Is there live music in Honolulu on a Monday or Tuesday?

Not that we can point you at. Our notes carry no Monday and no Tuesday for any of the twenty-one rooms on this page. The one tag that reads anything other than weekend nights is Blue Note Hawaii's, which reads every night and runs a ticketed schedule you would have to check for your date. One room, Bar Leather Apron, carries a Wednesday, and two — Echoa Ridge Festival Grounds and Moani Island Bistro — carry no nights at all. That is a gap in what we hold, not proof the city is quiet: our nights are editorial tags, not schedules the venues sent us. Early in the week, check the room's own calendar, or look at what is actually booked on the Hawaiʻi events calendar.

Where can I hear live Hawaiian music in Honolulu?

Three rooms in our directory carry a Hawaiian tag: Aloha Beer Company in Kakaʻako, Hana Koa's Moon Room, also in Kakaʻako, and Blue Note Hawaii in Waikīkī. Reggae is the same count and nearly the same rooms — Aloha Beer Company, Arnold's Beach Bar, Blue Note Hawaii. These are genre tags on a directory row, not billings: none of the three Hawaiian-tagged listings names an act. Blue Note is the only one pointing at a schedule you can go and check; Hana Koa's listing mentions a rotating calendar of events without saying where to find it, and Aloha Beer's names Friday night live music without naming who plays. On cover, the rows read none at Aloha Beer, none to $10 at Hana Koa, and $20 to $100 and up at Blue Note — read them as shape rather than tonight's door price. If a specific night matters, the venue's own calendar is the only source worth trusting, and the Hawaiʻi events calendar is the next best thing.

Which Honolulu live music needs a ticket?

One room, on what we hold: Blue Note Hawaii, inside Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort, is the only write-up of the twenty that mentions ticketed shows at all, and its cover line reads $20 to $100 and up depending on the artist. Two rooms cannot be answered this way at all — Echoa Ridge Festival Grounds in Kapolei is typed as a concert ground and its cover line just reads varies by event, and Moani Island Bistro has no write-up and no cover line of any kind. The other eighteen read as bars, breweries and lounges, and none of their write-ups mentions advance tickets, which is not the same as knowing there is nothing to pay at the door. Our directory carries a cover line for twenty of the twenty-one rooms: ten read free or none, nine name a figure, and the figures run from $5 at Jazz Minds Honolulu to $100 and up at Blue Note. Not one of those lines carries a date, so read any of them as the shape of the thing and not tonight's door price. Who is old enough to get through the door is a question for the venue.

Is live music in Honolulu walkable from Waikīkī?

Some of it. Four of the twenty-one are filed under Waikīkī, and they are not all resort rooms: Arnold's Beach Bar is an open-air room its listing calls Waikiki's legendary dive bar, Honolulu Tavern sits on a Nohonani Street block its listing calls locals rather than tourists, and RM. 38 is a speakeasy-style room on Lewers Street. Blue Note Hawaii is the one that is exactly a resort room — it is inside Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort. More of this page sits in Kakaʻako than in Waikīkī — six against four — and Kakaʻako is a ride too: Kakaʻako bars and breweries has those six and the rooms around them.

Is there live music in Kapolei or ʻEwa Beach?

Barely, on what we hold. Two rooms sit out past town and our notes on both are thin. Echoa Ridge Festival Grounds in Kapolei is the one entry typed as a concert venue rather than a bar, tagged live music, r&b, hip-hop and electronic, with no nights in our file at all and a cover line that reads varies by event. Moani Island Bistro in ʻEwa Beach is typed live-music, carries no genre tags, and has neither a write-up nor a cover line. For either one, phone ahead — there is nothing here we would let you plan an evening around, and the Hawaiʻi events calendar will know more about a given date than we do.

Live music · Oʻahu

Honolulu live music: which rooms say it, and which only carry the tag

Twenty-one rooms in our Oʻahu directory are filed for music as of September 2026 — twenty carry a music tag, and the twenty-first, Moani Island Bistro, is typed live-music with no tags on it at all. The tag means two different things. Thirteen of the twenty write-ups we hold name music, a band, a DJ, a jam or a concert. The other seven never mention any of those: they describe cocktails, whiskey, wine, highballs and beer, and they carry a jazz or live-music tag anyway. Both are a night out. Only one of those two kinds has anything in its listing you could miss by turning up late.

Everything below is our directory's listing text read back to you, not a visit from us. The write-ups are the listings; the nights are our own tags rather than schedules any venue sent us. We hold a cover line for twenty of the twenty-one rooms, an age limit for twelve of them and a parking note for eleven, and where a row holds a figure this page prints it. Read any figure as the shape of the thing rather than tonight's door price: not one of these lines carries a date. Hours drift the same way. Rooms close, too — Jazz Minds already did.

Ask where to hear live music in Honolulu and you get pointed at Waikīkī, because that is where the hotels are. Six of the twenty-one are in Kakaʻako, more than any other area we file them under, and Kakaʻako bars and breweries is the page for that neighborhood. Four are filed under Waikīkī. The other eleven are in Chinatown and downtown, which Chinatown nightlife covers, and in Ala Moana, Mōʻiliʻili by the university, Kapolei and ʻEwa Beach.

One more shape to know before you plan. This is a weekend directory: eighteen rooms carry Friday and Saturday in our notes, nine of those carry Thursday as well, one carries Wednesday, one carries Sunday, and no room is tagged for Monday or Tuesday except Blue Note Hawaii, whose tag simply reads every night. Two rooms carry no nights at all. Which rooms those are is at the bottom of the page.

Jazz clubs in Honolulu

Two write-ups on this page say live jazz in so many words, and one of those two rooms no longer has a room of its own. Jazz Minds Honolulu's listing calls it Hawaii's only dedicated jazz club and describes six nights a week of live jazz in a small room where the crowd actually listens — then ends with a note that the original location closed and the nights now run as Heart Moon Bar & Bistro events. So the six-night line describes the room that closed; our own nights tag reads Thursday to Saturday, and the cover line on the row runs $5 to $15. Confirm where it is before you drive anywhere. The Dragon Upstairs is the other one: live jazz and open jazz jams from a rotating roster of local players, the McJazz Band's weekly jam among them, in a lounge that also runs DJ nights and karaoke above Hank's Café on Nuʻuanu Avenue, with a mixed crowd off the First Friday art walk, and a cover line of free to $10. Blue Note Hawaii is a different proposition: the ticketed room, inside Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort, where jazz is one of six genres on the row alongside reggae, r&b, Hawaiian music, rock and comedy, and where the cover runs $20 to $100 and up depending on the artist. Read all three figures as the shape of a night.

Honolulu bars with live music

Three rooms here carry a live-band tag rather than a live-music one. Two of the three listings use the words neighborhood bar; the third calls its room Waikiki's legendary dive bar. Anna O'Brien's has been open since 1969 and is the only room in the file tagged for punk or for alternative — pool tables, darts, a crowd that skews young because UH is up the road, and regulars its listing calls lifers; the cover line reads free to $10. Arnold's Beach Bar is that third one — open-air, in Waikīkī, with a listing that claims live music every single night and says this is where locals and tourists actually mix; our own tag for it is Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and it is the only Sunday in the file. Its cover line reads free. Honolulu Tavern is on Nohonani Street, right next to Green Lady — craft beer and live music, on a block its listing describes as locals rather than tourists, and its cover line reads free as well. Free is what the row holds, not a promise about the night.

Kakaʻako breweries with live music

Four rooms here are beer-led and two of them say anything at all about music; both of those two are in Kakaʻako. Aloha Beer Company's listing calls it Kakaako's original craft brewery and brewpub — a dog-friendly beer garden, thirteen beers on tap, Friday night live music, a happy hour it puts at 2 to 6 PM daily, and a cover line that reads none. Hana Koa Brewing Co. is a full production brewery with two bars and a kitchen; the listing says the Moon Room is Hana Koa's dedicated event and live music space, open Thursday to Saturday from 4:30 PM, and credits the brewery as a whole with live music on the lanai and a rotating calendar of events. Our own nights tag reads the same three days, and the cover line runs from none to $10. Hours drift, so treat both figures as the shape of the thing. The other two beer rooms are further down, among the seven that carry a tag and say nothing.

DJ nights and dance floors

Bevy, at SALT in Kakaʻako, is the only room in the file tagged for house. Its listing names Soulgasm's house nights, live video game music concerts and touring international DJs with Nicola Cruz among them, in a space it says turns into a full dance floor Thursday through Saturday; happy hour Tuesday to Saturday, 5 to 7 PM, and a cover line of free to $20. Bar 35 is filed downtown and its listing calls it Chinatown's home bar: a long beer list, local DJs, occasional live acts, and a patio the listing calls the move early on a Friday, before the room gets loud. Free to $15 on that row. It also names one act on one date — Drewbyrd, April 4, with no year attached — which is as good a demonstration as any of why we call these lines undated. The Manifest is a coffee shop by day and a proper club on weekends, and its listing is straight about the room changing completely after 10; free to $10. The Gatsby Hawaii, in Kakaʻako, is tagged for live music, jazz, hip-hop and DJ sets, describes cocktails, cigars and a dance floor, is noted open until 2 AM, and carries a cover line from none to $20. Hours drift, so read each of those as the shape of the thing.

Rooms that carry a music tag and say nothing about music

Seven of the twenty write-ups we hold never mention music, a band, a DJ, a jam or a concert. All seven rooms carry a music tag anyway. Five are tagged for jazz: Bar Leather Apron, EP Bar, Pint and Jigger, Eleven and RM. 38. Two are tagged for live music: Waikiki Brewing Company's Kakaʻako taproom and Off The Wall Craft Beer & Wine, a craft beer and wine tap house its listing places in the Ward Village area of Kakaako. Read the tag as the register our directory filed the room under, not a bill. What is on the speakers on a given night is not something we know, so do not plan an evening around one of these seven without calling first. The closest any of them comes to telling us is EP Bar, whose listing mentions a vinyl soundtrack without naming what is on it. All seven carry a no-cover line, which is the one thing this group agrees on. What the seven do say: Bar Leather Apron is on the mezzanine of the Topa Financial Center, a twenty-seat room built after Japanese whisky bars, reservations required per its listing, which says plainly that it is not a party bar. EP Bar is a Japanese-inspired highball and vinyl bar on Nuʻuanu Avenue with the entrance on Pauahi Street — worth knowing before you circle the block. Pint and Jigger keeps an encyclopedic whiskey list on the lobby level of the Ala Moana Hotel. Eleven is a small, focused cocktail bar inside Foodland Farms Ala Moana. RM. 38 is a speakeasy-style room on Lewers Street. The two beer rooms' listings describe beer and a food menu, a daily happy hour at Waikiki Brewing from 3 to 6 PM, and at Off The Wall a Latin American-inspired kitchen.

West Oʻahu: Kapolei and ʻEwa Beach

Two entries sit out past town and we hold thin notes on both. Echoa Ridge Festival Grounds is the one room in the file typed as a concert venue rather than a bar; our whole note on it is a single sourced sentence off the official Wet’n’Wild venue page, calling it an open-air concert and entertainment venue in Kapolei on West Oʻahu, tagged live music, r&b, hip-hop and electronic. We hold no nights for it, and its cover line reads varies by event — the honest answer for a ground that runs when something is booked into it, though the empty nights field is our gap rather than a statement from the venue. ʻEwa Beach has Moani Island Bistro, typed live-music with no genre tags at all, and it is the one room of the twenty-one we have not written up. No cover line, no nights, no note: a name, a neighborhood, a type, a price level and a rating is the whole row, and we are listing it because it is in the directory rather than because we can tell you anything about the night. For either one, the Hawaiʻi events calendar is a better place to look than this page.

Which nights we hold, room by room

These are our tags, not schedules any venue sent us — a place to start, not what is booked. Friday and Saturday: every room on this page except three. The three are Blue Note Hawaii, whose tag reads every night and whose listing points at a ticketed schedule you would need to check for your date, and Echoa Ridge Festival Grounds and Moani Island Bistro, for which we hold no nights at all. Thursday adds nine of those rooms: Anna O'Brien's, Bar Leather Apron, Bevy, EP Bar, Hana Koa Brewing Co. / Moon Room, Honolulu Tavern, Jazz Minds Honolulu, RM. 38 and The Dragon Upstairs. Wednesday is one room, Bar Leather Apron. Sunday is one room, Arnold's Beach Bar. No room is tagged for Monday or Tuesday except Blue Note Hawaii, whose every night covers them — and that is a gap in what we hold rather than evidence the city is quiet, so early in the week the room's own calendar is the only thing worth trusting. Somewhere to go rather than a specific night? Our Oʻahu nightlife directory carries the rooms this page leaves out, not only the ones tagged for music; Chinatown nightlife and Kakaʻako bars and breweries take the two neighborhoods most of this page sits in; and the Hawaiʻi events calendar carries what is actually booked this week.

21 venues · 20 with a write-up

live-music · barEwa Beach

Moani Island Bistro

Website

cocktail-bar · barwaikiki

RM. 38

Speakeasy-style cocktail bar on Lewers St. 4.9 on Google. Small, intimate, great drinks. Perfect for a date night or a sophisticated start to the evening.

craft-cocktail · barDowntown

Bar Leather Apron

$$$

Tucked on the mezzanine level of the Topa Financial Center, Bar Leather Apron is Honolulu's most celebrated cocktail destination — a James Beard Award semifinalist and multiple Tales of the Cocktail honoree. Inspired by Japanese whisky bars, the intimate 20-seat space requires reservations and rewards guests with metic

Website Directions

brewery · barKakaako

Aloha Beer Company

Kakaako's original craft brewery and brewpub, serving 13 styles on tap in a dog-friendly beer garden. Aloha Beer Company hosts Friday night live music and daily happy hour (2–6 PM). The beer garden is one of the best outdoor drinking spots in Honolulu. A staple of the Kakaako neighborhood.

Website Directions

cocktail-bar · barChinatown

EP Bar

A Japanese-inspired highball and vinyl bar hidden on Nuuanu Avenue in Chinatown. EP Bar is intimate, reservation-recommended, and focused on a tight menu of perfectly executed highballs and house cocktails. The vinyl soundtrack and warm lighting make it one of the most atmospheric bars in the neighborhood. Enter on Pau

Website Directions

cocktail-bar · casualAla Moana

Pint and Jigger

Honolulu's premier whiskey bar and craft cocktail destination, located on the lobby level of the Ala Moana Hotel. Pint + Jigger is an award-winning bar with an encyclopedic whiskey selection and a cocktail program that has earned national recognition. A local institution for serious drinkers.

Website Directions

brewery-taproom-event-venue · barKakaako

Hana Koa Brewing Co. / Moon Room

A full-production brewery in the heart of Kaka'ako with two full bars and a full kitchen. The Moon Room is Hana Koa's dedicated event and live music space, open Thursday–Saturday from 4:30 PM. Exclusive pours on tap, live music on the lanai, and a rotating calendar of events make this one of the best brewery experience

Website Directions

bar-live-music · barwaikiki

Honolulu Tavern

Neighborhood bar on Nohonani St with craft beer and live music. Right next to Green Lady. The Nohonani block is lowkey the best bar strip in Waikiki — no tourists, all locals. 4.5 on Google.

cocktail-bar-dj-venue · barKakaako

Bevy

Kakaako's most dynamic cocktail bar and music venue, located at SALT at Our Kaka'ako. Bevy brings Honolulu's most vibrant music scene to the neighborhood — from Soulgasm's house music nights to live video game music concerts and touring international DJs like Nicola Cruz. The cocktail program is excellent, happy hour r

Website Directions

cocktail-bar · barAla Moana

Eleven

$$$

A sophisticated cocktail bar inside Foodland Farms Ala Moana. Eleven is a destination for serious cocktail lovers — a focused menu of inventive, beautifully executed drinks in an intimate, design-forward space. One of the best cocktail bars in Honolulu for a quiet, upscale evening.

Website Directions

dive-bar-live-music · barwaikiki

Arnold's Beach Bar

Waikiki's legendary dive bar. Open-air, cheap drinks, live music every single night. This is where locals and tourists actually mix. No pretension, no cover, just good vibes. If you want the real Waikiki nightlife — not the resort lobby bar — start here.

craft-beer-wine-bar · barKakaako

Off The Wall Craft Beer & Wine

A craft beer and wine tap house in the Ward Village area of Kakaako, serving a unique fusion of local craft beer, wine, and Latin American-inspired cuisine. Off The Wall is a neighborhood favorite for casual drinking and dining, with a relaxed atmosphere and an extensive tap list.

Website Directions

brewery-taproom · barKakaako

Waikiki Brewing Company (Kakaako)

The Kakaako taproom of Waikiki Brewing Company, Oahu's first and only Waikiki-based craft brewery. Serving award-winning craft beers alongside a full food menu. Daily happy hour 3–6 PM.

Website Directions

nightclub-lounge · barKakaako

The Gatsby Hawaii

Dance the night away at The Gatsby Hawaii — Honolulu's nightlife destination featuring live music, craft cocktails, and cigars. Located in Kakaako, The Gatsby offers a sophisticated late-night experience with a lively dance floor and an upscale lounge atmosphere.

Website Directions

jazz-club-lounge · clubChinatown

The Dragon Upstairs

Chinatown's late-night entertainment lounge, perched above Hank's Café on Nuuanu Ave. The Dragon Upstairs hosts live jazz, open jazz jams, DJ nights, and karaoke in an intimate upstairs setting. A rotating roster of local jazz musicians, including the McJazz Band's weekly open jams, makes this the go-to for live jazz i

Website Directions

cocktails · barDowntown

Bar 35

Chinatown's home bar. Huge beer selection, patio seating, and the happiest happy hour downtown. Fills up fast on Fridays — the patio is the move early, then it gets loud inside. Local DJs, occasional live acts, and a crowd that's actually from Honolulu. Clean, comfortable, and consistently good. Drewbyrd live on April

Website

cafe-cocktail-bar-nightclub · clubChinatown

The Manifest

Coffee shop by day, craft cocktail bar by night, and a proper club on weekends. One of the best whiskey selections in Chinatown. The vibe shifts completely after 10pm — the lights go low, the music gets louder, and the crowd gets interesting. Located in the heart of the Chinatown Arts District. Not the loudest room in

Website

outdoor-concert-venue · barKapolei / West Oʻahu

Echoa Ridge Festival Grounds

Official Wet’n’Wild venue page identifies Echoa Ridge Festival Grounds as an open-air concert and entertainment venue in Kapolei on West Oʻahu.

Website

jazz-club · clubAla Moana

Jazz Minds Honolulu

Hawaii's only dedicated jazz club. Six nights a week of live jazz — that's the whole deal. The room is small, the music is the focus, and the crowd actually listens. Not fancy but not trying to be. If you want to hear real jazz in Honolulu without the Blue Note price tag, this is where you go. Note: the original locati

irish-pub-live-music · barMoiliili / University Area

Anna O'Brien's

Been open since 1969 and it shows — in the best way. Pool tables, darts, the best bartenders in Hawaii (they'll tell you themselves), and live music that actually slaps. Near UH so the crowd skews younger but the regulars are lifers. It's a real neighborhood bar, not a concept. The kind of place where you go for one be

Website

nightlife · nightlifeWaikīkī

Blue Note Hawaii

Live music and comedy venue inside Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort with a current schedule of ticketed shows.

Website

Questions

Where can I hear live jazz in Honolulu?: Two write-ups on this page say live jazz outright, and one of those two rooms no longer has a room of its own. Jazz Minds Honolulu's listing calls it Hawaii's only dedicated jazz club and describes six nights a week in a small room where the crowd listens — then ends by saying the original location closed and the nights now run as Heart Moon Bar & Bistro events. So the six-night line describes a room that is gone; our own nights tag for it reads Thursday to Saturday, and its cover line reads $5 to $15. Confirm where it is before you drive anywhere. The Dragon Upstairs, above Hank's Café on Nuʻuanu Avenue, hosts live jazz and open jams including the McJazz Band's weekly one, in a lounge that also runs DJ nights and karaoke; free to $10. Blue Note Hawaii sells tickets to scheduled shows inside Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort at $20 to $100 and up depending on the artist, with jazz one of six genres on its row. Nine more rooms here carry a jazz tag and not one of their write-ups mentions jazz — that tag is a register, not a bill. Read those figures as shape rather than tonight's door price.
Is there live music in Honolulu on a Monday or Tuesday?: Not that we can point you at. Our notes carry no Monday and no Tuesday for any of the twenty-one rooms on this page. The one tag that reads anything other than weekend nights is Blue Note Hawaii's, which reads every night and runs a ticketed schedule you would have to check for your date. One room, Bar Leather Apron, carries a Wednesday, and two — Echoa Ridge Festival Grounds and Moani Island Bistro — carry no nights at all. That is a gap in what we hold, not proof the city is quiet: our nights are editorial tags, not schedules the venues sent us. Early in the week, check the room's own calendar, or look at what is actually booked on the Hawaiʻi events calendar.
Where can I hear live Hawaiian music in Honolulu?: Three rooms in our directory carry a Hawaiian tag: Aloha Beer Company in Kakaʻako, Hana Koa's Moon Room, also in Kakaʻako, and Blue Note Hawaii in Waikīkī. Reggae is the same count and nearly the same rooms — Aloha Beer Company, Arnold's Beach Bar, Blue Note Hawaii. These are genre tags on a directory row, not billings: none of the three Hawaiian-tagged listings names an act. Blue Note is the only one pointing at a schedule you can go and check; Hana Koa's listing mentions a rotating calendar of events without saying where to find it, and Aloha Beer's names Friday night live music without naming who plays. On cover, the rows read none at Aloha Beer, none to $10 at Hana Koa, and $20 to $100 and up at Blue Note — read them as shape rather than tonight's door price. If a specific night matters, the venue's own calendar is the only source worth trusting, and the Hawaiʻi events calendar is the next best thing.
Which Honolulu live music needs a ticket?: One room, on what we hold: Blue Note Hawaii, inside Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort, is the only write-up of the twenty that mentions ticketed shows at all, and its cover line reads $20 to $100 and up depending on the artist. Two rooms cannot be answered this way at all — Echoa Ridge Festival Grounds in Kapolei is typed as a concert ground and its cover line just reads varies by event, and Moani Island Bistro has no write-up and no cover line of any kind. The other eighteen read as bars, breweries and lounges, and none of their write-ups mentions advance tickets, which is not the same as knowing there is nothing to pay at the door. Our directory carries a cover line for twenty of the twenty-one rooms: ten read free or none, nine name a figure, and the figures run from $5 at Jazz Minds Honolulu to $100 and up at Blue Note. Not one of those lines carries a date, so read any of them as the shape of the thing and not tonight's door price. Who is old enough to get through the door is a question for the venue.
Is live music in Honolulu walkable from Waikīkī?: Some of it. Four of the twenty-one are filed under Waikīkī, and they are not all resort rooms: Arnold's Beach Bar is an open-air room its listing calls Waikiki's legendary dive bar, Honolulu Tavern sits on a Nohonani Street block its listing calls locals rather than tourists, and RM. 38 is a speakeasy-style room on Lewers Street. Blue Note Hawaii is the one that is exactly a resort room — it is inside Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort. More of this page sits in Kakaʻako than in Waikīkī — six against four — and Kakaʻako is a ride too: Kakaʻako bars and breweries has those six and the rooms around them.
Is there live music in Kapolei or ʻEwa Beach?: Barely, on what we hold. Two rooms sit out past town and our notes on both are thin. Echoa Ridge Festival Grounds in Kapolei is the one entry typed as a concert venue rather than a bar, tagged live music, r&b, hip-hop and electronic, with no nights in our file at all and a cover line that reads varies by event. Moani Island Bistro in ʻEwa Beach is typed live-music, carries no genre tags, and has neither a write-up nor a cover line. For either one, phone ahead — there is nothing here we would let you plan an evening around, and the Hawaiʻi events calendar will know more about a given date than we do.

All Oʻahu nightlife →