Cafe OTO
Independent 150-cap venue opened in 2008 by Hamish Dunbar and Keiko Yamamoto in a former paint factory. Free jazz, improv, noise, electronica and unclassifiable music seven nights a week, plus café and record shop by day, OTOROKU live-recording label on the side.
What to actually expect.
Tickets are advance-only via the venue's own site (10% fee capped at £2.80). Most shows are a mix of seated + standing on first-come basis, turn up at door-time, not start-time, if you want a chair.
No stage, no backstage, no frills. That bare-paint-factory austerity is the appeal, performers play at floor level, a metre from you. Sets, not gigs; listen quietly.
Door times listed on each event; music typically starts 30 min after doors and is done by 11pm. Café/record shop runs in daytime, worth a separate trip.