Check out the Time Out listings at
www.straight.com, a local free newspaper that has the most comprehensive local listings. Otherwise there's ticketmaster.ca or of course pollstar. For smaller club events clubzone does the trick. Best live venues for touring bands are The Commodore Ballroom and Richards On Richards for bar/dance floors, The Orpheum or The Vogue for seated venues. The Centre for Performing Arts is a nice venue as well. The Queen Elizabeth Theatre is a bit of a cavern in my opinion, but will suffice. The Chan Centre at UBC is a beautiful building, with the best sound in Western Canada, built to resemble the inside of a cello. Great venue, but typically only symphonies happening there, except for the odd world music show or Philip Glass or something like that. The Yale is our premiere blues bar and has a long history, as well as great sound and is excellent for people watching. GM Place and Pacific Coliseum are the stadiums, GM has okay sound if you are in the right seats and is very sterile, PC is a classic old-school stadium. Our excellent jazz festival starts on June.24th, check out jazzvancouver.com/jazzfest.cfm for info there, I have had the pleasure of seeing artists ranging from Dave Brubeck to K-OS, and Amon Tobin to Shakti at many of the aforementioned venues at our jazz fest. There are many great spots for local theatre, The Stanley and The Arts Club on Granville Island being two of the best. I think Miss Saigon will be at The Stanley during your visit, it is a great heritage building. The Van East Cultural Centre is a very cool place for alternative theatre, of which there are also many. Pubs in the downtown core that have bands include The Picadilly, The Brickyard, The Railway Club, The Media Club and Sonar. We have live bands on Sunday nights at The Cellar where I dj. Hope that helps, enjoy all our city has to offer, from excellent restaurants and parks to world renowned strip clubs and world class marijuana! Try some of our local wines while your here too, as we buy so much of our own stock, very little, if any is exported. Try Quail's Gate Pinot Noir if you like reds, I know it's available on The Keg Steakhouse's wine list if you're into that, The Keg has a lovely location on Granville Island that when combined with a show at one of the many theatre's there makes for a great date. The Arts Club Revue theatre does Improv comedy nights Thurs-Sat which are very good. I love my city, I'm sure you'll have a great time!
"If it were beneficial, their father would produce children already circumcised from their mother. Rather, the true circumcision in spirit has become profitable in every respect." -Jesus, from the Gospel Of Thomas
