Top ten dance clubs

1. Smart Bar
This cavernous basement club venue precedes all the rest as a Chicago dance music institution. World-class DJs guest Thursday through Saturday with top-notch local jocks filling in on Wednesdays and Sundays. Where other clubs in the city go for the main room jugular, Smart Bar keeps the talent discerning and classy. It also boasts a Funktion One soundsystem that’s second-to-none.

2. Spy Bar
This River North DJ hub tries to cater to both the high rolling bottle service scene and the scenesters that make up Chicago’s dance music audience. While the two contingents may seem at odds, Spy Bar pulls it off better than most, boasting DJ talent respectable enough for clubs in New York, London or Miami and a posh environment to sip your Grey Goose and take in the sounds.

3. Evil Olive
In terms of late-night, DJ-driven venues in Wicker Park, nothing comes close to our favorite Palindrome-named nightspot. This year, it brought its lofted DJ booth down to earth and at eye level with what is always a body-filled dance-floor. It keeps the programming eclectic so revelers can catch everything from live hip-hop on weekdays to Baltimore club-fueled dance remixes and top 40 hits on the weekends. Its got a massive dance-floor, 3 bars and an upstairs lounge with a pool table, so there’s something for everyone here.

4. crobar
Walking in to crobar, you may stop and think that its not the most original or unique of club experiences, but remember that it’s one of the first of its kind and went on to become a staple on the scene in New York and Miami. That said, it was polished up not too long ago and still offers all requisite main room dancing mayhem that its reputation demands, complete with scantily-clad ladies swinging from poles and International DJs pumping out trance and hard house heavy hitters.

5. Sound Bar
Following in the mold of the multi-level, multi-room dance music emporiums that grew out of Europe, Sound Bar has all the slick sheen and surging walls of sound that you’d expect. Unfortunately it’s not booking as much national talent as it once was, opting instead for regularly occurring nights helmed by local—but always on point—trance and house DJs.

6. The Shrine
Afro-centrically themed—right down to the Kente cloth inspired wall paper—this South Loop venue opened this year to much fanfare and rightfully so. Channeling the spirit of the late, great Fela Kuti, the Shrine hosts DJs and live acts 7 days a week, ranging from Tuesday night chill-out sessions to weekend live performances from everyone from Rakim to Kenny Dope.

7. Funky Buddha Lounge
Even though its décor has grown ever kitschier over the years since it’s opening, Funky Buddha remains one of the best mid-size spaces to catch great DJs—ranging from top 40 hip-hop sets on the weekends to indie leaning adventures midweek—at a reasonable price. It’s retooled itself as eco-chic recently, which is a move no one can turn their nose up at and the addition of its little sister lounge, Butterfly Social Club, next-door, gives visitors the option of full on dancing or quiet cocktail sipping.

8. Berlin
This bi, curious and gay friendly establishment in Wrigleyville, bucks the traditional club culture prevailing these days and stays true to its roots as an eclectic alternative dance hub. It features everything from boompity Wednesday night house music extravaganza’s to drag shows and Industrial nights, offering up a little something for everyone.

9. Green Dolphin Street
By day a mild mannered, mostly jazz venue, this spacious venue morphs into raging dance party a couple nights a week. The main highlight is Monday night’s Boom Boom Room party, one of the longest running and fantastically consistent house parties in the city, its been going down for just over 15 years now. Everyone has played it, from Louie Vega to Kerri Chandler.

10. Sub51
A fairly recent addition to River North’s nighlife scene, this intimate basement venue below Hub 51 has quickly become one of the city’s it spots. It recently equipped itself with a Funktion One soundsystem—the same set up blowing ear drums at Sonotheque and Smart Bar—and given the size of the room this means one thing: massive sound. Thursday night features a rotating cast of A-list national DJ talent from DJ Kiss from NYC to L.A.’s DJ Spyder. Weekends, some of the city’s best DJ talent takes over with a mix of top 40 and electro dance tunes.

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