Belfast (the city)

I hear they like Guiness . The beer I mean.

sadly i have never been to europe. But i have been to 45 of the 50 states .

Great city. Great nightlife. Shine is a wicked club!

Belfast is a charming little town alone Maine's Atlantic coast. It is a charming New England hamlet.........what, Belfast where? Oh, well, I've never been there.

Belfast is a boring little town stuck on to the north end of Christchurch that the only reason I ever been there is 'cause I'm on my way somewhere else to the, umm, the north. Also sometimes when these people I knew lived...Oh wait. Belfast where? never been there.

It's less shit than it used to be. Actually, that should be the new civic slogan.

Belfast has an attractive city centre with some nice public buildings. The town hall in particular should be the parliament of a sovereign nation and not some stupid arguing place of sectarian politicians.

But as a whole the city is a bit on the small side. And it's made even smaller by the fact that you could be literally killed for wandering into the wrong parts of it.

can someone tell me about the dollowing places:

auntie anne's
the limelight
spring and airbrake
menagerie
rosetta

Yes! I live here/there.

Auntie Annie's - great little gig venue and a fantastic club on Saturday nights called Skibunny - www.myspace.com/skibunny. Go if you possibly can, it's great.

Limelight - the most prominent gig venue/rock and indie club. Tuesday night (student night) is mega cheap. Friday nights are good if a bit obvious. Avoid Saturdays unless you are a big rock fan.

Spring and Airbrake - part of the Limelight complex, but bigger. On Tuesday nights here, the LL and Katy Daly's pub in between all link up so you can walk from one to the other. The music is more pop/dance orientated. As a gig venue it's ok but the sound isn't great.

Menagerie/Rosetta - haven't been to either but as far as I know the Menagerie is pretty eclectic music-wise and the Rosetta is a rock/metal bar.

Also check out White's Tavern - slightly older (25-35) crowd than the other places and the room above the pub (the oldest in Belfast btw) is a soul/indie club at weekends.

On Friday nights the Queen's Uni student's union has a free club night in a bar called the Speakeasy. Nothing fancy but a very eclectic music policy (everything from Mission Of Burma to Snap) and all drinks are £1.50.

What are your plans for coming here?

An IMM lurker asks: is this for the tour? Not sure what info is helpful to you, but I've been to a monthly electronic night at the Menagerie. It's a pretty small venue, or maybe it just feels small because instead of having the stage at one end lengthwise and the bar at the opposite one they're both along the long sides of the rectangle, so the bar is only a few metres from the stage. Much much smaller than the Spring and Airbrake and I think than the Limelight, judging solely by the outside and what bands play there. I just found some guy's blog claiming to have played to 300 people at the Menagerie but as I remember it (and I've only been once) I'd put the capacity at half that at most.

It's in the basement of what apparently used to be a paint shop and still looks half-derelict from the outside (I'd probably have walked past it had I been finding it alone) and like the decor's stayed the same inside; both the acts' gear and the mixing desk were set up on planks of wood and overturned doors sat on metal barrels. It was deserted until nearly midnight and then packed out with a young, studenty sort of crowd, not surprising for somewhere on University Road I guess. The taxi driver claimed it was in a dodgy area and wouldn't pick us up there but my native guide says Belfast taxi drivers just don't like picking up outside bars anywhere.

You might want to look into some of the Laverys venues too; I've been to the Bunker and they seemed to have a lot of (mainly local) gigs booked there and the Pavilion. (The Bunker seems to hold about 200-300 - guessing now - and sells dangerously drinkable Swedish pear cider. Mmm. Picked up a flyer for a neat looking indie+krautrock club, too! If I lived there and weren't so much older than the rest of the audience...)

But I'm not a local; you could try asking on the forums at fastfude or ATL. This looks potentially useful if you're looking to hire somewhere out yourself.

Yes, it's for tour. Thanks for info, guys!

Yeah the Bunker is a great venue - I saw Lightning Bolt there. The Pavilion is another one - check Fastfude (see Rebecca's post) for details of gigs at either before you arrive. There's plenty of people there who are in or are very familiar with a lot of the local bands.

The Pinefox went there once, and some urchins started shouting "Pot Noodle" at him.