Another generally good place is if you have an alt weekly newspaper (paper or on-line), such as Creative Loafing. I've had a lot of luck with their reviews. I'll check these if I'm going to a city I don't have local contacts.
Same. Haven't heard anything bad about this in particular, though the scores seem quite inflated so you want to see at least a 4.x around here to bother reading the review text in most cases.