While we might not have the Lansdowne around for much longer, we can still get while the getting's good. With a dedicated first floor bandroom you're only a few bucks and a wrist band away from access to the velvet banquette-lined, 250-person venue that manages to feel intimate for a folky show, but gives you room to cut loose when more raucous acts are on the stage. Tap beers and enlightened grub anchor this renewed live music hub in its accessible roots, a pub with gritty guts.
Contrary to contemporary yarns, there are still pubs who play live music in Sydney. Many of them have even lashed back at the encroaching frontline of pokie machines and casinos – the money gobblers that seem to be eating our culture like bloated hungry hippos. Many venues have already had their last rites read to them, yet gigs and live music still thrive in the smaller drinking hole worlds of the Inner West and beyond.
More into dancing to a DJ? Check our guide to the best clubs in Sydney. Or, get acquainted with where to see the larger shows with the best music venues in Sydney list. Want it all the time, never resting, always watching bands, forever and ever? Here is where to see free live music every night of the week.