Best Live Music in North Myrtle Beach
Where to Find Live Music Every Night of the Week
With a long tradition of live music at honkytonks, seafood shacks and large clubs, North Myrtle Beach (NMB) remains the home of residents and visitors who enjoy dancing the South Carolina state dance, the Shag, every weekend and during spring and fall ‘migrations’. But beyond the Shag, there’s a host of live music and DJ-driven nightlife in NMB, many being on Main St. and its adjacent venues along Ocean Blvd. (formerly known as ‘OD’ for Ocean Drive). These joints still draw in revelers and new generations of music lovers locally and worldwide.
Here are some of the biggest and best spots we’ve found from venues offering solo acoustic guitarists, to larger clubs with pop and variety trios, to full bands. And let’s not forget about the annual festivals! Regardless of your mood or taste in music, there’s no need to travel beyond NMB to satisfy your music cravings.
While almost every town seems to have a ‘Main St.’, ours is where the streets and the Atlantic meet, in the heart of NMB, dedicated to giving you live music and the legendary beach-town partying you’ve been looking for. The small chunk of road downtown, nicknamed ‘The Horseshoe’ for its semi-circular turnaround, is regularly closed for massive outdoor concerts featuring regional beach music bands, touring oldies acts, country, various pop bands, and more.
Music On Main Concert Series
Always free and always on Thursdays, from June to September, and now taking place from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. (formerly 7 to 9 p.m.), this long-running festival draws in thousands at the famed Horseshoe (11 S. Ocean Blvd, NMB). It’s recommended you bring a lawn chair, but if you don’t, feel free to enjoy the live music while wandering around the closed-off section of the downtown area or by grabbing a seat on the ground. Expect a wide variety of acts from beach music bands to variety pop, 80s rock, R&B, country, and more.
Sounds of Summer Concert Series
Sit and vibe outside at an amphitheater in the NMB Park and Sports Complex every week if you’d like to listen to different live cover performances. Free and open to the public, pack your beach chair or blanket for your monthly music intake from various tribute bands honoring the classic oldies.
Live Music at Barefoot Landing
The large outdoor shopping complex, decorated with notable restaurants, boutique shops, and a lake for your enjoyment, doesn’t fall short when it comes to live music! Every summer from June to August, the soloists, bands, and performers come out to different establishments across Barefoot to put on a good show for anyone willing to endure the heat.
1. Summerfest
Welcoming all sorts of entertainment throughout the summer, this festival takes place all across Barefoot and offers free live music of all genres, including country, jazz, steel drums, and acoustics. It’s one of the highlights of the summer and a must-visit after grazing on good food and shopping.
2. Restaurants
Visit one of Barefoot’s restaurants that are equipped with huge outdoor lawns perfect for swaying to live music and hanging out with friends and family. Throughout the summer, grab a good drink and good grub to further enhance your experience of the various live performances at the Big Island Chill House, Crooked Hammock Brewery, Taco Mundo, and Landshark Bar & Grill.
3. Venues
Live, outdoor music hits a certain way on a Friday night in July, but if you want to escape the heat while still enjoying the tunes, or take a break by grabbing a seat, the House of Blues and Alabama Theater are at Barefoot, offering live music and performances of all kinds year round for your enjoyment and comfort.
Main Steet Bars, Clubs, and Nightlife
As a quintessential beach town, you’ll find an ample amount of beachwear stores, honkytonks, restaurants, and quaint gift shops along the sandy sidewalks. You’ll also find live music every weekend (and mid-week in season) at more than just a handful of bars. As one might expect when rock ‘n’ roll is involved, there’s some inconsistency in activity from week to week and year to year, so it’s always best to call first to ensure the act you hope to see is actually still on the bill. In other words, everything is subject to change without much notice, but you’ll still have pretty good luck at the following well-known spots.
1. The Spanish Galleon, The OD Beach Club, and HOTOS
Located inside the oceanfront Ocean Drive Golf and Beach Resort hotel, the art deco-styled Spanish Galleon opened its doors to the public in 1991. The large, nearly 19,000-sq foot club has remained vital to shag dancers and others featuring beach and variety bands and DJs. Also adjacent to the Spanish Galleon is The OD Beach Club and HOTOS (Harold’s On The Ocean), which feature occasional live music during the season.
This staple of Main St. nightlife has been hosting and entertaining crowds for decades and even boasts a rooftop bar that’s now located above Daisy Duke’s Saloon. Downstairs, a large stage and dance floor hosts acts of all varieties and sizes, mostly on the weekends and during the season. The ultra-casual bar & grill/club is especially popular with the younger crowd!
3. Duck’s Night Club and Duck’s Cafe
Always with a crowd inside and out along the narrow sidewalk café, you can find soloists street-side and big bands inside. Variety, pop, beach music, R&B, and top-40 dance bands are the main draw at this double-sided club that first opened in 1983. Thursday nights, you can also find West Coast Swing dance lessons for just $10 a head, whether you’re new to it or a seasoned dancer.
Since 1962 Fat Harold’s has been a Shag club people come to from around the local area, and though mostly featuring DJs, beach music bands do occasionally perform at special Shag events as well. It’s a classic, iconic NMB Main St. institution, well worth visiting.
5. Sky Bar
Coming to life each spring in March, this multi-story nightclub does not feature live music, but it is one of the most popular nightspots on Main St. for music, especially with its rooftop club. The business always draws in a large younger crowd intent on socializing and dancing.
6. Deckerz
With three levels of outdoor decks, this popular NMB honkytonk features solo acoustic guitarists to big bands and plenty of open-air seating and standing room to people-watch the nearby Main St. crowds. It’s consistently been voted the CBMA Show Club of the Year and always has music and cold drinks available.
7. Dirty Don’s Oyster Bar @ Shops on Main
Part of the Key West-styled beach/oyster bars family with the same name, Dirty Don’s Oyster Bar has four locations, including one at the Shops on Main. With indoor/outdoor seating and a wide variety of nightly entertainment, Dirty Don’s has quickly become a popular Main St. option for food, drink, and live music.
In a renovated building that’s occupied the same space since the 1950s, Buoys, just south of the Horseshoe at Main St and Ocean Blvd, quickly became a must-visit beach bar since opening in 2018. Live soloists and duos are featured every Thursday through Saturday on the Boulevard patio.
9. OD Pavilion Sunset Grill and Arcade
Claiming to operate “the last open-air dance pavilion on the East Coast,” the OD Pavilion on the Horseshoe (Main St. @ Ocean Blvd.) still hosts DJ shag dancing and live bands for special occasions. Oceanfront with a grill, ice cream shack, and all the memories of summer wrapped into one fun and funky family destination.
With a full arcade and one of the largest hardwood dance floors in the area, the OD Arcade & Lounge, just a block south of the Horseshoe (Main St. @ Ocean Blvd.), has been hosting beach music DJs and live bands of all varieties for many decades. It’s a small bar typically hosting bands, but occasionally, the main room is opened up for events and bigger performances.
Seasonal Live Music Events
1. St. Patrick’s Day Parade & Festival
For more than 30 years, the City of North Myrtle Beach has been hosting a St. Patrick’s Day parade and festival, usually on the Saturday before St. Patrick’s Day. Three or more stages are set up, full of live entertainment, hundreds of vendors, and a fabulous community parade, which has made this annual event so popular, drawing around 40,000 visitors every year.
2. The Irish-Italian International Festival
Held annually on Main St. in North Myrtle Beach, this enormously popular event is usually held in September, luring in around 15,000 people for celebration. Featuring arts & crafts, food vendors, and two stages of live entertainment, the rain-or-shine event has been continuously held for over 20 years.
Some of these venues and events have withstood the test of time, proving that North Myrtle Beach, a place once called ‘Ocean Drive’, is still the spot for live music on the Grand Strand.
Enjoy!
