In this guest post, professor Öztürk guides us through the live music venues in Athens. From hard-rock to traditional rebetiko and everything else in between, the Athens music scene has something for everyone:

The following information is for those of you who are inclined to occasionally listen to live music. I also hope that this information will show you that there is more to Athens than Pangrati tavernas and Gazi clubs…
Although some of my favorite places closed in recent years, Athens is still not a bad place when it comes to live music of all genres. In addition to a rather lively local music scene, several international big names regularly stop by Athens during their European tours.
Unfortunately you will miss the big summer festivals, but still, you’ll be able to catch a lot:

Music Events Listings:

Eventful

Blend Athens

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🎤Venues

Gagarin 205 A little bit of everything, really, from hard rock to fusion and DJs.

Fuzz Club  –  Nice club, artists differ wildly, so check the program. Some super-band of old metal dudes or this unknown Japanese psychedelic rock band or some Swedish EDM kids or English indie pop bands might play live here.

Kyttaro Live Punk, Hard Rock, Metal. Then again, occasional singer-songwriter surprises you. Do not wash your hair for a week before going here.

Megaron – The Athens Concert Hall Athens’ biggest concert hall, great classical concerts and some world music too. Tickets are gonna be slightly on the pricey side, but often you’ll get the student discount. Celebrate Valentine’s Day with love songs, famous ballads and crooner classics performed by internationally acclaimed tenor Marios Frangoulis.

Enzzo de Cuba Cheesiest Greek style club music. You have been warned.

Jazz Point attracts some of the best of local jazz musicians and occasional international names as well. Small and cozy. Maybe a little too cozy.

Afrikana Athens Everything said about Jazz Point above apply to Africana as well. If you’re a sax person, try to catch a Yiannis Kassetas show here, he is one of the best saxophone players in Europe.

An Club The ultimate rockers mecca in Athens. Your Norwegian black metal dudes and obscure Croatian mathcore bands are going to come here. The occasional rockabilly or hip-hop concert will also happen. Same hairstyle requirements as kyttarolive.

Six Dogs consists of several units, a very large garden café, several bars, one art gallery, and a live music venue. It is very close to Monastiraki Square. They have regular concerts, local and international indie bands mostly, but rebetiko, EDM, DJs, those seemingly sophisticated electronica dudes with their lugubrious looks will show up from time to time. This is also the place where you would hear annoying things like “that’s so meta” from youngsters with emphasized Adam’s apples.

Half Note is by far the best Jazz / World Music place in town, 5 minutes from CYA too.

Ilion Plus Like Gagarin, very diverse: singer-songwriter, indie rock, local greek music, rebetiko. The important thing about Ilion is that the best rebetiko guitarist alive, Mystakidis, plays at this place when he comes to Athens from Thessaloniki.

Stavros Tou Notou – STN Everything from Django style manouche to gloomy-lady-with-an-acoustic-guitar-singing-pseudoexistential-lyrics style stuff or full rock outfits.

Aliko Cafe is a very nice music hall/bar/restaurant. You can listen here literally everything, local folk, Ottoman classical, tango, Jazz, Armenian folk, Syrian, Blues, occasional indie rock. Almost never disappoints.

Taverna Efimeron has passable food, nice decor, and live rebetiko every night of the week.

1002 Nyxtes GR A nice music hall/bar – with food too. Everything from large world music orchestras to rebetiko quartets.