The Drunken Unicorn

Small and inexpensive venue

I’m reviewing the Surprise Crowd Work Comedy Show. Last night was the first night, and they’ll be back the last Wednesday of every month. 7 (legit, funny) comics perform for about 7 minutes each, and by surprise to us and the comics, 2 of them are forced to skip their act and do crowd work only. Every single act made us laugh, and the unique surprise setup was really fun. Bring your friends, it’s a really great time for $ 7 and cheap drinks. My favorites were David Perdue, Will Copeland and Paul Gallois but seriously they were all really funny and great!

Dark, dirty, and smells of cigarettes which is horrible for nonsmokers. That being said I would never miss the chance to see a favorite artist/​band perform here. I would suggest arriving a bit early if you expect to park in the lot it sits on and shares with The Bookhouse Pub which is a great place for preshow drinks.

I recently got to visit The Drunken Unicorn to see Bear’s Den (BTW great band). The venue is a bit hard to find. It is actually located in the same parking lot as the Book House Pub. The only thing that tells you where it is the graffited wall with Drunken unicorn on it. This place is small and, based on my experience, will get packed. Don’t fret the venue is well air-​conditioned. The acoustics in the venue were good. Though, I think they could really crank it up if needed. Lastly this venue is CASH ONLY! so bring cash.
Overall 4 stars for being a pretty good venue. –1 for not CASH ONLY.

I’ve been there for one event. It’s a small venue that has a nice stage.
The venue is connected to MJQ (bigger venue). The bar tenders were cool and the sound engineer was cool as well.

first time in Atlanta and visited the drunken unicorn to see Trust in concert live and direct! thanks to my boy who convinced me for the ride from Miami. it was freezing in April there haha! good times!

I still love the drunken unicorn based on my first experience, but I went back recently and it happened to be hip hop night or something? I don’t really know what was going on, but it was a completely different place. Cops out front, high cover charge (10 for girls, 20 for guys), weird party photographer set-​up in the front. Apparently this happens every couple of weeks, so I’d advise you to check the site before going!

Wow, before you read a full review here are the highlights…
Awful Smell
No Parking
Over Priced Drinks
Rude Service
I get the whole «dive bar» theme. I enjoy dives as much as anyone. There is a charm to the grunge, been around a while, etc theme. But this place doesn’t do «dive bar» any favors claiming to be one. We came to watch a show and trying to find parking was a nightmare. After driving around for 15 minutes, we parked damn near a 5 – 6 minute walk.
For the moment you get close to the door the smell is what threw me. Right above the door are the trash bins for the next door bar Friends. The smell of dirty diapers would have been an improvement… It feels as if the «crap» all rolls down hill and straight into this joint. I get a gag reflex just typing this but DO NOT USE the restroom! Take my word, and walk to the chipotle right around the corner.
The drink prices were as if they believe the unicorn was booking the best bands out there. I think the prices and lack of patrons were key indicators that many people on Unilocal have been very gracious in their reviews. Finally, from the worthless meth head they have working the door to everyone I had the pleasure to speak with… they could really care less about the place. There was just no pride or ownership in their customer interaction. Save your money and encourage anyone you know to book their band at another venue.

This place is a total ass stinking dive of a venue but I have to say, I’d go here over 529 in EAV any day. The drinks are way overpriced and the room is smokey and dingy. The bathrooms are fucking disgusting so if you have to #2 you better hold it because I’d be afraid of taking something home with me if you know what I’m sayin’. I went to see a band that I really like play there and afterwards I told said band, «I’ll come see you guys play anywhere… but here and 529.» I mean, if this is the ONLY place you can see your fave band on a tour stop, by all means go for it but if it’s your friend’s band, tell him too book his band into a better venue.

This place is cool if you’re there for a good band. Otherwise, being an Atlantan, I never find myself coming here just to hang out and always get kind of bummed when my favorite bands book here. I feel that the calendar of shows is their best attraction. Drinks are not cheap and the bar (when I have been there, at least) was cash only, which became an inconvenience. The venue itself is cool and over the past 5 years or so they have definitely done a lot to improve the aesthetic of the place, which is a redeeming factor. My favorite feature (lol) is a graffiti’d list in one of the bathroom stalls entitled, «rate your shit by movie title». If you see «Despicable Me», please know that that is MY addition. ;)

No preconceptions.
If you’ve visited MJQ before, then you know The Unicorn very well, aside from the bars being shared at similar times, and the venue being open after certain times/​acts. This place puts all the focus on the act with very few frills for a musak venue, which makes it accessible to local acts, as well as touring acts.
Think underground, and not just in the location. Whenever an acquaintance tells me about The Drunken Unicorn, I immediately am trying to visualize what hip, underground band must be playing for me to see. That being said, I’ve seen bands like Anal C*nt here which should tell you that billing need not care. This place is a concrete room to mosh in. Get used to it. Low-​cost equals more down-​to-​earth (or down-​INTO-​the-​earth depending on your viewpoint). If you are let down by the venue, then chances are you misunderstood the reason you were dragged there.
Once you are amply entertained via musak, then take yourself over to MJQ, Book House, Friends, or Greens, and finish the night off in style.

The Drunken Unicorn is a small, underground concert venue located behind MJQ Concourse on Ponce De Leon Ave. If you’ve never been before, the venue can be hard to find. It’s located underneath Friends on Ponce and the entrance to the Drunken Unicorn actually faces away from the street. Check out the photos here on Unilocal to see what the entrance looks like. Also, the map on the Drunken Unicorn’s web site is most helpful:
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Parking can be hard to come by since the lot is relatively small and often gets full. A good place to park, which is also free, is along Maiden Street, which is the first side street off of Ponce De Leon Place.
I first heard of the Drunken Unicorn when some small Japanese bands played here: Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re and Peelander-​Z. I saw two bands play here: The Fu and Joseph Vincent. When I saw The Fu and Joseph Vincent perform, I counted about 80 – 90 people in the audience. The place looked more than half empty. It made sense because the capacity for this venue is 250.
I liked the intimacy of this venue. It’s small. You can get right up next to the musicians on stage. Not only is the place small, but it’s also dark and dirty. It’s a grungy, hipster-​type place with tons of stickers, crazy artwork, and writing/​graffiti on the walls. Very limited seating is available along the outer edges of the space.
The sound quality, lighting, and viewing angles are very good. Once again, it’s small venue, so you’re close to all the action.
While I guess it depends primarily on the show, the ticket prices seem very reasonable. I guess it’s because the acts that perform here are small, up-​and-​coming artists who are trying to build their respective fanbases. The staff seems cool.
Overall, not a bad place to enjoy a concert.

Went here for a show and realized how close it is to MJQ. Its literally a walk across the corridor to the bar and there you go. Very divey, non pretentious atmoshphere. There’s a place to sit for some grown ups who wanna see the stage and drink without getting in a mosh pit lol.

I’m thankful for whoever decided to do the picture of the unicorn on the side of the building, if it were not for this, I would have been lost. I love that it is super intimate and I am up close and personal with the artist. It’s more for standing up but you may happen to be able to sit down along a wall. The artwork was pretty interesting, I was looking at a dragon and if I look at it from a different angle, I could see a unicorn, how cool. I would go back if there was an artist that I wanted to see. I wasn’t even thinking about going to the bathroom here after seeing the Unilocal reviews… Oh, in the back, away from the stage, they were selling merchandise from the artist who performed.

Went here just a couple days ago, to see the Front Bottoms. The parking lot was packed, and I literally got the last open space. It was a Saturday night, though, so I’m sure that had something to do with it. There are a lot of little bars, and the Clermont is down the street, so I’m sure it wouldn’t have been too difficult to find parking nearby.
I got here about 8.35, with the promise of the show starting promptly at 8.30. This proved an issue because of two reasons. One was that there was an unmoving line, and secondly, that they started the show at 8.50, and the line was still unmoving. It didn’t start to move until 9.10, and I didn’t get inside until 9 30. So I saw two songs from the opening act, which was just poor planning on the management’s end. One of the bouncers told me that capacity caps off at about 150, and that after pre-​sales, there were only 40 walk-​in tickets left. Considering the line stretched outside the building, and around to the front, it’s safe to say it was either a sold out show, or close enough.
Now onto something I think is very important to note about venues: the people. This was an all ages show, where the majority of the people were under 21… and they acted like it. If you want to get close to the singer, forget about watching the band in peace. I was constantly rammed, stepped on, shoved, and climbed on. I don’t know what it is about people who are 5’8″ and 280 pounds who want to use a 5’3″, 118 pound girl as a spring board. But it happens more often than not. I stayed in the pit most of the show, until I was bum rushed, which made me stagger to the floor, trapped under people. At least there were a handful of people who immediately reacted by keeping a bubble around me, until they grabbed me up by the waist. At that point, someone stepped on my ankle, injuring me enough that I moved away.
Pretty much every show I’ve been to had bouncers who were at the front, grabbing people who were crowd surfing so they couldn’t stay afloat 10 minutes straight, kicking people in the face and dropping their dead weight on small people like me. There appeared to be no bouncer here to facilitate the safe passage of said crowd surfers. Several times, I saw people go down because they couldn’t lift a person, and I also saw people kicked in the mouth and cheek and back of the head. Honestly, it’s plain rude to insist on being kept afloat by the crowd for 10 minutes at a time. When people started using me as a springboard, that’s when I stopped attempting to help them stay afloat, and finally moved away from the deluge of people attempting to squish me.
Despite the young crowd, the venue had a small stage that was very intimate, which I actually loved. The sound system was booming and fairly evenly distributed between the vocals and instruments, which is also awesome. I did enjoy being there, and it reminded me of when I used to go to shows as a youth. Maybe it’s me getting older, but in Augusta I went to sold out shows with a 300 capacity, and the people seemed more considerate and less willing to punch you in the face.

UNICORNSSSSSS!!! obsessed. haha.
In the mood for a show… go to the Drunken Unicorn. It feels like there’s a show like every night.
My last concert there was when I went to go see Hunter Valentine (call me. lol).and boy was it packed with a majority of lezzies. That’s besides the point. The venue itself is pretty cool. The only thing I dislike… that I have to walk to the other room for a drink.
If you’ve never been here before, I feel like you might miss the entrance. If you see Southern Star tattooo… look to the right of it… see random stairs… that’s it… go down those stairs… towards the dungeon of death. MUAHAHAHAH…jk.

Went there to check out a Milo Greene show this past weekend. I had never been before and the place was a mixture of highs and lows for me. This place is hidden like an unicorn. The easiest way for me to give locations is go to the The Book House Pub (although you may have to park at the Murder Kroger) when you are facing the front of the pub, The Drunken Unicorn is to your left just past the parking lot.
The Good: Intimate room, a great place to see a band up close. The bar is sectioned off with a door and it is nice and quiet in there. A little oasis from the loud music and a nice place to grab a drink. If you don’t have cash, the bouncers had no issue with us leaving to go grab a few drinks at another place and coming back for the main act, which I thought was great of them. A fun little venue with unicorns painted everywhere.
The Bad: The cost of the show per the website was $ 8. There was no way to buy tickets online, when we showed up, it was $ 10. Small difference, but a little annoying. There was no mention of opening acts of which there were two. The show opened at 9 pm, once we got there, we found out MG was coming on at 10:30. It is cash only at the bar, again no mention any where.
The Band This Place Most Resembles: Milo Greene. Little. Unicorn. Different.

If I’m in the mood for a show, I can always rely on The Drunken Unicorn to have someone coming through that I want to see. 5 STARS.
But, the bathrooms. WHY IS EVERYTHING WET IN THERE? I still have nightmares. Wet things, Mikey. WET THINGS.

EPIC UNICORN MURALS.
Loud and smoky.
Awesome people.

I don’t frequent this establishment much, but it is a very cool, small venue between Midtown and Poncey-​Highlands. The place has a pretty laid back vibe, something bereft from many joints in town. Drinks are reasonable, and the clientele really depend on the night. I was there for a DJ show. It’s nice because you were rather close to the performers. Before the show, the headliner was out mingling with the patrons, very cool experience.
Here’s a tip, go pregame at Friend’s which is directly above Drunken Unicorn. You never know who/​what you will see there. There is a parking lot, but cab access is super easy, and a good bet if you plan on downing any alcohol.