The Brass Mug

The Brass Mug is in a strip mall in north Tampa, up the road from Skipper's Smokehouse, and it has been booking loud bands for more than 45 years. It is not trying to be anything else. There is an indoor room where the shows happen, an outdoor area with a bar, a full liquor license, and no pretense whatsoever.

Tampa's most famous musical export is death metal — the city effectively invented the genre in the late 1980s — and the Brass Mug is one of the last rooms still carrying that flag night after night. It was already a fixture of the original-band circuit in the 1980s and early 90s, and it never stopped.

The booking is metal and punk, local and international, with a steady run of Tampa Bay album release parties. Shows land mostly Friday and Saturday, with an open jam on Wednesdays — though the schedule bends to whatever's touring through.