Live-music venues worth the trip in Montclair, New Jersey

A big downtown Montclair theater with a standing floor and balcony seating that runs a steady national touring calendar, a short walk from the Bay Street train station.

A volunteer-run nonprofit concert series founded in 1987 that stages established and emerging artists in the 700-seat sanctuary of Montclair’s First Congregational Church, with Judy Collins, Richie Havens and Nick Lowe among past bookings.