Last updated September 2026 · By Melissa DiVita, REALTOR®, Compass · DRE #01387955 · Marin native, in real estate since 2003

Marin isn’t a late-night place, and that’s part of its charm. What it has instead is a music history few places can match, a handful of legendary old bars, and a new wave of cocktail spots. Here’s where to go, town by town. (For a sense of a busy night, see our film-festival night in Mill Valley.)

Mill Valley: the heart of Marin’s music scene

  • Sweetwater Music Hall (19 Corte Madera Ave). The original Sweetwater Saloon on Throckmorton was a legend from 1972 to 2007, with Bonnie Raitt, Jerry Garcia and John Lee Hooker on its stage. It reopened in 2012 in the Masonic building downtown, with Bob Weir among its investors. Touring acts play most nights, and the free Marin Bluegrass Sessions happen on Sunday afternoons.
  • Throckmorton Theatre (142 Throckmorton Ave). Comedy on Tuesday nights, free noon concerts, and festivals like DjangoFest Mill Valley in the fall.
  • Corner Bar (106 Throckmorton Ave). Opened in April 2024 as downtown Mill Valley’s first real cocktail lounge, with velvet and leather seating and a view of the square. It’s from the same team behind the Buckeye Roadhouse. It’s new, and it’s fun. Happy hour runs Sunday through Thursday, 4 to 5:30.
  • The 2AM Club (380 Miller Ave). It started as the Brown Jug in 1906. It sat just outside the old city limits, where closing time came later, so locals called it the 2 a.m. club, and the name became official in 1939.
  • Buckeye Roadhouse. A Mill Valley institution since 1937, and a true Marin classic.

Fairfax: live music and a free spirit

  • Mac’s at 19 Broadway. The old 19 Broadway club is now a speakeasy-style bar with live jazz, rock and tribute bands, DJs late on Fridays and Saturdays, and a Tuesday comedy night.
  • Fairfax Festival & Ecofest. Every June, three stages of free music in Bolinas Park. Pacific Sun readers voted it Marin’s best festival and best music event for 2026.
  • Peri Park. Free town concerts on some summer Sundays.
  • After a ride. Fairfax is the birthplace of mountain biking, so plenty of evenings here start at Sunshine Bicycle Center, the town bike shop since 1971 (and where you can buy a Camp Tamarancho trail pass), and end somewhere on Broadway.

Sausalito and Tiburon: on the water

  • No Name Bar, Sausalito (757 Bridgeway). Open since 1959, and still a home for musicians, writers and live music.
  • Cultivar, Sausalito (690 Bridgeway). New in 2026: a farm-to-table restaurant from a Napa winemaking family, with garden-to-glass cocktails and their own wines on the waterfront.
  • Jazz & Blues by the Bay. Free Friday concerts at Gabrielson Park from June to September.
  • Sam’s Anchor Cafe, Tiburon. Open since 1920, and the deck on a sunny afternoon is a Tiburon ritual.

Larkspur, San Anselmo and San Rafael

  • Silver Peso, Larkspur (450 Magnolia Ave). The beloved dive, more than 60 years old, closed in 2025 after a car crashed into the building. New owners, the team behind Sam’s Anchor Cafe, reopened it in 2026 and promised to keep it just the way it was.
  • Voyage, San Anselmo (500 San Anselmo Ave). A neighborhood cocktail and natural wine bar that Marin Magazine readers named the best wine bar in 2024.
  • Live on the Avenue, San Anselmo. Free concerts on Friday and Saturday nights all summer, with the street closed to cars.
  • California Gold, San Rafael (848 B St). Pacific Sun’s 2026 winner for best cocktails, best happy hour and best craft beer.
  • Downtown San Rafael. The 2nd Friday Art Walk every month, PorchFest in September, and the Excelsior brewpub from the founder of Magnolia Brewing, expected to open on Fourth Street this fall.

Novato and West Marin: roadhouses and saloons

  • HopMonk Tavern, Novato. A beer garden under the oaks with live music indoors year-round and outdoor concerts in summer.
  • Rancho Nicasio, Nicasio. A roadhouse on the Nicasio town square since 1941, with dinner-and-a-show nights and summer barbecues on the lawn.
  • Old Western Saloon, Point Reyes Station. Country, honky-tonk and Americana nights in a real West Marin saloon.
  • Station House Cafe, Point Reyes Station. Farm-to-table food with live music on weekends.
  • Smiley’s Schooner Saloon, Bolinas. It calls itself one of the oldest continuously operating saloons on the West Coast, and it still has live music and a small hotel.
  • Papermill Creek Saloon, Forest Knolls. The old valley saloon reopened under a new owner at the start of 2026, and Pacific Sun readers named it the best bar and best dive bar in Marin that year.

Marin’s music history: the Grateful Dead and beyond

Growing up here, you just knew that the musicians lived down the street. The Grateful Dead are the biggest part of that story. In the mid-1970s the band rented a warehouse on Front Street in San Rafael, known as Club Front, as its rehearsal and storage space, and albums like Shakedown Street were recorded there. The cover art even reimagines that San Rafael warehouse district.

Sweetwater is the other half of the story. At the original Sweetwater Saloon on Throckmorton, you could see Bonnie Raitt, Elvis Costello, Jerry Garcia, John Lee Hooker or Carlos Santana in a small neighborhood club. Hot Tuna recorded two live albums there in 1992, with Bob Weir sitting in. When the club reopened in 2012 in the Masonic building, Bob Weir was one of the owners, and he called it “our clubhouse.” Weir died in January 2026 in Mill Valley, the town he had called home for decades.

Marin has always been a place where famous people get to be regular people, and locals protect that. Robin Williams is the one people still talk about. Neighbors remember him riding his bike around southern Marin, flipping through CDs at little shops, and popping into the Tuesday comedy night at the Throckmorton Theatre in Mill Valley. That Tuesday comedy night still runs, and it’s a fun, easy night out.

Gone, but not forgotten

Newcomers still ask about Terrapin Crossroads, Phil Lesh’s club in San Rafael. It played its last show in October 2021. The old Sweetwater Saloon, the Village Music record store in Mill Valley and, more recently, The Trident in Sausalito are part of Marin’s music story too.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the best live music in Marin?

Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley is the headline venue, with touring acts most nights. For a roadhouse feel, try Rancho Nicasio or HopMonk Tavern in Novato. In summer, the free concert series in Belvedere, Sausalito, San Anselmo and Corte Madera are some of the best nights out in the county.

What is there to do at night in Mill Valley?

Catch a show at Sweetwater Music Hall or the Throckmorton Theatre, have a cocktail at Corner Bar on the square, or go old-school at the 2AM Club on Miller Avenue, which dates to 1906.

What are the best dive bars in Marin?

The Silver Peso in Larkspur, which reopened in 2026, the No Name Bar in Sausalito, the 2AM Club in Mill Valley, and the West Marin saloons: Smiley’s in Bolinas, the Old Western Saloon in Point Reyes Station and the Papermill Creek Saloon in Forest Knolls.

Is Terrapin Crossroads still open?

No. Phil Lesh’s Terrapin Crossroads in San Rafael played its final show on October 31, 2021.

Sources

Want to live near the music?

Send me a note through my contact form. Mill Valley, Fairfax and San Anselmo all have walkable downtowns, and I can show you homes close to the action.

Contact Melissa