Live-music venues worth the trip in Keene, New Hampshire

A 1924 downtown Keene theater, restored in 2022 and newly branded The Colonial in 2025, seating roughly 900 under its 1944 neon marquee for national touring music, film and comedy.

A nonprofit all-ages arts space on Emerald Street in Keene that shares its block with a cafe, a coffee roastery and a vinyl shop, with two stages focused on emerging artists and underrepresented voices.

The Colonial’s smaller sister stage opened in 2021 in a restored 20th-century automobile building behind the theater, keeping the building’s original oil-stained wooden floor for up-close indie rock and comedy.