The Viper Room - When you mention Viper Room, there are two facts people like to bring up: Johnny Depp owned it, River Phoenix died there. Though it still serves as a darker Hollywood alternative to The Roxy or Whisky, these days there’s not much mystery to the dozen-year old club. The small main room, styled in the fashion of a 1920s Harlem jazz club, is actually kind of cozy, and the cover charges (upwards of $15 even for obscure bands) and pricey drinks keep the crowd more swanky than strange. But the club draws some of the better small-time rock acts looking to get discovered, and if the noise of the upstairs gets to be too much, you can slip into the chill-out lounge on the lower level.
