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Libations for Locals: Jazz up Your Spirits

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New Orleans is a city filled with music. It floats throughout our springtime festivals, bubbles up in weekly concerts and spills out into the streets from nearly every bar in town. The following bars are only a few notes of the vast composition that is the Crescent City.

 

LibationsApr2017Siberia
Located in Bywater, Siberia is a neighborhood bar that offers nightly entertainment performed by local and touring underground musicians playing everything from punk and metal to New Orleans bounce and country ’til the early morning hours. Performers include Thelma & the Sleaze, Blato Zlato, Heavy Lids, Calvin Love Heat, Minor Mishap, Sarah Quintana, Joecephus and the George Jonestown Massacre, Lungi and the Fungis, Egg Yolk Jubilee and more. Siberia also features a weekly Comic Strip that combines comedy and burlesque into one hilariously sexy show. Kukhnya serves pan-Slavic cuisine from the bar’s kitchen, kicking out dishes like pierogi, kielbasa and beef stroganoff, while bartenders sling daily drink specials, Eastern European beers by the bottle and craft brews on tap like Charming Wit White Ale from Urban South Brewing. 2227 St. Claude Ave., (504) 265-8855, siberianola.com

Maple Leaf Bar
Open since 1974, the Maple Leaf Bar is the longest continuously operating music venue in New Orleans. Located on Oak Street, this extremely popular bar is home to performers like the Rebirth Brass Band, Johnny Vidacovich, Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes, and the Porter Trio with George Porter, Jr., Walter “Wolfman” Washington, Joe Krown and Russell Batiste. Plus, whenever national or international acts swing through town for Voodoo Music Experience or Jazz Fest, you’ll almost always discover cameo sit-ins from artists like Robert Plant, Bruce Springsteen, Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers and more. The Carrollton neighborhood bar also is well-known for its Sunday night crawfish boils when it’s in season … beer, crawfish and funk? We’re in! 8316 Oak St., (504) 866-9359, mapleleafbar.com

Gasa Gasa
Fairly new to the game as New Orleans music venues go, Gasa Gasa has been highlighting local talent on Freret Street for the past four years and is still going strong. Upcoming acts this month at Gasa Gasa include Ben Sollee, Airpark, All Them Witches, The Suitcase Junket, Froth, Sweet Spirit, Red Baraat and Mandolin Orange. The uptown bar is open to adults 18 years and older, but it also features a bar and courtyard — not to mention free wifi. Millennial-driven? Maybe … but don’t let that deter you from checking it out. 4920 Freret St., (504) 338-3567, gasagasa.com

Chickie Wah Wah
Open nightly, this popular Canal Street venue, readily accessible by streetcar, is a boon for local musicians with a policy that 100 percent of covers go straight to the artists. Chickie Wah Wah also offers excellent bar bites from Cochon King BBQ, a division of “Crawfish King” Chef Shaggy’s local catering empire. Live music is available nightly from local artists like Sam Price & The True Believers, Papa Mali, Albanie Falletta, Jon Cleary, Meschiya Lake & Tom McDermott, Alex McMurray, John “Papa” Gros and The Mike Doussan Band. 2828 Canal St., (844) 244-2543, chickiewahwah.com