Help me avoid having the Dallas club experience while I'm in Vancouver

http://www.theyale.ca/ for blues ... last time I looked. Don't know about dive bars but if you're looking for a cool joint with great music that's generally free of assholes, try the http://www.therailwayclub.com/. As for techno, 313 makes sense. The best stuff is usually underground ... as it should be.

The best source for info on parties/clubs/peeps in the northwest scene is http://www.nwtekno.org/index.php. It covers everything from VanBC down to EugeneOR, and out east to Idaho.

Excellent tip, mkb. I'm on the list already and email sent :)

Doesn't look like they have anything scheduled until the 19th, but nevertheless you could check back on the http://www.myspace.com/lightasound group and what they have planned ... not exactly techno but proper underground parties and sound systems abound. The Yale -mentioned above- is definitely the place to go for authentic blues in the city. And, since you mentioned dive bars, I recommend checking out karaoke at the Princeton on a Sunday night. Kind of out of the way in the North-East part of Vancouver (at the intersection of Powell & Victoria) but highly, highly entertaining.

I don't go to many clubs and don't know much about techno. I do know that a new club just opened up a few weeks ago and is claiming to have the best sound system in North America. http://www.fortunesoundclub.blogspot.com/. Along the Granville strip downtown there are loads of big clubs which are really expensive aggressive meat markety places. I have a hard time imagining you'll fine good music or a relaxed vibe here. I can only guess what the Dallas club experience is but Granville is probably it. The Lotus Hotel and the associated venues in the same building (Honey lounge and something else) might be a good bet. They always have a party on the Sunday of the long weekend (Sept 6th, Labour Day weekend, maybe you're in luck?). I have a friend who liked electronic music who always goes. The aforementioned Railway Club is a Vancouver institution and a great place to grab a beer and hear some relatively unknown local bands. On Tuesdays in the fall they host Shindig, which is a local battle-of-the-bands, it's usually fun times. I'm not sure when it starts up, probably soon. Dive bars: There are several to be had in the downtown eastside such as Funky Winkerbeans, Pat's Pub, The Astoria; many of these have started hosting live shows and dance night and might on a given night be packed with hipster kids, or might be emtpy except for some bleary eyed old First Nations people who've been there all day. I generally like these places since they're cheap and honest and not trying to be in your face about how cool they are. Though the best place for a slice of the city is the Vancouver Legion on Main St and 20th; come on Thursday or Saturday for some karaoke. There are a number of places in Gastown as well which range from upscale loungy (Steamworks microbrewery, Shine nightclub) to dingy (The Met, The Bourbon). The latter two sometimes host bands and DJs, though unlikely to be anything good. Oh, you should think about going to the Cobalt, Vancouver's only legitimate punk venue. The place is going to be evicted in one month unless things change, which is fucking tragic, since it's one of the few places that people outside of Vancouver have actually heard of. The Brickhouse bar across the street is a pretty nice hangout and it's where I went to my first Mefi meet-up.

You'll definitely want to be at the Lotus for the lotus long weekend, they connect the bars together, you'll get electro, tech-house, etc. etc.

Great, thanks everybody for responding! I'm so excited. Anything to get a break from the 90+ degree weather here in Texas... ack, in Fahrenheit. I better figure out Celsius and sundry other metric measurements.