Melbourne's best live music neighbourhoods

Melbourne’s pubs, historic theatres and bars serve more than just top food and drink. Here’s why these venues are pumping out the country’s best live music.

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Melbourne is, all at once, sophisticated, free-spirited and vibrant — and it moves to the beat of its own drum.

Widely acknowledged before any official certification: Melbourne is and always has been the place for live music.  

Chords, bars and riffs ring through the city’s laneways, pub walls rattle to an eclectic beat and buskers serenade the morning stampede of office workers streaming from the mouth of Flinders Street Station.

You can see a headline act at one of Melbourne’s big music venues The Tote, The Espy or The Forum or catch up-and-comers performing from the hallowed walls of The Old Bar or Some Velvet Morning. Wherever you go, finding music doesn't require much planning.

Officially speaking, the city boasts more live music venues per capita than any city in the world, with a record-breaking one venue per 9503 residents. Melbourne's governing bodies understand the importance of protecting live music: it’s a billion-dollar industry keeping the city's famed late-night restaurants, sticky-floored pubs and band rooms open every night of the week.

The city creates its own constant soundtrack, no matter whether you’re north, south, east or west.

There’s always something on — stumble across a random gig, and you might easily end up having the time of your life. To help you on your way around its neighbourhoods, here are a few pointers from some of the city’s music-obsessed residents.

NORTHSIDE

It’s fair to say Melbourne’s inner-northern suburbs have snagged themselves the coveted title of the spiritual home of the north's music scene. Brunswick, Fitzroy, Collingwood, Clifton Hill and Northcote have long been hubs of creative activity. Today, you’ll find record stores (Northside Records, The Searchers or Polyester Records throw album launches from time to time), vintage clothing shops, artisan coffee roasters and — of course — centuries-old pubs, basements and halls dishing out international and local live music from their band rooms, busy every night of the week, despite the polish of gentrification in recent years.

Local music legend Helen Marcou, the co-founder of esteemed Bakehouse Studios in Collingwood and spokesperson for advocacy group Save Live Music Victoria (SLAM), says Fitzroy offers a “punters dream” for music lovers.

“I’m loving Nighthawks Bar, a tiny upstairs room on Johnston Street where Fitzroyalty and a new generation of musicians rub shoulders,” she says. “My Disco stopped there during a sold-out Australian tour recently to play a secret show for friends.”

Marcou led the state’s famous SLAM protest in 2010 by recreating AC/DC's It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll) film clip shot in Swanston Street, travelling from the State Library to Parliament House, which successfully quashed stringent conditions imposed on live music venues, enabling them to stay open.

She says Melbourne’s affinity with music can be traced through history — indebted to indigenous storytellers through to post colonisation where boom periods like the Gold Rush built some of its grand theatres, pubs on corners and dance halls, where musicians today continue to hone their skills from their storied stages.

Marcou recommends visitors wander down her favourite streets: Fitzroy, Smith, Gertrude, Brunswick, and Johnston streets, and drop in on Fitzroy’s most cherished venues like The Old Bar, Yah Yah’s, The Workers Club, The Catfish or The Evelyn.

Nearby suburb Clifton Hill is home to the beloved, intimate venue Some Velvet Morning.

Local musician Tanya Batt, who performs under the name BATTS, says she owes her development as an artist to the venue, thanks to her residency there two years ago.

“I guess I just love that bar,” she says. “It's kind of like a welcoming lounge room, everyone’s so friendly there, and it’s quite small. Everyone who plays on that stage seems to have their best performances. There’s something special about it.”

A ten-minute tram ride from Clifton Hill (you might be lucky enough to catch a Tram Session in action) is Melbourne’s quintessential band room, Northcote Social Club. The band room hosts local favourites like Courtney Barnett and Amy Shark to secret international pop-ups, including past artists the Pixies and Lady Gaga. It’s a comfortable, friendly vibe and all are welcomed.

Out Brunswick way, rowdy woolshed-turned-art-and-live-entertainment space Howler hosts local and international talent, or head to The Spotted Mallard or Retreat Hotel on Sydney Road for a more intimate performance, washed down with craft beer.

Closer to the CBD, music journalist Darren Levin says it’s hard to go past The Tote, another beloved iconic institution, nestled in the inner-east neighbourhood Collingwood.

“The fight to save the venue in 2010 — documented in Natalie van den Dungen’s great doco Persecution Blues — was a real galvanising moment for the city and it’s been co-opted by a new wave of young and diverse artists in recent years,” he says. “I think we work damn hard as a city to fight for spaces where live music flourishes. That was a real turning point for Melbourne and shows how the community can really band together to protect things of cultural value.”

Nearby, The Gasometer Hotel — affectionately dubbed ‘The Gaso’ — hosts anything from rock to electronica-infused day parties, reggae and folk from under a giant disco ball, or under the stars if the roof is folded open. Melbourne's second oldest pub The Grace Darling Hotel is another fixture on the local gig circuit, live music filling her creaky, nautical themed upstairs band room most nights.

SOUTHSIDE

Back in the late ’80s, the suburbs south of the Yarra — South Melbourne, Prahran, Windsor, South Yarra, Toorak, St Kilda and Port Melbourne — was the official stomping ground for creatives, AFL stars and media personalities, thanks to the prevalence of some of the city’s best live music venues, most obviously Prince of Wales Hotel band room and Hotel Esplanade, affectionately known as the ‘Espy’, which recently reopened after an extended hiatus.

While the winds of gentrification have mostly blown this crowd northside to the grungy-chic street art and cheeky intimate bars, Levin, whose local drinking hole is Yellow Bird (owned by Something For Kate drummer Clint Hyndman) in Windsor, says the reopening of this live music icon may well make St Kilda a central focus again.

“I'm really loving the newly reopened Espy in St Kilda, which has come out of hiatus after a six-year multi-million dollar reno and the old bird is sure looking, and sounding, great,” he says.

The Espy’s Peta Van de Velde says the most commonly asked question the venue received when they first re-opened its doors was “will there still be live music?”

“The answer was yes, absolutely!” she says. “In just six short months, the 140-year-old venue has re-established itself as a ‘must' on the Australian touring circuit. You'll find free gigs in the Basement four nights a week, DJs and acoustic sessions in the main bar, and last, but not least, the hallowed Gershwin Room.”

Van de Velde says government support including local council initiatives to bodies like Music Victoria had been “vital” in keeping the scene afloat.

“More live music venues means more bands, more fans, more creatives and a higher return on investment on the industry as a whole,” she says.

INNER WEST

Tobias Willis has worked on music videos for Australian artists like Client Liaison, Courtney Barnett and Jess Ribeiro, among others, as well as covering touring festivals like Laneway. His feature-length documentary Now Sound: Melbourne’s Listening celebrating Melbourne’s vibrant music culture premiered at the Melbourne International Film Festival at The Forum — “a dream come true”.

“That is one of my favourite places to see music,” Willis says. “It's part of the deep cultural fabric of this city because it has been nurtured and protected by generations.”

While he spends most of his time in the city’s north at classic venues in Collingwood, Fitzroy and Northcote, he says the inner west, particularly Footscray, is an important, emerging suburb for live music.

While Footscray’s The Reverence Hotel, known as “The Rev”, closed this year, new venues are emerging in its wake — as is typical of the continually evolving gig-going scene. In the west, Footscray has live music filling its sprawling 1940s warehouses, most notably at The Wool Store, which recently hosted a series of all-day parties featuring local and international artists. Wrangler is another warehouse conversion modelled on legendary hole-in-the-wall dives like Berlin’s Bunker or New York’s CBGB’s, which regularly throws gigs, art exhibitions and parties featuring acts like Dune Rats, Emarosa, and Tkay Maidza.

INNER EAST

A short tram ride from the city centre, Richmond boasts the institutional Corner Hotel, a remodelled 19th-century pub which has been a fixture of the live music scene since the 1940s. Some of the world’s biggest music stars including Mick Jagger, The White Stripes, Ben Harper and Queens of the Stone Age have graced its 800-person band room.

Down the far end of Johnston Street, The Yarra Hotel in Abbotsford — “run by musicians for musicians” — has a special focus on emerging acts as well as DJ sets kicking off Sunday afternoons in the beer garden. Home to the iconic Skipping Girl and the artsy hub at Abbotsford Convent, the east has largely escaped gentrification and you’ll find a friendly crowd of old-timers welcoming in a new, young crowd.

MUSIC … ANYWHERE AND EVERYWHERE

Musicians Phoebe Lou and Joey Clough, behind Two People (and formerly Snakadaktal) have performed at many venues but say it’s the unexpected places music fills that make Melbourne unique.

“We've played at a load of Melbourne venues now like Howler and some of the bigger ones like the Forum, which is so beautiful, but we've also been lucky enough to play in some places that are not even meant to be venues,” says Lou.

“We set up in Backwards Gallery late last year and played a really intimate show there. We make all of our artwork for our releases, so we thought it would be a really cool idea to exhibit our artwork in a space and also perform in it. I guess Melbourne, especially in the north, has some really unique stuff going on and they allow creative stuff to happen.”

The public tram network, free to use for everyone on the City Loop, allows musicians to perform in front of commuters as part of a YouTube initiative called Tram Sessions.

“I think one of my favourite sessions was with Melbourne local, Cash Savage,” says Caitlin Reilly from Tram Sessions. “Her performance was so sincere and brilliant. We headed through Fitzroy, and it’s just so classic Melbourne to me.”

Melbourne Museum collaborates with musicians to host its monthly Nocturnal event series, transforming the space into an adults-only dance party, because no corner of Melbourne wants to miss out on the fun.