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San Diego · Venue

The Casbah

A compact San Diego club where touring names and local openers share a 200-plus-capacity room.

Upcoming shows
61
Capacity
75
Address
2501 Kettner Boulevard, San Diego, CA 92101
Phone
(619) 232-4355
Next show
Wed, 30 Sept 2026
Official siteDirections
The Casbah in San Diego

About The Casbah

The Casbah is a 200-plus-capacity, 21+ concert club in San Diego, built for the close-range energy of a small standing room. Its most distinctive visual inheritance comes from the first location: co-owners Tim Mays and Bob Bennett bought interior fixtures from a closed Farrell’s Ice Cream, including the leather-padded wall that became part of the club’s look. The current Kettner Boulevard space has hosted shows since 1994.

A move that made room

The Casbah opened in 1989 at 2812 Kettner Boulevard, a 75-capacity room founded by Tim Mays, Bob Bennett, and Peter English. The small original venue put visiting acts such as Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins alongside San Diego bands including Rocket From the Crypt, giving local openers a direct route onto bills with touring artists. In early 1994, the club moved up Kettner to its present, larger quarters, raising legal capacity past 200. The relocation preserved the club’s intimate scale while making a fuller music schedule possible. During the pandemic, the room’s last pre-shutdown show fell on March 13, 2020; after a year closed to live music, Casbah returned with four sold-out nights of local shows in July 2021. That reopening followed a period of renovations and a cautious bar-first return.

The room today

Expect a broad, guitar-forward calendar: indie, rock, alternative, punk-adjacent metal, country, folk, pop, and electronic acts all fit the bill. Casbah presents live music as many as seven nights a week and opens when a calendar event is scheduled. The main music room has a full bar, a 20-by-10-foot stage, and a sound system specified by the venue; an enclosed patio and separate back room add booths, a pool table, and another full bar. Arrive for the bill, then settle into a compact room designed around the stage.

Sources

  1. About — The Casbah Presents
  2. The Casbah — San Diego Reader
  3. Live Music Is Back at The Casbah — San Diego Magazine
  4. Industry Interrupted: Music In San Diego In A Pandemic — KPBS Public Media

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