The Clan

Tucked away in the muralled backstreets of Bellavista lies Bar Clan, hidden away but a good venue to catch some great local live music, from folk to electro to rock to cumbia to hip hop. The name is short for Clandestino and, as such, there is no sign to mark the place although the music and queue is usually a pretty good sign that it's there. But still, you`ll need to have a rough idea of the address to find it so head for Bombero Nuñez 363.

The place is decked out in some pretty hippy strokes, lumescent designs on the walls and a mellow vibe in the darkness. There's lots of nice little alcoves to sit in and cosy up with whoever and a tree grows from the bar out the back which is a terrace in summer and enclosed in winter. There's a friendly ambience and it's not as much of a piss-up as in Onaciu or the meat market that is Bar Constitución, meaning you can take your girlfriend or date and stilll go to the bathroom reasonably confident that you won't return to a ring of slavering ogres surrounding her.

The entrance takes you into the main bar, where the stage is at, and there's another area at the back which is more chilled out (with the aforementioned tree). It's a pleasant enough layout but the biggest problem with Bar Clan is the location of the stage. The venue is spread of the two rooms in a long rectangle shape. Unfortunately the stage is directly in front of the main bar, meaning that as soon as there are any decent number of people there, the whole thing gets bottlenecked. There's space to the sides but they really ought to have a look at rearranging the place so as to maximise the space. There's little room to dance, and bearing in mind this is Latin America and not the UK, that's a big thing. It's still a good venue although I can't help thinking a financial splurge on changing things around would make it one of the main places in the area.

But the standard of most of the musicians makes up for that more or less and gives a good mix of musical styles. In Bellavista it's probably the most diverse venue and is always worth a gamble if there's not much going on and you're after some tunes. Also, the streets outside are covered in hippy murals and graffiti pieces that give the neighbourhood a rather charming bohemian sheen, in a decrepid and dog shit smeared kind of way.

This week, they've got some experimental hip hop fusion (interesing!), punk surf rock (obviously) and a night of Afro-Latinamerican beats (nice). Here's the link to Bar Clan: www.elclan.cl