The best live music venues in Glasgow

The Barras, as it’s known to the locals, isn’t just the best music venue in Glasgow. A great number of people, including dozens of musicians who have sold out shows from Sydney to Stockholm, believe it to be amongst the best in the world. Its past life as a ballroom has left it in strikingly good condition, retaining its original decor and sprung dancefloor, meaning that when the crowd moves – and Glasgow crowds can move – the room literally bounces. Its relatively small 1900 capacity hasn’t stopped it from hosting some of the biggest names in music over the years. 

Previous line-ups are a who's-who of the 20th and 21st century music industry from rockers like Metallica and Oasis (who both named it as one of their faves ever), to beloved indie kids like Phoebe Bridgers. Legend has it that Bowie once stole one of the decorative stars from behind the stage. Basically, anyone who’s anyone has been here – and loved it.

This is a place with real history, and real prestige and it’s easily the best place to catch a gig in Glasgow.

Ever since its sister, Sauchiehall Street’s 02 ABC, closed after a fire in 2018, the 02 Academy has taken on the lion’s share of mid-sized gigs in Glasgow. With a larger capacity than the Barrowlands, it has become the place for artists on the up-and-up, graced in recent times by the likes of The Last Dinner Party, Chappel Roan, and Fontaines DC. Its slightly out-of-town location may at first be slightly off-putting, but it is almost literally a stone’s throw away from a tube stop and a great pub, which is all you really need for a great night out.

Its light-up board, which proudly decrees who is playing any given night, has become something of a local icon, and inside you’d be hard pressed to find a bad spot in the crowd. Plus, anyone you see here is either on the come down from mega success (think Pixies or the Sex Pistols), or a future megastar – either way you’re earning bragging rights.

It’ll forever be known as the place where Alan McGee discovered Oasis. But King Tut’s, which opened in 1990, remains one of the world’s most famous small music venues for much more everyday reasons. With multi-band bills almost every night of the week, 52 weeks of the year, this two-story St Vincent Street gem has the highest turnover of live music anywhere in the city, maybe even in the UK. Much of that music comes from new and up-and-coming artists. Since playing early shows here, several groups have gone on to superstardom – including Radiohead, The Verve, Coldplay and The Strokes.

From its very prominent position at the meeting point of Glasgow’s two main shopping thoroughfares, the Royal Concert Hall is one of the city’s most instantly recognisable buildings. A mixed-use venue owned by the council’s cultural arm, Glasgow Life, GRCH hosts hundreds of events annually from across the genre spectrum – classical, jazz, rock and pop, spoken-word, and so on. Surrounded by a multitude of smaller performance spaces as well as extensive bar, café, shop and box office facilities, the main auditorium seats 2,475 people. Characterised by heavy geometrical wood panelling, it isn’t the prettiest concert hall in the world, but sound and sight lines are excellent.

Often overlooked thanks to its placement literally in the shadow of the Barras’, St Luke’s is a relative newcomer to Glasgow’s music scene. Set inside of a nineteenth century church, it was renovated in 2013 by its current owners. Still complete with its original stained glass and pipe organ, it has definitely made tself known in its short decade of life.

Small but mighty, you’ll catch hidden musical gems, local up-and-comers, and classical instrumentals, all inside the intimate 700 person main room. If you fancy a pre-show meal, the Winged Ox restaurant is in the front of the building selling pub grub and pizzas good enough to fuel the soul as well as the body. 

If the Barrowlands is Glasgow’s most iconic venue, Rum Shack is probably its coolest. Caribbean bar and eatery by day, this underrated southside joint has become one of the premier places to catch live hip-hop, jazz, soul, ska, and any other genres you might expect to hear on Radio 6. The best part? Advance tickets will usually leave you with change from a tenner.

But the eclectic events lineup isn’t the only thing worth checking out at Rum shack. The menu is full of delicious, authentic Caribbean dishes, and the bar is stocked to the heavens with more than 100 different rums. You can even bring your dog, although they sadly aren’t allowed into the music venue. Apologies to any jazz-loving pups – maybe next time.

Incorporating an art gallery, performance space, café, cinema and offices, this multipurpose creative hub can host everything from exhibitions and film screenings to concerts and DJ sets all in the course of the same day. As a concert space, the CCA has also begun to really come into its own. Its 300-capacity main venue having played host to the likes of Camera Obscura, PAWS, Veronica Falls and Oneohtrix Point Never in the last few years, and been used as a hub for festivals such as experimental music weekender Counterflows and indie all-dayer Stag and Dagger. It is, however, potentially facing closure very soon, so be sure try it out before its impending extinction.

Reclaimed from the dank, dark, rat-infested old archways beneath Central Station and the tracks of the West Coast Mainline, this is one of the biggest, best and most respected multi-arts complexes in Europe. It was the vision of founding artistic director Andy Arnold to fund a programme of plays with revenue from clubbing, at a time when the acid house movement was sweeping the world. A remarkable symbiotic relationship began. It has been closed since 2015, but is due to to reopen at some point in 2025. Take that with a pinch of salt however, as it's been due to return for a while and it hasn’t, so it’s a bit of a mystery. Either way, whenever the Arches does make its triumphant comeback, it won't be one to miss.