The Independent

fav spot in the city

I love the Independent! An intimate venue with fantastic bands and affordable ticket prices.
Not only is it in the cool neighborhood on Divisadero, with plenty of preshow dining and drink options, the doors open before the show and the shows start on time! The last time I was here, we were done around 10 PM which was so nice. Especially on weeknights. The venue is intimate but has enough breathing room for a full band to run around on stage with great views from everywhere.
You can get a drink at the bar or order one from the hard-​working cocktail waitress who walks around throughout the show serving drinks. The sound system here is amazing! It’s on the loud side but you can hear every word in the lyrics, every instrument. It makes all the difference! They get some high caliber acts here as well and most tickets are only $ 15. Last time I was there though, it got a bit hot. I was dancing around and left feeling like I’d just been in a hot yoga class.

Was here for two artists that I’ve never heard of just to check out the venue. First thing that I noticed was that they checked bags and took away my water bottle… That was kind of a sign for me — the venue just wants you to pay for their water and booze. The music and the artists were great though and rest of the evening was not ruined. Also thanks to the Unilocalers for informing me about the seats on the side — I got there early and managed to snag one! Some of the seats said reserved but nobody ended up sitting in them all night.

Great venue. Not to big, not too small, just the right Goldilocks size to get nice sound and a great view.
Probably the only thing I’m not keen on is having to nudge my way to the ladies’ room when it’s packed and hopping.

I’ve been to a good share of music venues for concerts and I’ve got to say this is one of my favorites for sure!
Very intimate, but still enough room to get your groove on a bit. I saw Oddisee & The Good Compny and The Flavr Blue here last Thursday and the quality of the sound was amazing (of course it helps that both acts were stellar). I like how the bathrooms are actually quite close to the stage so it doesn’t feel like you have to walk a mile to go pee. Doors opened on time, staff was friendly. There are benches to the right of the stage so you can sit and hang out before the show starts.
I have no complaints! :)

When I buy a ticket to this venue, I’m not only buying it for the band I’m going to see, I’m buying it because this is the best venue in San Francisco. When I walk up to the door with my friends to see Breakbot, the scanning of our tickets and searching through bags are effortless (I recommend using the Ticketfly app if you have an iPhone, took just seconds before I was stamped!). The sound is always amazing, never blaring or fuzzed out, always on point. All of the hostesses there are so friendly, they even make their way through the crowd taking orders! Now that might not be revolutionary, but I’ve never met such sweet, kind hostesses who were willing to take my order and I didn’t have to tackle them to get service (TIP THEM WELL OR I WILL FIND YOU).
I left a little early to beat the crowd to an Über and I got a hug from the angel who brought me a beer and a bottle of water when I was up front. One of the kind guys saw I was having a hard time getting through the sold out crowd to the front door and he let me go through the back. The entire time I was there I felt right at home, the place felt electric but not exclusive or douchy which many other clubs specialize in. Usually I find my favorite bands and then settle on going to that venue, but I’m more likely these days to just see what’s happening at the Independent.

Good place, good acoustics, nice employees in my opinion. It gets pretty warm in there and there’s not that many exits to go get some air and cool off but besides that this place is cool, I recommend seeing a show there.

I can’t say enough good things about this venue. Perfect for both music and comedy. I went last night to see Duncan Trussell’s «I am God Tour».
I won’t go into details but I lost my wallet before the show and I can’t articulate how incredibly the staff came together (namely Brendon and Carla) to help me have a perfect night when they absolutely didn’t have to.
This venue drawls high vibe people! I enjoyed watching comedy here more than any club I’ve ever been to. They had tables set up for the comedy and since it was sold out there was partial standing. Perfect.

I saw Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros here and I thought it was an interesting band to watch. It’s not my type of music but I was invited here and I was down to check it out.
The venue’s max capacity seemed between 500 – 650 people.
There’s the main floor and the upstairs, which I was able to enter.
Ventilation in the ground floor was sufficient, however, upstairs was hotter.

Checked out UFO Saturday night.
This venue is old, but so what? The sound was acoustically pleasing.
There are places to sit (I have a bum ankle) and enjoy the show. Expensive waters and all drinks. Typical big city price tag.
Bathroom clean.
I will be back.

I love small and intimate music venues and this place provides that appeal. Now, I can’t say the place is super small but it’s also not super big. It’s nice how they have surrounding seating areas and I believe it’s pretty much first come, first serve in finding a seating spot.
One thing I don’t like about this place though is… parking can be a you know what so plan ahead if you are seeing a concert here. We had to park at the DMV lot and I believe it was $ 13 until 3 or 4am.
As for service, it’s OK. The guy that checked us in was a little rude. After I showed my ID and was approved to go in, the other guy helping him abruptly stopped me in a ride-​like manner and was like «Where do you think you’re going?»
Inside the venue, you will need to stand to see the performances. Again, first come, first serve in terms of where you get to stand or if you’re lucky, maybe you can find a comfy seat on the outskirts.
Overall, I would totally come back here.

really cool place to catch a show, for sure.
the set up of this club is spacious and i really liked that they keep the air conditioning on so it doesn’t get too hot.
my only complaints are when i brought out my phone to show my e-​ticket, the bouncer sarcastically asked, «so another one of these e-​mail tickets huh? can’t spend the extra minute to print them out at home?»
i just brushed that comment off.
the hallway going into the club was nice and it was cool to see pictures of past shows.
the bathrooms were really clean which was a plus.
another thing that bothered me, was that the bartending area had a container of limes and lemons that were out in the open, the bartender made my long island ice tea, and just put her hand right in the container and directly in my drink.
but all in all, i will probably pre-​game before another show and will be coming back.

4.5
Acoustics — So good, sometimes at venues the sound vibrates off the walls and it gets too loud – this drowning out the sounds. Not this place.
Staff — very friendly and helpful. From bouncer to coat check. I had a shoulder injury and the bartender gave me free «medicine,» the bouncer didn’t give me grief, and the coat check girl even helped me out on my coat
Crowd — very diverse in terms of age, ethnicity, and gender. A couple of sloppy drunks but the hot boxing was nice.
Bookings — pretty legendary acts have come through there. We saw Con Brio last night and they brought the house down!
Décor — very very red. My only gripe really. But that’s just personal preference.

Caught Sofi Tukker and The Knocks last night. The venue is absolutely perfect because it makes the 3 main things you need at a concert, very convenient: booze, a restroom, and good music at a close range.
The place is meant to accommodate smaller performances so there isn’t much seating. In fact, the place seems to have been intentionally built to make people dance. And it works. Last night was an absolute blast. Good music + good company + good vibes. Definitely will be coming back for another gig soon!

I like this venue.
It’s small. It’s chill. It serves it’s purpose.
I don’t feel like it’s anything special. I mean; it felt like a dungeon when I came for a show.
But the people were nice. So it’s all good.
I would def go back for a cool show

The Independent is a great small show venue. I went for the first time to see Borns recently and was immediately surprised at how small it is. I hadn’t been to a more relaxed, cozy venue in a long time, and I realized how much I missed those over huge events!
My boyfriend and I got in before the opening act, so it was still pretty empty. We wandered around the merchandise table (which was all SO cheap — shirts for $ 20 at a show?!) and went to get a drink. Even after taking our time we were still in basically the third row to see the show.
You also get close enough to the performers for them to sweat on you, which was pretty cool. People in the first row were flashing their cameras literally in the band’s faces, which was not so cool, but it’s SO close up. The show had great lights and atmosphere. Can’t wait to see someone else there!

yo I had a great time here at the tech nine concert. Tech rocked it, there was even dead celebrity status and a lot of others.
He even brought his whole crew like always.
I got too meet everyone and they had a great layout of all the merchandise.
I definitly got me some of that.
There was plenty of room for dancing and getting down and taking stuff off.

One of my favorite venues for music, the small scale and huge sound system shake you to the bone. The bar and door team is great – so quick and efficient. Just wish that there were more parking options nearby. There are however amazing food (and drink) options all around, so it’s an especially great location for a date night.
There is a small upstairs and I think you have to know someone to get up there, but if you do it sure looks sweet.

Was looking forward to checking out The Independent, another of the City’s small venues for a concert by Esperanza Spalding. The small venue is similar in size to Slim’s., which allows for an up-​close and intimate rapport with the performers. As you enter, two workers scan your tickets, check IDs, and get your right wrists stamped.
It’s an open floor venue with a section on the right with some benches. A bar is at the back of the room and the restroom is on the right of the stage. The room was pretty packed, but the facility as good ventilation as it was never hot or stuffy. The sound system was excellent. Now that I’ve been there, I can say The Independent is a great small venue for concerts.

First time coming to the Independent to watch SWEATER BEATS… awesome awesome venue!
For $ 15, price is not a bad deal at all. Sound quality was loud&bumping. Space & ventilation was a biggg plus! My biggest thing is always space & ventilation, but that was not a problem here. It’s small, but it was spacious enough where I wasn’t elbowing people left&right, spilling drinks, or touching sweaty people. It’s cool how close you can get to the main stage which makes you feel like you’re right there w/​the artists. If you want to sit/​watch away from the main floor, there’s a seating area on the side. The ventilation was great as well. I could feel the AC constantly running which didn’t the room into a hot sauna thankfully.
Overall, great first experience! This is by far my new favorite venue,&I would def like to come back here again to watch more of my fav artists

Came here with a friend on Saturday, October 25^th to see Rachael Yamagata!!!
While the tickets I printed off of ticketfly said that the doors opened at 8:30, RY’s website said doors opened at 7:30. In the abundance of caution, we showed up at 7 pm and… nobody, haha. The tickets were right — doors opened at 8:30. We decided to take this as an opportunity to explore, and basically ended up watching part of Game 4 of the World Series, sipping Big Daddy IPAs at Mojo Bicycle Café across the street. Every so often we would peer across the street to see if a line was forming, and sure enough, at around 8 PM, we spotted folks starting to congregate around the entrance. We bolted on over and ended up being the second and third people in line for the night — woohoo!
At around 8:20, two guys came out to prescan tickets, check IDs, and stamp our right wrists. Right at 8:30, the doors officially opened and we spilled inside. Note, they don’t allow outside drinks. My friend was holding onto a disposable cup that once held a pie milkshake from Chili Pie & Ice Cream, and they had her toss it out in the garbage can immediately to the right of the front door.
There were no seats out on the floor, but there were benches that lined the right and left walls. People also made seats out of the ledges in front of the bench area. My friend and I were able to scope out two bench seats, and everyone else pretty much stood the entire night, either on the main floor, or up on the two balcony areas. Another note, if you’d like to sit with some back support, definitely try and get a bench seat, and one that is directly in front of the steps that lead into that sectioned off area. If you sit in other sections of the bench, you might end up sitting behind people on the ledges who are taller than you. At least with the steps, nobody really dares to stand there, and if people sit, they’ll probably be below your line of vision.
It’s great to go with a friend that can save your spot if you need to go to the restroom/​get a drink early on. The restrooms were located down the hallway that’s to the right of the stage if you’re facing it head on. If you are in need of earplugs, the woman who stood in front of us in line noted that they sell them for $ 1/​pair… and they have red flames on them. Fancy.
Props to The Independent for starting on time, haha. First up was Hemming (Candice Martello), the winner of the Linda Perry Project. As it turns out, she had to take some Benadryl right before coming on stage because of an allergic reaction to some of the sesame dip everyone was having backstage. After her, there was a short break, and then the dove and the wolf came onstage. During both performances, my friend and I noticed that there was a lot of audience noise towards the bar area. It was really unfortunate to have a lot of folks disregard the opening acts. I really like this more intimate venue space, but I realize that that also allows for chatter to interrupt the experience. RY didn’t have this problem, though, since she came on with a full band. All in all, it was such a great concert and I really enjoyed this space.
Afterward, I headed to the 5 MUNI stop right down the block on Divisadero and Hayes, and made it to the Civic Center BART station for the last train headed for the East Bay. I love that this place is easily accessible by public transportation!