It is 100 percent accurate to call promoter Steve Chilton's Rebel Lounge a new music venue. The space opened in 2015, after all, and before Chilton bought the place, it had been two different gay bars for more than a decade. But we're calling this a "reboot venue" because of the history of the building where the Rebel Lounge resides. From 1979 to 2004, the building housed the Mason Jar. Any old-school music fan's ears will perk up at the mention of the storied venue, where bands like Tool, Nirvana, and others reportedly played shows early in their respective careers. But the Rebel Lounge is more than its history. With a brand-new sound system, stage, lights, and bar, the venue is primed to start its own chapter in Phoenix music history.

Ain't no party like a Tongue Tied Party. And now that the monthly meetup has moved from its humble beginnings at Apollo's to Linger Longer Lounge, the chances of anything coming close are few and far between. Every first Saturday, the Tongue Tied folk take over Tucker Woodbury's uptown Phoenix bar with dancing, drink specials, photo booths, prizes, games, and, as always, a stellar theme. Whether you made it out in your flannel and frayed denim cutoffs to their venue's debut (a '90s party in April), or had a chance to battle it out costume-style at Tongue Tied's Superhero vs. Sci-Fi Anniversary Party, you know that the new space is really setting the mood for Phoenix's favorite dance party.

Yucca Tap Room is one of the best rock bars in the Valley, period. Featuring the perfect combination of quality food and drink and divey atmosphere, Yucca has stalwartly maintained its presence as an oasis for live music in Tempe as surrounding venues have dropped like beats at a dubstep show. Yucca has anchored itself as both a destination for underground touring bands and locals who have gained somewhat of a following. And don't forget one of the best bonuses of playing at Yucca: Double Nickel Collective, a kickass record store, is just next door. So, if the music gets too loud or stops matching your taste, you can pop over and flip through records more to your liking.

Readers Choice: Crescent Ballroom

There are a number of reasons Crescent Ballroom is the first venue Phoenix residents mention to their music-loving friends when they come for a visit. First, the venue is so cool that beautiful people go there to eat and hang when there's not even a show happening, because the cocktails and food are both simple, delicious, and reasonably priced. Then, inside the ballroom, there's great sound, bleachers in the back for tired legs, and two bars, perfect for the 550-capacity venue, so there's rarely a wait for drinks. It's a wonderful spot to catch an intimate show, as well as a great place to cut loose when the situation demands.

Readers Choice: Crescent Ballroom

Lost Leaf is a bar/music venue that offers live music seven nights a week on Roosevelt Row's vibrant Fifth Street. It's a fine example of the adaptive reuse that gives the downtown arts district its character — Lost Leaf resides in an old home that at one point housed a Max's Sausage store. This means the interior of Lost Leaf doesn't feel anything like a modern venue; you wend your way around the bar and past walls adorned with painting by local artists to get to where the bands perform. But you can't really call it a stage at Lost Leaf. It's more of a nook, a rectangular recess that squeezes the band into close quarters and shoehorns spectators into a similar area just out in front, wedged between the band, the bathrooms, the exit to the smoking area, and the bar. The result is perfect for rock. The small area creates density, feeding musicians the energy of a packed house, which the band in turn unleashes on the audience. It's rock 'n' roll paradise.

Readers Choice: Crescent Ballroom

This year, B.B. King, one of the last true blues superstars, passed away. It's fitting that his visage is now painted on the side of the Rhythm Room, Phoenix's premier blues club, alongside roots icons like Little Walter, Big Mama Thornton, Memphis Minnie, Howlin' Wolf, and Muddy Waters. Painted by local artist Curt Condrat, the mural represents the aims of Bob Corritore: preserving and celebrating the blues. Host of Those Lowdown Blues radio program Sunday nights on KJZZ 91.5 for the past 30 years, Corritore is no slouch on the harmonica himself, and in addition to performing around the world, he opened the Rhythm Room in 1991 and has maintained it as a destination for local blues bands like the Sugar Thieves, the Rocket 88s, and Cold Shott & the Hurricane Horns, as well as a stop for touring acts like Janiva Magness, Rick Estrin and the Nightcats, and Joe Louis Walker. Twenty-four years on, the Rhythm Room remains the Valley's most storied juke joint. 

Readers Choice: Rhythm Room

The trek to Queen Creek might be too far for downtown Phoenix types, but if you're looking for a genuine honky-tonk, the drive to Norton's Country Corner is worth it. The saloon is under new ownership, but its Western bona fides remain unassailable, featuring great acts like the Harry Luge Band and Rattlecat Junction on stage and ice-cold domestics behind the bar. Named for Clarence and Willie Mae Norton, who ran a corner store in the 1930s (it sold liquor, of course), the Queen Creek location's sign is classic: a black-and-white rider on a bucking bull. And even if prices have gone up a little since the days of the Nortons, the Country Corner still offers nickel beer nights, a perfect catalyst for dancing in the banquet hall all night long to the twangy bands on stage.

Readers Choice: Dierks Bentley's Whiskey Row

Stumble up to the Blooze Bar on any given night and you're likely to see a vintage roadster parked out front and a band playing revved-up hillbilly blues on stage. Acts such as the Rhythm Dragons, Dirty Dice, Nathan Payne and the Wild Bores, and Tommy Price and the Stilettos represent the venue's Thursday rockabilly bash, where slicked-back pompadours, tattooed women in vintage pinup dresses, and upright basses set the scene for real rave-ups. Housed in a strip mall in North Phoenix, the Blooze Bar hosts local metal bands and sports fans, too, but it's on Thursday nights that the venue really shines, tapping into the thumping, jumping rhythms of plucked bass and reverb-laden, twangy Gretsch guitars.

Readers Choice: Yucca Tap Room

Phoenix has no shortage of dive bars — and great ones, at that — but few touch the Royale Lounge on 16th Street. Part of owner Mark Bolin's constellation of excellent bars (including the Do Drop Inn and Wanderin), the Royale has no hipster sheen and doesn't need one. There's pinball, a pool table, cheap-as-hell drinks, and a jukebox waiting your audio selection, and, best of all, one of Phoenix's finest glowing red neon signs (straight out the 1960s). It's a little dingy, sure, but the regulars are friendly and the beer is cold — and if you're looking for more than that, you're not looking for a true dive, are you? Pop in, belly up, and order. The Royale will take care of the rest. 

Readers Choice: Yucca Tap Room

It's no secret that Rips Ales & Cocktails is one of the best dive bars in town. But the bar is more than just cheap beer and good people. It hosts live music fairly regularly, and when there's a punk show going down, look out. Tight quarters make for the best crowds, and when you're in a place like Rips, you feel out of place if you're not head-banging and jumping around when there's a band playing. Punk music might not have the same cultural cache as it once did, but catch a punk band at Rips, and it won't matter: You'll be having too good a time to care.