Lismore live music scene struggling, even before coronavirus

“THE past two years it’s been a bit of a lull … it’s been a sombre feeling in town for musicians.”

Local Lismore band Human Dinosaur Machine is a Northern Rivers act on the rise, having been featured on Triple J and releasing some new singles in 2020. (CREDIT: Supplied)

THE COVID-19 pandemic has hit many aspects of the Northern Rivers incredibly hard, with the pubs and clubs among the hardest hit.

A side effect of pubs being shut is that the Northern Rivers music scene has been forced into hibernation.

“We’ve kind of drip feeding singles from the EP as a single and we were doing gigs for every single and they were going really well but then the pandemic happened and we had to put a pause on that,” Isaac Vincent, of Human Dinosaur Machine, said.

However, when it is up and going, Isaac said the local music scene had changed in recent years.

“It can be pretty good … locally in Lismore locally it’s been up and down, the Cats closing was a pretty big hit, you can hire the City Bowlo and other bowlos in the area but it’s not as strong as it used to be,” Isaac said.

“Some years it’s been really good … but just the past two years it’s been a bit of a lull … it’s been a sombre feeling in town for musicians but (you have) always got to be optimistic about the next venue or opportunity.”

Recently, Arts Northern Rivers spoke to The Northern Star and indicated that they’re looking into creating more performance opportunities once the COVID-19 restrictions had lifted.

“Of course, some of the stuff they’re doing is great, if they want to help out to get more venues putting on live acts or even with the grants that they do, I am all for it,” Isaac said.

“It’s really good to road test songs, to see how they’re received by an audience.

“You can play a song in rehearsal as much as you want but you don’t know how much the punters are going to like it until you play it in front of them.”

Recently, Human Dinosaur Machine has gone from strength to strength after releasing new single Kitty at the end of April while Diary of Broken Bones was featured on Triple J’s Short Fast Loud.

“Every time we release one, we’re getting a better and better response … our single just before the last one got played on Triple J and it just feels really good to get it out there … we’re pretty stoked,” Isaac said.