the Schermerhorn. For jazz and a martini in a classy mid-century basement, Skull’s Rainbow Room.
Broadway may be free and walk-in, but most of these rooms reward a little planning. Buy Ryman, Listening Room, and Symphony tickets ahead, since the good nights sell out, then reserve a table at Pete’s or Skull’s before the weekend crowd arrives. You don’t have to only pick one. Check that the bill fits your group too, since Pete’s admits 21 and up and Skull’s shifts to burlesque after midnight on weekends.
Pete’s Dueling Piano Bar at 152 2nd Ave N runs Wednesday through Sunday with the show starting at 7:30 PM. Reserve your table online and start the night in the one downtown room where the crowd picks the songs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where can I hear live music in downtown Nashville besides the honky-tonks?
Pete’s Dueling Piano Bar at 152 2nd Ave N runs an all-request dueling piano show the crowd controls, the Ryman Auditorium hosts ticketed concerts across every genre, and The Listening Room Cafe puts hit songwriters on stage performing their own material. The Schermerhorn Symphony Center, home to the Nashville Symphony, and Skull’s Rainbow Room in Printers Alley round out the range, one with orchestral concerts, the other with nightly jazz.
What is Pete’s Dueling Piano Bar?
Pete’s Dueling Piano Bar is a live-music venue at 152 2nd Ave N where two pianists take song requests from the crowd all night, so the setlist changes with the room every evening. The space covers more than 10,000 square feet with a capacity of 485, three full-service bars, and a 50-foot LED screen behind the stage. Doors open Wednesday through Sunday at 6:30 PM, the show starts at 7:30 PM, and the venue is 21 and up with credit card only for admission.
Is live music in downtown Nashville free?
Some of it is. The Broadway honky-tonks let you walk in free, though many add a cover charge on weekend nights. The rooms beyond the strip mostly charge: the Ryman Auditorium, the Schermerhorn, and The Listening Room Cafe sell tickets by the show, Skull’s Rainbow Room runs a cover for its jazz and burlesque, and Pete’s Dueling Piano Bar takes table reservations for the dueling piano show.
How is Pete’s Dueling Piano Bar different from a Broadway honky-tonk?
At a Broadway honky-tonk, a house band plays a fixed rotation of covers and you take whatever is on the setlist. Pete’s Dueling Piano Bar runs on requests instead, with two pianists building each song around what the crowd sends up, so your group can steer the night toward the songs you came to sing. The dueling format keeps the whole room involved rather than watching a band from across a crowded bar. Reserving a table ahead secures a spot for the 7:30 PM show.
How far in advance should I get tickets or a table?
For the ticketed rooms, buy as early as you can, since popular Ryman shows and Symphony weekends sell out well ahead. The Listening Room Cafe fills its two nightly shows fast on weekends, so tickets in advance are the safe move. For Pete’s Dueling Piano Bar and Skull’s Rainbow Room, reserve a table a week or more out for a weekend night, since both fill quickly once the downtown crowd arrives.