Rock Bar Mother

My favorite bar in Japan! Cheap drinks, loud music, great for the rockers looking for a nice out. Small location but intimate, drinks are delicious & with every drink you get to order your own songs aswell !

A legendary place in Kabuki-cho. I don't know how long it has been there, but the big noize floating out from the underground always welcomes me with a kick of adrenaline. You can see a bunch of nice bartenders who are working in daily shifts, but nobody has ever seen the real owner at least for several decades. The bartender will explain to you how to order drinks and musics first, and it won't take long before you are caught up in a mesmerizing music world with tons of Asahi beer.

No conversations. The noize kills them all.

What an epic concept..buy a drink..pick a song !
Walking past this little den intrigued me. After descending down the stairs into the darkness I could make out a dimly lit bar bearing a skull and a tiny Japanese woman.

At once she handed out a puny torch to peruse the menu. This included really strong cocktails and beers. Once a drink had been selected a big dusty folder was slammed in front of you to chose a song that you most desire. Scrolling through under the torchlight and pointing it to the lady she would then turn around to fumble through the shelves behind her to expertly pick out the CD associated. Then old school style this was jammed into an ancient CD player and blasted out to make the entire den shake.

If you wanted to come for a quiet drink and a chat then this place is NOT the place to come. There was probably 8 bar stools and very little standing space. Even in this close space the music made every inaudible. After buying a few strongly made cocktails ( and I mean strong, it was all poured freehand) and chain-smoking an entire pack of cigs ( normally I don't smoke) we decided to leave to avoid tinitus.

Anyway I highly recommend this place just for the experience and the very enthusiastic lady. Rock on!

So very dark, so very smoky, so very loud. I suspect that 15 year old me would've loved this place. It definitely has a cool factor that may make it worth the hearing loss.
Very tiny spot, so the bartender ushered us into a corner in the back, which felt extremely claustrophobic. We couldn't hear ourselves think, or see much of anything and the smoke was overwhelming, so with some regret for our lost youth, we left.

You really should stop here even if you're not a metal/punk/rock lover. It's a sight to see.
Super charming proprietor, strong drinks, and truly unique.
Heads up: cash only.

If you are into heavy metal, speed metal, punk rock or alternative music and you are in the Tokyo area of Shinjuku I highly recommend visiting Mother's. I don't have to waste words trying to describe the place because the other reveiws do it perfectly.
But I have to add that their music selection is not what you would expect from ANY alternative type bar. They have 1000's of CDs on hand, and it's not run of the mill bands. If you like punk, they have 100's of CD's from bands that unless you were heavyily into Hardcore, Oi, British punk, Japanese Punk etc... they have a deep collection that will satisfy. Same goes for Speed Metal, Death Metal, SK.
Not only do they have a surprisingly extensive collection, but the super cool bartender (very cute asian punk girl) knew exactly where to find the Cd's and she knew the tunes as well.

Super awesome tiny dive bar where you get 2 song selections with the purchase of a drink. The music list is impressive with everything from metal to punk... Everything you can bang your head to.

This is my favorite bar in the world hands down. You're either going to love it or hate it. They have the best system & play the music louder than any of the other rock bars in the area. The music menu is also the drink menu and they had every album that I wanted to hear, music list is on their website. Right next to Robot Restaurant so perfect for drinks before or after the show. It's very dark and red inside and feels as if you just walked down into the depths of hell. The bartender hands you a flashlight as you walk in so you can see the drink/music menu and no I'm not joking it's that dark. This bar is such a great time that it's basically the single reason why I'm trying to get accepted into an english teaching program so I can move to Japan.

Loud and proud, great drinks, friendly bartender. A great place for reflection, but not necessarily conversation

OMG love, love, loved this dark and rocking bar. The area is frequently visited by loud foreigners (most menus are only in English), so perhaps this is why the music in this bar is so loud you can barely have a conversation. Note: bring earplugs because I'm not kidding, it's crazy loud. The drinks are good and the bartender is very friendly. The greatest part is that at the back of the menu there are tons of bands from KDFDM to Prodigy to the Smiths to Patti Smith to Terrence Trent D'Arby to Hootie and the Blowfish (and yeah, probably don't play that last one). You pick a band, the bartender takes a flashlight and finds the stack of CDs lined up on the wall behind the bar, and you choose a song. Then he plays it. A wonderful way to hear some of your favorites that never get played in other bars. The bar is downstairs and seats about 10.