Whoa… so much to catch up on since last I posted. But this post I’m gonna stick to the live music scene. It seems the more places I went, the more places I found that I didn’t have the capacity to visit, but I can give you the highlights of the 12 venues I/we visited while in Melbourne.
To the point… #1 favorite venue was Grace Darling Hotel. We loved the Collingwood area of Melbourne… very Castro-esque (SF); fun and vibrant, if not as open and sea-airy. The Grace Darling Hotel actually has 2 venues, a rock-walled basement joint and the one we visited twice (but only caught 1 show) was the upstairs venue with a great little corner table overlooking the Collingwood thoroughfare. I’ll make no excuses for loving these quaint little hidey-holes of a venue. The “band”, CHAII from New Zealand was basically a drum-board, a laptop and a female spittin’ rhymes, but the crowd et-it-up.
My favorite show was easily the Down to Earth benefit. I’d seen Australian band Angus & Julia Stone in a sparsely attended show at the Santa Fe Brewing Company and have absolutely loved them since, but couldn’t find anything on their agenda while we were there until this Australia Brush Fire Relief Benefit. Eva was raving about Tash Sultana. These tickets sold out in less than 5 minutes… days before I found out about the show. I bought Eva tickets for Tash in Lisbon in September, but was itching to get into this show. I figured maybe we could hang out in the park outside of the venue.
People were being shamed for scalping tickets to a benefit show and I didn’t figure we’d find any. But, day of show, ebay hooked us up. It was face-value, but sketchy, low-res screenshot of tickets somebody’s brother got her, and we could call her if they didn’t work. After being fer-shamed for doubting the validity of the ticket, they did hold up and we were witness to one fantastic evening of music. Angus & Julia Stone, Tash Sultana, Briggs, Gang of Youths, Jack River, Ruby Fields, Thelma Plum, the women did this country proud. This was the first show I’ve ever attended where I noticed that the merch table completely sold bare (hours before the end of the show).
Guilty pleasure, SO much fun: Rick Astley opened for ah-ha @ Rochford Winery. I was momentarily belting it out along with a crowd of retired soccer-moms in neon blissfully singing along and dancing as only people between a narrow row of folding chairs can. Rick Astley was simply amazing. He sounded great, his band was rocking and we had an amazing vantage. ah-ha opened with Take On Me, but were fantastical as well. The venue was a little lacking in shade – you had to pay $60+ per person to go into their clubhouses – but we loved the fresh air, the hills and being surrounded by vineyards.
One more shout out to Boat Show. We stumbled upon this band (or more appropriately, I stumbled, Eva & Vickie walked casually) on the way out of a festival. H E A V Y, and when the lead singer told us to “Clap more, you ungrateful little shits”, she won my heart.
So, there you have it… Ehren’s Music Junkie Guide to Melbourne as I experienced it. There’s TONS more places to check out, and if we didn’t have so many more places to check out, I’d love to go back soon. But… on to the next road.
Happy St. Noah’s Day!
Top 10 venues of our visit:
Grace Darling Hotel (great location, feels like a hidden local joint)
Sidney Myer Music Bowl (fantastic amphitheater, great energy)
Northcote Social Club (smaller club with lively crowd)
The Tote (this is highly rated, but it’s got steps on the dancefloor, thus inhibiting dancing)
Hotel Esplenade (intimate basement venue hidden under a club thick with twenty-somethings)
Hamer Hall (large, open concert hall with great acoustics)
Plenary Theater (smaller concert hall with less good acoustics)
Corner Hotel (large room, packed to the gills, but kind of ordinary)
Rochford Winery (folding chairs in a field with little shade, the area was nice, but the venue was unexceptional)
Rowville Performing Arts Center (the theater was fine, but the venue was trashed and distant)
Top 10 bands of our visit:
Angus & Julia Stone (pop, one of my favorite bands, great performance, probably rating them too high)
Rick Astley (pop, surprisingly powerful)
Fatboy Slim (electronic, very high energy, but he plays a computer… maybe rating too high too)
Malcura (heavy flamenco, sort of Rodrigo y Gabriela-esque)
ah-ha (pop, fun, lively, I can die happy because I saw “Take On Me” live)
Tash Sultana (looping, one-person show, very lively and entertaining to watch)
Vulgargrad (gypsy rock, great showmanship, funny & fun)
Boat Show (punk, screaming, blaring, vulgar, in-your-face distortion)
Xylouris White (Greek rock, two-man, musical explorations, sometimes heavy, sometimes over-composed)
Walk Off The Earth (pop, y’know, sometimes a gimmick is obvious, but you totally buy in; lotsa love, lotsa fun)
