Best Music Events in Spokane

Music in Spokane has a strange little superpower. One night you are shoulder to shoulder at a Tech N9ne and E 40 show, the next you are in a room where the sound guy also sold you your ticket and the bartender probably plays in two of the opening bands. The big stuff rolls through downtown, but the city’s real personality shows up in the mid sized rooms and the scrappy stages locals treat like a second living room.

If you want the big production side of music events in Spokane, start at First Interstate Center for the Arts. It is the polished end of the spectrum, where the sound is dialed in, the seats are comfy, and the touring names know they are playing the city’s marquee room. You go here for the shows you have waited years to see, not to discover some band that just formed in a garage on the South Hill. Over at 300 W Hawthorne Rd in north Spokane, you get a different crowd again, more campus energy, more friends texting each other five minutes before the doors open.

Then there is the part of the scene locals get a little territorial about. The Big Dipper in downtown Spokane is where the floors shake, the volume creeps into the red, and you remember why earplugs exist. This is where you catch heavy lineups, wild touring bills, and the kind of EDM nights like DANCEFESTOPIA: YBR TOUR with BLAQOUT that pull in dedicated ravers from across town. It is chaotic in the best way and easily one of the anchors for the best music in Spokane if you like your shows loud and your schedule unreliable.

Out in Spokane Valley, things skew more old school and social. The Spokane Valley Eagles membership events, with the Wild Wooly Band and line dancing with Sandy, feel like stepping into a community you did not know you missed. Less about photo pits, more about regulars who can actually dance and know every song. If you want to see what music in Spokane looks like away from the downtown core, this is exactly the kind of place locals keep to themselves until you prove you are not going to make fun of their two step.

A few places to put on your list for music in Spokane:

• First Interstate Center for the Arts, downtown staple for big touring acts and polished production
• 300 W Hawthorne Rd, northside venue energy with a campus feel and mixed lineups
• The Big Dipper Spokane, downtown, loud, sweaty, and essential for heavier shows and EDM nights
• Spokane Valley Eagles, Spokane Valley, live bands, line dancing, and pure community crowd watching