Live-music venues worth the trip in Somerville, Massachusetts

A Davis Square stage-and-screen house running since 1914 whose main auditorium mixes first-run film with seated concerts from touring acts.

A nonprofit Performance Hall inside Somerville’s historic Armory on Highland Avenue, where its own Spotlight Series, Bowery Presents and other promoters put touring acts on the same stage.

A renovated 500-capacity ballroom upstairs in the Somerville Theatre’s Hobbs Building in Davis Square, a newer room with its own bar and lounge for club-level touring acts.

A Union Square bar dating to 1923 with live bands Wednesday through Monday, cheap or no cover, and long-running weekly residencies that make it the neighborhood’s music clubhouse.

A Davis Square Irish pub with live music seven days a week, nightly sessions and residencies up front and a seated Back Room that hosts the Brian O’Donovan Legacy Series of Celtic and folk touring acts.

An owner-operated Somerville club built in 2019 inside an old police car garage, a bar and restaurant with live performances every night booked by and for local musicians.

A 200-capacity black-box theater in Davis Square splitting its calendar between comedy and bands, a seated-or-standing room where touring acts play between standup nights.