Jazz clubs rule though.

For my money and enjoyment, smaller venues offer the biggest bang for my musical buck.

Bars, small clubs, restaurants with live bands, and small theaters > Medium sized clubs and medium sized theaters > Large clubs and large theaters > Typical outdoor ampitheater style venues > Outdoor festivals > Indoor arenas > Outdoor stadiums.

The clubs I'm referring to are live music clubs, not dance music clubs (no interest whatsoever in those.)

I won't go into a bar unless I'm playing at it. It's been this way for a long time. I just can't sit there and watch some crappy house band screw up some crappy over played, and over requested dribble without wanting to go all Animal House on the guitar player.

I'm kind of a prick.

Brother prick!

Fortunately we have the Gaslamp District here in downtown SD and you have to be very good to get a gig at the established clubs.

I usually only go to bars for music when I'm familiar enough with the performer/band to know what I'm getting into. I've been pleasantly surprised and unpleasantly horrified about equally whenever I've gone into one blind.

House bands are pretty annoying when you just want to get together with friends for a few drinks.

The only house bands that are guaranteed to rule are the ones you'll find in Vegas casinos and clubs. The amount of talent (most of it from out of town) in that city is ridiculous.

Don't get me wrong, there are some really killer bands out there lost in bar hell, but a good percentage of them are talentless hacks that are just in it for the ego boost of being on stage. The one's who are just playing like puppets and put no emotion into the music. It's almost like karaoke, but with live musicians. It's a little embarrassing to watch sometimes.

House bands don't bother me at all even if they suck.
i usually tune them out if they do and just focus on drinking and chatting with me friends.

Unless they use trumpets.
Trumpets make a very sharp sound that's hard to tune out so the only bands that annoy me are crappy Ska bands.

I actually can't choose. I adore them all.