The city gives you an infinite number of pubs, bars, and lounges to match steps with live music in Jakarta as the sun goes down. Whether you are chilling in a restaurant or partying in a bar, the ‘Tweeting City’ always buzzes with some of the best live performances in Asia. Move to the beats and rejoice every moment the night has to offer.
Here is a list of places to enjoy live music in Jakarta.
1. Motion Blue Jakarta
Where: Senayan, Central Jakarta
Motion Blue is the closest Jakarta has to a proper jazz club. It sits inside Fairmont Jakarta at Plaza Senayan and books a different act most weeks, mixing Indonesian players with touring international artists. Sets are ticketed and the room is built for listening rather than talking over, so it is the one venue on this list where the music is the reason you came. Book ahead for the bigger names.
2. BATS, Shangri-La
Where: Sudirman, Central Jakarta
BATS has been running a resident band nightly for years and remains the most reliable live music room in the city. It is done up as an underground New York bar, serves Western food and cocktails, and the band works through rock and pop covers to a crowd of expats and locals in roughly equal measure. Open 5pm to 3am Monday to Saturday and until 2am on Sunday, at Level 1, Kota BNI, Jl. Jend. Sudirman Kav. 1.
3. The Jaya Pub
Where: Menteng, Central Jakarta
Jaya Pub is the old guard. It opened in 1975 on Jalan MH Thamrin and has been putting jazz and rock bands on a small stage ever since, in a low-lit room hung with memorabilia. It draws an older, more musical crowd than the hotel bars and is worth a visit as much for the history as the set list.
4. Writers Bar, Raffles Jakarta
Where: Kuningan, South Jakarta
The most civilised option here. Writers Bar runs an Easy Jazz Evening with live jazz piano, in a cocktail lounge built around a literary theme with some genuinely good art on the walls. Open 8am to 11pm Sunday to Thursday and to midnight on Friday and Saturday, at Ciputra World 1, Jl. Prof. Dr. Satrio. Come for the cocktails and stay for the piano rather than the other way round.
5. Cafe Batavia
Where: Kota Tua, West Jakarta
A colonial era building on Fatahillah Square, and one of the few places in Jakarta where the setting does as much work as the music. The upstairs room has live jazz and the whole place is a working restaurant serving several hundred people a day. Jl. Pintu Besar Utara no. 14. Good to pair with a morning in the old town rather than as a late night.
6. Eastern Promise
Where: Kemang, South Jakarta
Eastern Promise has been going for over three decades and is the expat pub that actually programmes music: jazz on Wednesdays, local rock and cover bands on Friday and Saturday. It is a pub first, with the food, the sport and the crowd that implies, so expect to hear the band over conversation rather than in silence.
7. Shanghai Blue 1920
Where: Menteng, Central Jakarta
A jazz room dressed as a 1920s Shanghai supper club, all dark wood and red lacquer, serving Chinese food alongside the music. It is the most theatrical venue on this list and works well for a dinner where you want live jazz as part of the evening rather than the whole of it.
8. Cascade Lounge, Hotel Mulia
Where: Senayan, Central Jakarta
Cascade runs a classical duo rather than a band, which makes it the outlier here. It is a hotel lobby lounge in the best sense, with afternoon tea, a long drinks list and music pitched for conversation. Useful when you want live playing but not a late night.
9. Paulaner Brauhaus
Where: Thamrin, Central Jakarta
A German beer hall in Grand Indonesia mall with live cover bands every night and beer brewed on site. It is loud, large and reliably busy, and the band plays to the room rather than at it. A good default when you want somewhere that will definitely have music on, whatever night you turn up.
10. Duck Down Bar
Where: Senopati, South Jakarta
Senopati is where Jakarta's younger crowd drinks, and Duck Down is the live music anchor of the strip, with bands playing rock and pop. Expect it to fill late and get loud. Easy to combine with the rest of Senopati, which is dense with bars within walking distance of each other.
11. Beer Hall
Where: SCBD, South Jakarta
Beer Hall books a live band daily, working through Indonesian and international material, and sits in SCBD among the office towers, so the early crowd is after work and the late crowd is not. Big enough that you will usually get a table without booking.
12. Camden Bar
Where: Cikini, Central Jakarta
Camden sits in the Cikini arts district near Taman Ismail Marzuki and puts a live singer or band on at weekends. It is smaller and scruffier than the hotel venues, which is rather the point, and it is the most convenient live music option if you are already out at a show or gallery in Cikini.
13. Mr Fox
Where: Senayan, South Jakarta
Mr Fox runs weekly music events alongside its cocktail programme and pulls a design conscious Senayan crowd. Worth checking what is on before you go, since the calendar varies week to week rather than running a resident band.
Venue details checked in September 2026. Jakarta's bar scene turns over quickly, so check a venue's own page for the current line-up before you go.
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