Summer in Long Beach is still synonymous with sand and surf  — and sounds.

When the locals and tourists alike leave the beach and head home to get ready for a night out on the town, they still have many choices for quality live music and entertainment ahead of them.

While conventional wisdom might say "dinner only" at Grillfire on West Park Avenue, the George Martin owned eatery features live acoustic sets on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, where singer and guitarist Robert Blau has been playing his own stylized version of swingin' blues and Grateful Dead songs for months.

"Love it here," said Blau, just before he took the corner stage at Grillfire. "Ownership is great to me and we draw a nice, mellow crowd that's really receptive."

The crowd isn't quite as mellow in the West End, where several of Long Beach's best-known bars bring live music to the people almost nightly. As a hostess at the Beach House, Jillian Peralta gets to hear all the live music that passes through.

"Every one of the bands is great," she said. "Ace is fantastic, Jager Flavor is one of the best cover bands I've ever heard and Jahstix plays late on Sunday nights. That's a scene where people are always screaming for one more song."

The Beach House features live music every night a week for the dinner crowd until roughly 10 p.m., after which the DJ's come on later for the club crowd.

Just down the block from the Beach House is a West End staple, The Whale's Tale, where acoustic duo Acoustic Jelly was cranking out soulful hit after hit that spilled into the streets on a recent Saturday night. The restaurant-bar stages acoustic acts and three piece bands on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

"Whale's Tail is low key, not a meat market," said Holly Hamper, vocalist for Acoustic Jelly and a Long Beach resident by way of her native Montana. "It has that perfect dive bar feel, but it's not dingy."

Local residents Hamilton Lozada and Anne Treglia get their live music fix at The Long Beach Inn, which prides itself on being the premier venue for such fixes in Long Beach.

"Bands here are always excellent," Lozada said. "I have a few friends who play in bands here, including Mike Krum. It's always a great time."

The Inn has open mic on Mondays and acoustic acts on Tuesdays. The Benjamins play Ladies Night regularly on Thursdays and Peat Moss and the Fertilizers nail down the Sunday night slot as the house band for "Inn Idol 2010," the bar's version of the popular Fox TV show. Friday and Saturday nights rotate with some of the areas better rock cover bands who take the stage in the upstairs balcony, while the crowds party down below.

"Great room, raucous crowd," said Mike Sorrentino, drummer for Big Shot, a nationally renowned Billy Joel tribute band.

Big Shot played their first gig at The Inn  earlier this summer and their nearly two hour set turned into one extended sing-a-long as the packed bar belted out every word along with the band.

"Playing Long Beach was long overdue for us," Sorrentino said. "We can't wait to go back."