Tokyo’s best live music venues

It's hard to say what makes a great music venue. You can invest as much as you like in the sound system, lights and decor, in ensuring that the toilets look pristine, the bar serves edible food, and the audience don't go home smelling like they've just rolled in an ashtray. But at the end of the day, we wouldn't go to a gig purely for the venue any more than we'd go to a film just for the cinema. That said, in a city that's positively crawling with live houses and concert halls, some stand taller than others. In deciding which places to include on this (hopelessly partial) list, we asked ourselves: if venue X was to close at the end of the month, would it be such a loss? Would bands old and new feel compelled to rally together for one last gig there – or, heck, for a whole month's worth of last gigs? With one exception, the answer was an emphatic 'yes'. And it also meant that we didn't have to write about this place.

Bushbash
When Koiwa live venue Em Seven closed down in 2009, some of the former staff decided to set up shop nearby. Bushbash is a bundle of mixed messages: the compact stage area serves up a diet of predominantly hardcore and metal bands, but the adjacent lounge is all bright lighting and vegetarian food. Be sure to check out the selection of CDs on sale, too.
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Noise A Go Go's at Bushbash

Club Goodman
With all due respect to fans of AKB48 and anime theme songs, Akihabara is the last place we'd expect to hear good music. Club Goodman had already staked out its spot long before the area turned into the Disneyland of otaku, and continues to provide a welcome, noisy respite in a sea of geekiness. The music is predominantly indie-focussed, but you'll also catch some of Japan's grizzled psychedelic warriors here from time to time.
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Earthdom
Possibly the key venue for Tokyo's punk and hardcore fans, Earthdom can accommodate a reasonably large crowd and packs a beefy sound system. It's also one of the few esteemed punk basements that actually has a proper second room – ideal to retreat to if the band on the main stage gets a little too pummeling for your tastes.
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Fever
Hitoshi Nishimura worked at Shimokitazawa's Shelter for 14 years before opening his own place in 2009. Now a well established fixture on the Tokyo live circuit, Fever is a reliable bastion of left-of-centre music, and attracts a number of touring international artists alongside the local talent. The attached cafe/gallery space, Popo, has a good range of bottled beer and serves surprisingly decent food.
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Heaven's Door

Heaven's Door
Heaven’s Door is a genuine institution, in a rites-of-passage sense, for many of the noisier Tokyo indie bands. Only a few established acts play here, and most of the regulars have been plying the stage for at least a decade now. There’s not much decoration, but the speakers are huge, and that’s what matters.
Venue details