Complex City Guide: The Best Live Music Venues in Memphis

Situated smack dab in the center of the city, Hi-Tone Cafe is a grimy, intimate venue that is ground zero for some of Memphis’s best shows. Elvis Costello played here back in ’04, the late Jay Reatard used the Hi-Tone as a breeding ground for his break-everything sound, and living legends 8Ball & MJG have turned out more than a few Hi-Tone crowds of late. There’s food and beer and a pool table in the back, but it’s the stage in front that plays host to more than 300 shows a year (including GonerFest), that makes the Hi-Tone a must-play for almost any band that swings through town. And in a music city like Memphis, that means damn near everyone you’d ever want to see.

One of the most storied stretches of land in American music history, Beale Street is where Southern blues legends from the sticks landed when they went to make it big in the big city. (In the 1960s it even got a Congressional stamp—“The Home of the Blues”—to prove it.) W.C. Handy, B.B. King, Joyce Cobb, Rufus Thomas, and Louis Armstrong are just some of the legendary names that helped make Beale Street famous. Elvis Presley spent time here. So did Machine Gun Kelly. Today, Beale is famous for its concentration of nightclubs and live music venues, including B.B. Kings, Alfred’s, and The New Daisy Theater, and the annual Beale Street Music Festival which attracts over 250,000 people for a slate of live music spanning several stages and several days during the first weekend in May. But you can go here any night and hear live music of all types. And drink on the street.

With a stage the size of a milk crate and a patio that spills into the parking lot, Murphy’s is more bar than venue. But when the amps are at 11 and the drinks are flipping quick, this dive can quickly get ugly and loud, which is exactly how the locals like it.

A raw, open space just off the crossroads of Memphis’s hippest neighborhood, Young Avenue Deli is a fixture on the local scene, known for its solid menu of diverse pub fare (think hippie barhound), impressive beer selection (the list runs to nearly 150 different brews), multiple pool tables, and a stage that has played host to Dinosaur Jr., the Black Keys, And They Will Know Us By the Trail of the Dead, and hometown heroes, Lucero, just to name a few. While it’s true that the number of shows has slowed as of late, the Deli is always worth a look.

Unless you’re from Memphis or somewhere else down South, Wild Bill’s is unlike anything else you’ve ever seen. A small, neighborhood juke joint, with a killer house band—the Memphis Soul Survivors—communal seating (picnic tables), and a drink menu that starts and ends with 40s. You go there, you get drunk, and you dance. And that’s that Memphis shit, for real.

The place is tiny, the music is loud, and the drinks are cheap and cold. Again: tiny, loud, cheap, cold. More to the point: Rowdy. Rock. Memphis. What more could you want?

Nearly 40 years old, P&H Cafe is a Memphis institution. Known for the character of its regulars (bizarre) and friendly, laidback atmosphere, the P&H is a bar for creatives and drunks and creative drunks. The stage is small and tucked in the corner, making the music at the P&H just like music in the city it calls home: not always the most important thing going on, but almost always going on. (Trivia: Hustle & Flow director and native Memphian Craig Brewer centered one of his early films, The Poor and Hungry, around the bar.)

Housed in an old 1950s movie theater just off the University of Memphis campus, Newby’s plays host to a range of acts tailored to bring out the college crowd. Capable of holding up to 500 concertgoers, this is where U of M students go to get drunk and check out acts that are just a record or two away from swimming into the mainstream. Expect wristbands, college girls (blondes), white caps, plastic cups, and maybe a glow stick (or twenty).

A new edition to Memphis’s live music scene, Minglewood Hall is a massive mixed-use complex in the heart of Midtown Memphis boasting a lounge and (soon) a tattoo parlor as well as a convertible music venue capable of holding up to 1,500 people. Since opening in February 2009, Minglewood has stepped in to bring Memphis the acts that are too big for Newby’s but not yet arena status, and although it can feel a bit cold and corporate, this is where Girl Talk played as well as Megadeath. Unfortunately not on the same night.