Live music
Barcelona runs a live calendar every day of the year: jazz cellars with fixed dates, mid-size rooms for indie and national pop, rumba temples and festivals that take the whole city in summer.
The rooms and their calendars
The historic downtown rooms program daily and sell last-minute box-office with luck; the mid-size ones in Poble-sec and Sant Antoni concentrate the young scene. The weekly listings decide the plan better than any list.
The Palau as the perfect night
A concert at the Palau de la Música is the most Barcelona night possible: the hall is the show and chorus-and-piano tickets cost less than dinner. Check its calendar before fixing your travel dates.
Summer: open air
June-to-August festivals take courtyards, rooftops and hills, and neighborhood street parties put orchestras in the squares. Any square with chairs and locals playing beats half the ticketed listings.