OPEN BARS (16)
Webster Hall
🇺🇸New York, United States
A historic large nightclub and concert venue in the East Village. Webster Hall was originally built in 1886 as a ballroom. In rock history, it's famed for its 1980s stint as The Ritz, one of NYC's top rock clubs. Today, Webster Hall (capacity ~1,400) remains a prime venue for live music and dance nights.
Scruffy Murphy's
🇬🇧Birmingham, United Kingdom
A dedicated rock and metal pub with a focus on live music, DJ nights, and a wide selection of beers.
The Asylum
🇬🇧Birmingham, United Kingdom
One of Birmingham's premier live music venues, hosting a wide range of rock, metal, and alternative acts, from established international bands to upcoming local artists.
The World's End
🇬🇧London, United Kingdom
A world-famous pub and a North London landmark, reflecting the eclectic nature of Camden itself. Located just south of Camden Town tube station. Boasts two bars and a mezzanine balcony seating area. The central area is designed to reflect the open marketplace that once inhabited the location. The pub itself is a large, atmospheric space for drinkers, separate from The Underworld music venue located beneath it.
Project Orange
🇬🇧London, United Kingdom
A modern rock bar located in Battersea near Clapham Junction. Project Orange is a trendy bar known for its rock/alternative theme, offering craft beers, a jukebox/DJ setup, and games (pool, foosball, arcade machines) in a relaxed atmosphere. Known for late opening hours and filling a niche as a dedicated rock bar in South West London.
The Hatchet Inn
🇬🇧Bristol, United Kingdom
Grade II listed 17th-century pub once famed for its gothic rock club nights; now renovated with beer garden and function rooms.
The Flapper
🇬🇧Birmingham, United Kingdom
Independent live music venue and pub, known for its canalside location and support for local and touring rock/metal bands.
Motor Oil Cocktail Garage
🇪🇸Barcelona, Spain
Re-branded successor to Bollocks Bar; rock-themed cocktail garage with burgers and DJs.
The Black Heart
🇬🇧London, United Kingdom
The Black Heart is a renowned rock and metal pub in Camden, often described as a "heavy metal hotspot". Nestled in a lamplit, brick-walled back alley near Camden Town Tube Station, it is about a fifteen-minute walk from King's Cross St. Pancras. The interior is decked out in exquisite all-goth attire; its walls painted black and smattered vibrantly with music artwork, fairy lights sparkling in the dimness, unisex bathroom stalls plastered with band stickers and extremely entertaining graffiti. The downstairs bar is a bustling social hub for metalheads and night-creatures from all walks of life, offering craft beers, shots (including the 'Lucky Sod' Irish liqueur), cocktails, and mocktails.
PSYCHO Rock & Roll Club
🇪🇸Barcelona, Spain
Intimate bar/club with live gigs and DJ sets spanning rock, punk, garage and post-punk.
The Devonshire Arms
🇬🇧London, United Kingdom
Affectionately known as "The Dev," it is Camden Town's devoted home to the musical underground and one of London's leading goth and metal venues. Features a mock-Tudor façade and a buzzy and dark interior. It's described as a goth pub with serious attitude and a haven for goths and metalheads. A place where lovers of rock, goth, punk, and metal congregate.
Sincopa Bar
🇪🇸Barcelona, Spain
Punk-rock dive famed for vintage décor, mojitos and nightly rock playlists.
Subside Bar
🇬🇧Birmingham, United Kingdom
Rock and alternative music bar known for its late-night hours and DJ sets.
The Crown
🇬🇧Bristol, United Kingdom
Historic market-area pub with rock/metal soundtrack upstairs and 300-cap basement venue for gigs and club nights.
The Library
🇺🇸New York, United States
East Village book-lined punk dive famed for its jukebox and B-movie projector nights.
Cart and Horses
🇬🇧London, United Kingdom
Famously known as "The Birthplace of Iron Maiden". A traditional East End pub transformed into a shrine for Iron Maiden fans, with photos, posters, and memorabilia. It has a dedicated rock bar and museum space, including a replica of the original stage. The main bar area serves drinks and food, remaining accessible even when the basement venue hosts ticketed gigs. The band's December 21, 1976 show with new guitarist Dave Murray is legendary.
CLOSED BARS (75)
The Ranch
🇬🇧Manchester, United Kingdom
Eric's
🇬🇧Liverpool, United Kingdom
The Rathskeller
🇺🇸Boston, United States
Kenmore Square cellar that launched The Cars, Pixies, Mission of Burma.
Rebels
🇬🇧Sheffield, United Kingdom
Tokusanhall
🇯🇵Nagoya, Japan
Harp Bar
🇬🇧Belfast, United Kingdom
Tropic Club
🇬🇧Bristol, United Kingdom
Rum Runner
🇬🇧Birmingham, United Kingdom
Costermonger
🇬🇧Birmingham, United Kingdom
Pub that hosted rock and metal gigs.
Shibuya Yaneura
🇯🇵Tokyo, Japan
Shinjuku JAM
🇯🇵Tokyo, Japan
The Intrepid Fox
🇬🇧London, United Kingdom
A historic pub with roots dating back to 1784, named after statesman Charles James Fox. Originally at 97-99 Wardour Street, it became a prominent goth and heavy metal venue by the 1970s. Known for its distinctive dark, goth-rock aesthetic, featuring black-painted interiors, a mock graveyard, and other macabre decorations. It was a key meeting point for the goth and metal scenes. After closure in 2006, it reopened at 15 St. Giles High Street (2007-2014) before final closure.
The Pound
🇬🇧Belfast, United Kingdom
The Rock Garden
🇬🇧London, United Kingdom
Canecão
🇧🇷Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Planet X
🇬🇧Liverpool, United Kingdom
The Magnet
🇬🇧Liverpool, United Kingdom
Circo Voador
🇧🇷Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Jilly's Rockworld
🇬🇧Manchester, United Kingdom
Rafters
🇬🇧Manchester, United Kingdom
The Channel
🇺🇸Boston, United States
1,700-cap South Boston rock bar where U2, Ramones, Metallica played early tours.
The Ruskin Arms
🇬🇧London, United Kingdom
Club Quattro Nagoya (first site)
🇯🇵Nagoya, Japan
Gazzarri's
🇺🇸Los Angeles, United States
Strip landmark that broke The Doors in the 60s and hair-metal titans (Poison, Warrant) in the 80s.
The Vogue
🇺🇸Seattle, United States
Grunge fashion HQ and tiny stage that hosted Alice in Chains, Tad and Mudhoney.
Cyprus Tavern
🇬🇧Manchester, United Kingdom
Banana Hall
🇯🇵Osaka, Japan
The Marquee Club
🇬🇧London, United Kingdom
The British equivalent of the Fillmore—a space that did not just host bands but defined entire eras of music. Originally opened in 1958 as a jazz club at 165 Oxford Street, its move to 90 Wardour Street in Soho in 1964 placed it at the physical and cultural center of "Swinging London." The Marquee is where British rock was forged, from the R&B boom through psychedelia to punk and the New Wave of British Heavy Metal.
Uonna Club
🇮🇹Rome, Italy
Via Labicana basement where Litfiba, CCCP and the Italian underground played inches from the bar counter.
Swinging Sporran
🇬🇧Manchester, United Kingdom
The Granary
🇬🇧Bristol, United Kingdom
The Square Club
🇬🇧Cardiff, United Kingdom
Golden Eagle
🇬🇧Birmingham, United Kingdom
The Bottom Line
🇺🇸New York, United States
A celebrated showcase club in Greenwich Village on the NYU campus. The Bottom Line became known for its high-quality sound and for hosting legendary performances, especially by singer-songwriters and rock acts on the rise. Seating ~400, it had a cabaret-style table setup.
The Cooperage
🇬🇧Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
The Clarendon Hotel
🇬🇧London, United Kingdom
A large old pub/hotel complex in Hammersmith that became a legendary music venue. The Clarendon's upstairs Ballroom and downstairs Broadway bar were home to pivotal alternative music events from the late 1970s through 1988. Most famous as the host venue for Klub Foot, the epicenter of London's psychobilly scene throughout the 1980s.
The Barrel Organ
🇬🇧Birmingham, United Kingdom
The Broken Doll
🇬🇧Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
The Toucan Club
🇬🇧Cardiff, United Kingdom
Wapentake
🇬🇧Sheffield, United Kingdom
Fforde Grene
🇬🇧Leeds, United Kingdom
The Limit
🇬🇧Sheffield, United Kingdom
Maritime Hotel
🇬🇧Belfast, United Kingdom
Madame Satã
🇧🇷São Paulo, Brazil
Noites Cariocas
🇧🇷Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Rock Stock
🇲🇽Mexico City, Mexico
Apollo Theater
🇯🇵Nagoya, Japan
La Batuta
🇨🇱Santiago, Chile
Radio Londra
🇮🇹Rome, Italy
Trastevere cellar that mixed rock, punk and new-wave long before DJs turned it into a dance hotspot.
Rockotitlán
🇲🇽Mexico City, Mexico
El Trolley
🇨🇱Santiago, Chile
Rock-Ola
🇪🇸Madrid, Spain
Epicentre of "La Movida"; hosted The Smiths, Echo & the Bunnymen and local heroes.
The Crobar
🇬🇧London, United Kingdom
An iconic Soho rock and metal bar, affectionately dubbed the "beer-soaked jewel of London's metal community". It was located on Manette Street. Known for its endearingly grubby décor, a killer jukebox (which even spawned a compilation album), an extensive bourbon collection, and a welcoming, unpretentious atmosphere that felt like home even when it was brand new. It was a quintessential dive bar for metalheads and rock fans.
Knaack Klub
🇩🇪Berlin, Germany
Prenzlauer-Berg institution that hosted Die Ärzte, Rammstein and countless indie showcases in its 70s/80s heyday.
Na Chmelnici
🇨🇿Prague, Czech Republic
Žižkov's freedom-era rock bar where underground acts like Tři Sestry & Pražský Výběr finally played openly.
Bus Palladium
🇫🇷Paris, France
Pigalle's mythical rock bar where Stones, Gainsbourg & the French "yé-yé" scene mingled.
Klub Park
🇵🇱Warsaw, Poland
Student-run wooden lodge on Pola Mokotowskie where rock bands and Juwenalia parties raged for decades.
J.C. Dobbs
🇺🇸Philadelphia, United States
South Street bar that booked Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Green Day pre-fame.
Medusa's
🇺🇸Chicago, United States
Wrigleyville all-ages goth/rock club famed for Nine Inch Nails & Ministry sets.
Off Ramp Café
🇺🇸Seattle, United States
Club where Pearl Jam debuted (as Mookie Blaylock) and Soundgarden filmed videos.
Gold Rush
🇺🇸Nashville, United States
Elliston Place dive that fuelled Music City's rock underground and fed generations with "Gold Rush Burgers."
Bookie's Club 870
🇺🇸Detroit, United States
Cass Corridor dive that hosted Iggy Pop, Dead Boys and Detroit's first punk festivals.
The Greyhound
🇬🇧London, United Kingdom
A historic pub-turned-rock venue in West London. The Greyhound featured a large backroom music hall that hosted many up-and-coming bands during the crucial Pub Rock and early punk era. It bridged multiple scenes from Irish folk in the 60s, to bluesy pub rock in early 70s, to punk gigs in the late 70s.
Aeroanta
🇧🇷São Paulo, Brazil
Madame Wong's
🇺🇸Los Angeles, United States
Chinese-restaurant-turned-rock bar that booked The Police, Oingo Boingo and The Go-Go's before they hit arenas.
Armadillo World Headquarters
🇺🇸Austin, United States
Cosmic-cowboy bar where Willie Nelson met ZZ Top and punk met outlaw country.
Bogiez Rock Club
🇬🇧Cardiff, United Kingdom
Bristol Bierkeller
🇬🇧Bristol, United Kingdom
Cavernous Bavarian-style rock bar; 1990s home to student alt nights and early shows by Nirvana & Arctic Monkeys.
Bull & Gate
🇬🇧London, United Kingdom
A Grade II listed pub with a long history as a music venue, particularly from the 1980s until 2013. Hosted a wide range of indie, rock, and alternative acts in its backroom venue, run by promoters like Jon Beast (Timebox/Hype!) and later Club Fandango.
Bunkr Parukářka
🇨🇿Prague, Czech Republic
Cold-war fallout shelter turned beer-&-rock bunker on Vítkov hill; famous for anarchic concerts and graffiti.
Café Einstein
🇦🇷Buenos Aires, Argentina
Club Lingerie
🇺🇸Los Angeles, United States
A hip nightclub and live venue on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, active primarily in the 1980s. Club Lingerie was known for an eclectic booking policy – hosting rock, punk, funk, rap, and more. In the '80s music scene, it was a place where up-and-coming local bands and even national acts would play more intimate showcases, and it doubled as a trendy dance club on off-nights.
Mayfair Ballroom
🇬🇧Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
Duchess of York
🇬🇧Leeds, United Kingdom
Edwards No. 8
🇬🇧Birmingham, United Kingdom
Multi-floor metal bar known for thunderous sound, cheap drinks and queue-round-the-block Fridays.