Live-music venues worth the trip in Rockford, Illinois

Rockford’s atmospheric movie palace, opened in 1927 with Spanish castles, Italian villas, dragons and starlit skies, reborn in 2001 after a community-funded restoration, now hosts touring concerts, the Rockford Symphony Orchestra and Broadway tours.

Rockford’s downtown arena and home of the Rockford IceHogs, an arena whose own venue page promises concerts from the biggest stars in music and comedy alongside circuses, motor sports and family shows, with executive suites, club boxes and club seats sold per event or by the year.

The casino’s 23,000-square-foot showroom, part of what its own page calls Rockford’s newest entertainment destination, seats up to 2,000 for concerts, reconfigures for banquets and conventions, and keeps every event 21 and over.