Best live music bars
The city's greatest places to grab a bière and catch an unsigned band
Time Out Oliver Knight
Where can you grab a drink and listen to live music without breaking the bank? Follow this list of Paris' best live music bars and you'll be rockin' til the wee small hours.
L'Opa
Late opening and Eric Perier's diverse range of nightly entertainment - DJs (weekends), videos, live acts (Tuesday to Thursdays) and the odd open mic event - are the attractions here, along with free admission and reasonable drinks prices. A couple of comfortable sofas take the edge off the loft-like, institutional interior, with a modest stage in one corner and an upstairs chill-out space and separate bar. Read more
- 9 rue Biscornet, 12e, Paris, France
China
This sexy take on a 1930s Shanghai gentleman's club, with red walls, leather chesterfields and the longest bar in Paris, serves some of the finest cocktails in town (including its signature singapore sling), but it's downstairs where things really take off. The cellar hosts weekly jazz, pop and world music shindigs. Read more
- 50 rue de Charenton, 12e, Paris, France
Le Motel
This most Anglophile of Paris bars, with Stone Roses and Smiths posters adorning the walls, manages to fit plenty of live bands, including some of the best new local talent, on to its tiny stage. Read more
- 8 passage Josset, 11e, Paris, France
L'Alimentation Générale
- Critics choice
The 'Grocery Store' is a big old space filled with junk. Cupboards of kitsch china and lampshades made from kitchen sponges are an inspired touch. The beer is equally well chosen - Flag, Sagres, Picon and Orval by the bottle - and the unusual €8 house cocktail involves basil and figs. DJs rock the joint: expect a €5 cover price for big names or live bands (including open-mic nights). Oh yes - and it has the most brazen toilet walls this side of town. Read more
- 64 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, 11e, Paris, France
La Mécanique Ondulatoire
Cementing Bastille's status as Paris's prime hangout for rockers, this exciting venue has three levels and alternates eclectic DJs with live acts in the cellar, plus there's jazz on Tuesday nights. Read more
- 8 passage Thière, 11th, Paris, France
La Bellevilloise
- Critics choice
The Bellevilloise is the latest incarnation of a building that once housed the capital's very first workers' co-operative. Now it competently multitasks as a bar, restaurant, club and exhibition space, hosting regular music festivals on the top level while the downstairs the club-cum-concert venue has launched some of Paris's most exciting new bands. Read more
- 19-21 rue Boyer, 20e, Paris, France
Le 9b
- Critics choice
Only recently opened Le 9b - old favourite, Le 9 Billards reborn on the boulevard de la Villette - is already full to bursting each night: expect a grand blend of electro, hip-hop, funk and rock, couscous on the menu and a crammed dancefloor. Read more
- 68 boulevard de la Villette, 19e, Paris
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