Live music Bangkok: the best venues by area
Live music in Bangkok is scattered rather than clustered, but once you know the pattern it is easy to follow: jazz in Chinatown and Sathorn, blues and bar bands in Banglamphu, rock and brass at Victory Monument, and the more adventurous bookings along Sukhumvit. This guide covers the small rooms that stage bands most nights, plus the arenas for touring acts. Line-ups change nightly, so check the venue or the map before you go.
Victory Monument and Phaya Thai
Saxophone Pub, on the roundabout at Victory Monument, is the oldest fixed point in the city's live scene: a two-floor wooden bar with jazz, blues and funk bands every evening and a long bar menu. It is the safest bet in Bangkok if all you want is a good band at a decent hour. A short walk away on Phaya Thai Road, The Rock Pub has booked Thai and foreign rock bands since the 1980s. See the Victory Monument guide.
Chinatown: Soi Nana
The bar strip on Soi Nana in Chinatown, not the Sukhumvit one, is where Brown Sugar ended up after decades on Sarasin Road and Phra Sumen. It is still the city's best-known jazz room, in a restored shophouse with bands most nights. Around the corner, Tep Bar stages Thai folk and traditional music with ya dong (herbal spirits) and Thai bar food, which is a rarer thing than it sounds. The Chinatown guide covers the rest of the soi.
Banglamphu and Khao San
Adhere the 13th is a tiny blues bar on Samsen Road, a few minutes from Khao San, with a house band squeezed in by the door and regulars spilling onto the pavement. On Khao San Road itself, Brick Bar does loud ska and reggae to a mostly Thai crowd, and the Rambuttri bars have acoustic cover acts nightly. See the Khao San guide.
Silom, Sathorn and Charoen Krung
Maggie Choo's under the Novotel Fenix on Silom is a Shanghai-styled vault with jazz and swing bands, and a drag cabaret on Sunday nights. In Sathorn, Smalls on Suan Phlu is a three-floor cocktail bar with a jazz room upstairs, and Jam on Charoen Rat books experimental and underground acts. Down on Charoen Krung, the Foojohn Building has a jazz bar in a restored shophouse near the creative district. The Sathorn guide and Charoen Krung guide have the areas.
Sukhumvit
Studio Lam on Sukhumvit 51 is the record-shop bar from the Zudrangma label, with molam (northeastern Thai dance music), Thai funk and DJs on a serious sound system. Apoteka on Sukhumvit 11 does blues and rock covers in an apothecary-themed bar most nights. The Thonglor guide and Asok and Nana guide cover the surroundings.
Arenas and halls
Touring acts play Impact Arena at Muang Thong Thani north of the city, Thunder Dome next to it, and Rajamangala Stadium in Hua Mak for stadium shows. Thailand Cultural Centre on Ratchada hosts classical concerts and the symphony orchestra. Tickets for all of these go through ticketing sites rather than the door.
Getting there
- Saxophone and The Rock Pub: Victory Monument BTS.
- Brown Sugar and Tep Bar: Wat Mangkon MRT, then walk to Soi Nana.
- Adhere the 13th and Brick Bar: Phra Athit pier or taxi.
- Maggie Choo's: Surasak BTS.
- Smalls and Jam: Lumphini MRT or Surasak BTS, then taxi.
- Studio Lam: Thonglor BTS.
- Apoteka: Nana BTS.
- Impact Arena: shuttle buses from Mo Chit BTS, or the Pink Line to Muang Thong Thani.
Bands in small bars usually start late and play two or three sets, and most rooms have no cover charge but expect you to drink. Check the venue for the night's act.