Chicago's essential independent music venue, the Empty Bottle on Western Avenue has been programming local, national, and international indie, experimental, jazz, and electronic music since 1992. The room holds about 400 people; the booking has been consistently ahead of the curve, putting artists on stage before wider recognition.
The venue is also a bar, open most evenings without cover. The Bottle's long-running Tuesday free jazz series was a formative event in Chicago's jazz revival of the 1990s and 2000s. The physical space is deliberately non-glamorous — a former tavern with no stage elevation — and the sound system is uniformly excellent. Western Avenue at Chicago; L Blue Line to Western.