Live-music venues worth the trip in Athens, Georgia

The Classic Center’s downtown Athens arena, pitched on its operator’s about page to fans who come to cheer for the Rock Lobsters professional hockey team, support the UGA Ice Dawgs or enjoy a world-class show, is what that page calls the city’s premier new entertainment venue, a room that has a capacity of over 8,000 and is designed to host concerts, sports events and special performances.

A downtown Athens concert hall whose own venue page traces the site from the Athens YMCA through the Elite Theatre, which replaced the original building, to the 2009 fire, after which the concert hall was rebuilt.

The larger of the two halls at the University of Georgia’s Performing Arts Center, seating its audience festival-style with the seats surrounding the stage, and with acoustics its own venue page says complement solo artists, chamber ensembles and full symphony orchestras.

A 460-capacity general-admission club whose own venue page calls it one of the most famous and iconic music venues in the world and names R.E.M., the B-52’s, Pylon and Drive-By Truckers among the Athens bands that used it as a home base.

A small downtown Athens bar and theatre room that runs a ticketed calendar of local and touring bills next to film screenings, and whose own drinks page promises hand-crafted cocktails, mocktails, fresh local teas, kombucha and beer on tap or in the can.

Named for the late UGA alumnus and benefactor Bernard Ramsey, the smaller hall at the University of Georgia’s Performing Arts Center offers what its own venue page calls an intimate setting for solo recitals and chamber music concerts; visiting artists, small ensembles and Hodgson School of Music faculty and students perform in the hall.