The Spotted Cat Music Club

The Spotted Cat Music Club guide in New Orleans starts with how tight the room actually is, a space that began life around 2000 as the Frenchmen Oyster House before three New Orleanians turned it into a no-cover jazz club that December. You'll hear how the venture nearly failed in its early nights, and how Hurricane Katrina in 2005 unexpectedly turned this cramped room into a landmark for a scattered city looking for live music. The story continues through a later renovation that expanded the floor and removed an old walkway, and a 2010 fire next door that firefighters held off at these walls. Stand where the bar rail meets the brick and feel exactly how little room the dancers have.