Live-music venues worth the trip in Anchorage, Alaska

Downtown Anchorage’s performing arts complex, four theatres headed by the 2,056-seat Atwood Concert Hall, programming live music from symphonies to national and international touring artists.

A 5,000-plus-seat multi-purpose arena on the University of Alaska Anchorage campus in the U-Med District, booking concerts and comedy tours alongside the Seawolves schedule.

What its site counts as ten bars under one roof on Spenard Road since 1970, with sawdust floors in the South Long Bar and national touring acts and local bands playing Friday and Saturday.

A newly remodeled 910-seat house that the University of Alaska Anchorage calls one of the largest auditoriums in the state, sitting on the university’s U-Med District campus and hosting performances on a thrust proscenium stage.

A pizza-and-beer movie house in the former Denali Theater in the heart of Spenard, seating 275 at tables and booking concerts alongside its film calendar.

A downtown Anchorage alehouse on W 6th Avenue whose house stage keeps live music going with local and touring rock, blues and acoustic acts.

A no-frills bar on E 5th Avenue with live music every Friday and Saturday, by its own count a regular on best-dive-bar lists and, the Anchorage Daily News wrote, an indispensable hub for Anchorage musicians.