When you associate live music with certain cities, you think of jazz in New Orleans, blues in Chicago and St. Louis and country and western in Nashville.
And when you think of a city with legendary music venues, the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles comes immediatley to mind,
But Toronto has made its mark on the music scene, as well. The Tragically Hip are a souce of national pride and every music fan in North America knows of the Barenaked Ladies.
And Toronto has a legendary music venue, too. The Horseshoe Tavern (corner of Queen West and Spadina) is to Toronto what the Roxy, Whiskey A-Go-Go, and Troubadour are to L.A.
The Horseshoe is THE PLACE for live music in Toronto. Is been around for more than 50 years and anyone who’s anyone has played here. It was the longtime home of the Tragically Hip and today gets great local and occasional touring bands playing in an old sweaty bar to a blue jeans crowd of rock music lovers.
Like all great live music venues, there’s nothing spectaclar about the place itself; this lets the bands be the star instead of the bar. The bands play in a separate room in the back while in the front is a long bar with tons of photos on the wall.
It’s actually a fairly spacious place for being so old; some live music venues are tiny joints. Here, you have enough room to, well, throw some horseshoes.
Another good live music venue is Rivoli (332 Queen Street West). This is a classy club with a small patio that is good for people-watching Queen Street activities. It’s a cool bar and club, a narrow inside leading to a stage in the back with bands and even comedy, while the more mellow upstairs has another bar and pool table.
The somewhat oddly named Bovine Sex Club (542 Queen St W,) is not what you might think. It’s livde music bar with rock, punk, alternative and rockabilly.
The Cameron House (408 Queen St W.), once a hotel, is now a bar with bands seven nights a week. It’s in a historic building dating to 1896 and has been featuring local bands since 1981.
Velvet Underground (508 Queen St W.) has bands or DJs seven nights a week that has beeen operating since 2016.
Several other Toronto bars have bands, of course. In King West, Bier Market puts in bands on weekends, for example.
If you like Irish music – and we do here at PubClub.com – Fionn McCool’s in the Esplanade is the place. This is a rockin’ Irish pub.
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