Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Where the Bands Play

About this time last week I shared with you a rumour that I had heard regarding the closure of The Salon at Melbourne’s Spanish Club in Johnston St. While this closure has yet to be officially confirmed, two other smaller venues did close their doors for the last time last week. The Spoon Café in Victoria St, Brunswick, which hosted a variety of DIY indie acts, hosted its last act last Saturday after the existing operator was evicted, while the Public Office in North Melbourne which favoured underground noise rock and punk acts, is set for the wrecking ball after the venue was sold.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. The Edinburgh Castle on Sydney Rd has been playing host to country and folk acts since December. Hipster kids have another bar option in Roxanne, which is hosting headline gigs, indie nights and DJs, while renovated cabaret joint, The Toff in Town is a new option for smaller seated and standing gigs.

Of most interest to me though is the Brunswick all-ages venue, Cloud City, which is located in a warehouse in 14 Prentice St, Brunswick not far from Sydney Rd. This venue has hosted gigs since February and has so far attracted a range of performers including Camera Obscura, David Kilgour and Batrider.

As an all-ages venue you may think Cloud City is just a venue for the kids, but this isn’t necessarily the perception of the performers. While out here touring with new band The Evens in Febraury, Ian MacKaye best known from hardcore punk pioneers, Fugazi explained on an interview on RRR that the attraction of playing at an all aged venue such as Cloud City was not simply about attracting a wider audience or giving underage fans a chance to hear their music live which I previously somewhat narrowly and perhaps cynically assumed, it was more about experiencing playing music in an environment which wasn’t surrounded by alcohol. But MacKaye wasn’t on an anti-alcohol rant. He explained that he loved a drink but he believed that alcohol sometimes limited the experience from live gigs – enjoying art through music needed to exist beyond simply pubs and bars and instead should be extended more widely to other performance spaces.

The obvious reason why all aged venues are not more common is that live music venues earn a substantial amount of revenue through alcohol sales. The recent births of Edinburgh Castle, Roxanne and The Toff demonstrate that the Melbourne music scene is resourceful enough to create new live music venues, and also a perception from new operators that the scene is vibrant enough to support these venues. However, all aged live music venues are a bit of a different story. Land value and rental inflation have a much greater effect on venues such as Cloud City and subsequently reduce availability in the inner suburbs of Melbourne for other alternative spaces.

Of course maintaining diverse venues such as Cloud City will only be possible if interest from the fans is strong enough. Support from underagers is one way of surviving but I would imagine this would not be sufficient. So, if eclectic underground music does interest you and you agree with Ian Mackaye and would like to get away from plastic cups, sticky carpet and drunken idiots and experience some live tunes in a different environment I suggest you go and check out Cloud City. It may not be around for very long.

Your next chance to see music at Cloud City will be on Saturday where there are 16 bands for $12 from 12pm. Highlights include The Crayon Fields’ Geoff O’Connor dreamy tropical pop side project, Sly Hats, fractured slacker rock from Popolice and anti-folkster, Owls of the Swamp. Plenty of other shoegazing, ambience and experimentation. More about it in the gig guide tomorrow.

1 Comments:

Blogger Dave said:

The Spanish Club thing is set in stone. Both back bar and front bar will be closing at the end of the financial year and reverting to Melbourne's Spanish community. Our loss, I reckon.

4:30 pm  

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