Attics & Basements

Tucked away down side streets, in basements and attics away from the crowds, small gig venues give you the opportunity to see the bands that will be playing the big venues in a year or two’s time up close and personal at a fraction of the price. Here are a few of the best ones:

The Social:

5 Little Portland Street

Tucked away in a little backstreet off Oxford Street, The Social is a tiny venue with an upstairs diner bar area where you can chill out to the Rough Trade powered jukebox and stuff your face with their pies or fish finger sandwiches. Heading down stairs, there’s a concrete nuclear bunker feel to the gig venue - the apocalypse could happen outside and the gig would carry on obliviously. There are tables and benches leading along the sides up to the stage, so you can grab a seat and enjoy the gig with a nice pint of their Kopparberg Cider. This is a great venue for free gigs - last year Alt. Music Soc. saw a free Memory Tapes gig there the day before he played a sold out Koko show.

Buffalo Bar:

251 Upper Street, Islington

Down in the basement beneath a pub called “The Famous Cock”, the tiny 150 capacity Buffalo Bar is one of the focuses of London’s Indie Pop scene. Lots of bands that like ukuleles, glitter and knitting turn up there (always fun!) but for those not that way inclined they have other less saccharine performers there too. It’s a great intimate venue and the performers tend to mill around in the crowd when they’re not playing. There’s a projector aimed at the stage that plays old film footage on the back wall when the bands are on and the bar serves crazy flavoured shots as well as the usual beverages. Once in a while you get an absolute gem of a gig there: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, a band usually filling 1000 capacity venues, played one of the best and most energetic gigs I’ve ever been to with the crowd practically bouncing off the walls of the tiny venue.

Notting Hill Arts Club:

21 Notting Hill Gate

Apart from being insanely stylish, with amazing artwork covering the basement walls and projectors everywhere, the main attraction of Notting Hill Arts Club is their free band showcases every single Saturday. Each week Rough Trade puts on a line-up of bands showing off a selection of talent that can be anything from indie, folk, punk, psychedelica, electronica or even something in between. The bar serves a variety of drinks and cocktails, and there are lots of sofas around to relax on to the music. Turn up and hope for the best, since as it’s free you have nothing to lose and you stand a chance of making some amazing discoveries.

Feel free to message Alternative Music Society at alt.music@ic.ac.uk and come along to band nights like these