There are numerous active live music venues in Hiroshima. As anywhere and according to taste and interest, some with a slick music venue feel, others quite bohemian and eclectic…
Many of the venues are clustered within the Nagarekawa / Yagenbori entertainment district. Nearly all are understandably focused on the Japanese audience. However, it’s also dotted with some pop-up venues. One interesting place to catch like sounds is Jimo café, which is a tight bohemian style cafe/bar in Noborimachi, not really genre-specific, rather more of a Japanese “Indie” orientated place that also hosts jazz-tinged acts.
If it’s real Jazz you’re after then head to Lush Life (the venue name pays homage to composer and Duke Ellington collaborator, Billy Strayhorn and the title of a jazz standard about whiling away one’s lifetime with “jazz and cocktails” at “come-what-may places” and in the company of girls with “sad and sullen gray faces/with distingué traces). Lush Life the venue is very low key. Dominated by a grand piano and the bar and eight or ten sets of tables and chairs, it seats about twenty or so people. The resident sax player is the owner, the venerable Suetoshi Shimizu, who is credited as one of the top jazz saxophonists in Japan. It features mostly Shimizu and the house band but is also known to have very good domestic and international guest jazz musicians coming to perform there.
Another venue Comin takes its name from the title of the hit song “Comin’ Home Baby” that gained its fame after being recorded by the great master Herbie Mann. It is a multi-genre venue and not always live but a great place to get a drink, some food and hear some good jazz sounds from the 50s and 60s.
There is a range of other live venues downtown, for example, Club Quattro where you find mostly Japanese Bands or bands touring in from Tokyo or Osaka, which include mixed line ups of Japanese and foreign members playing a spectrum of genres. I’ve seen everything from hard rock cover bands to Irish traditional bands there. Almighty is a great place to check out underground sounds from genres such as rock, metal, hip-hop, and indie.
Meanwhile, Café Jive is a laid-back venue featuring anything from Indie folk to rock.
Or for the hippie inclined there is Otis, offering you Tex-Mex food along with music from around the world and (if you come at the right time) great live music. They host live music several days a month. It’s located just south of Peace Memorial Park. Another good restaurant/gig venue is Live Juke, which opened in the heart of the city in 2010. It hosts a nice mix of jazz, folk, and pop.
For larger stadium-size concerts in Hiroshima, Green Arena is your best bet. This is located within the Hiroshima Prefectural Sports Center. With around 10,000 capacity, it has hosted a number of J-Pop bands as well as international acts including Oasis and Aerosmith.
The last venue I’ll introduce is located probably the furthest out but is one of the most interesting. Organza, in Tokaiichi in the west of the city center, is a unique space that has become a haven for the more off the wall elements in the local music and arts scene. On any given night, you might find a jazz trio or a burlesque show on the small stage. You can enjoy a cozy dinner or just have a drink or two at the counter. A big fan of the strange, slightly dark and quirky, stepping into Organza is like looking inside of the imagination of its proprietress.
There you have it. All the above venues offer you music, food and drink. Many will have enough English to order and enjoy the experience, but don’t go in anticipation of any in-depth conversations about music in English. And do bear in mind that many of them also function as venues for hire.
If you haven’t already noticed the venue name functions as a hyperlink for locating the venue. So, pop into one and rock on…and all that jazz. ENJOY!!
Gene Jackson from Brooklyn, United States, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
