Brisbane’s The Zoo turns 30, a place where core music memories have been created since 1992

Practically every Brisbane band to emerge since 1992 has performed at The Zoo, while its size has made it an essential touring stop for both national and international acts on the rise.

Two generations of owners of The Zoo, a Brisbane music venue established in 1992: Joc Curran (R), who owned and operated it from 1992 to 2016, and Cat Clarke, who has been a co-owner since 2021. Picture: Andrew McMillen

When asked what The Zoo means to her, Joc Curran cast her eyes around one of Brisbane’s enduring live music venues with a sense of bone-deep familiarity and unmistakeable love.

“It means my adulthood, I suppose,” Curran replied while sitting at a booth inside the 500-capacity room situated near the heart of the Queensland capital’s Fortitude Valley nightlife precinct.

“I came here when I was 25, and now I’m 55; it’s really familiar, like an old friend,” she said. “Even coming back, it still has the same energy and essence – which is a very special thing, to think that you can leave something and it still carries on that soul.”

As one of the venue’s founding co-owners, Curran sold her stake in The Zoo in 2016, but it has remained proudly women-owned throughout its three-decade history.

Its cosy, intimate feel – particularly during the summer months, when the crowd would sweat together as one, before the recent installation of airconditioning – has made it an ideal place for creating core memories across the decades.

Today, the room is run by a small team including co-owner Cat Clarke, who moved to Brisbane with her young family last year.

“Everyone has a story,” said Clarke, 37. “Wherever you mention The Zoo – whether it’s your hairdresser, or someone at the supermarket – they’ve all got a story about how it’s impacted their lives, whether it’s a drunken night in their early 20s, or a really special show.

“It’s those stories, and all those people, and all that love that creates this incredible space.”

(This writer has a Zoo story, too: its dancefloor is where I first kissed my then girlfriend, now wife, at a Wolf & Cub gig in 2009.)

Joc Curran (L), who owned and operated The Zoo from 1992 to 2016, and Cat Clarke, who has been a co-owner since 2021. Picture: Andrew McMillen / The Australian

Practically every Brisbane band to emerge since 1992 has performed on its raised stage, from Powderfinger to ­Violent Soho and Ball Park Music, while its size has made it an essential touring stop for both national and international acts on the rise.

Ask Curran for a couple of ­favourite memories and she can’t go past Nick Cave appearing alongside instrumental rock band Dirty Three in early 1996; word of mouth spread quickly, a long queue formed outside up Ann Street, and excited punters broke the front door off its hinges during Cave’s soundcheck.

Nick Cave reading poetry on stage at The Zoo on January 20 1996, during a performance by Melbourne instrumental band Dirty Three. Picture: Martine Cotton

As well, US alternative rock band Pixies played an intimate warm-up show here before headlining Byron Bay festival Splendour in the Grass in 2010, including a two-hour rehearsal where Curran was among the lucky few listeners.

For the 30th anniversary, Clarke, Curran and co have co-ordinated a series of events, including an art exhibition and “Zooie” employee reunion on Wednesday night, and a showcase for emerging Brisbane artists headlined by alt-pop artist Hope D on Friday.

On Saturday, there’s an all-star line-up of returning favourites including Regurgitator, Butterfingers, Screamfeeder and Resin Dogs.

On Sunday afternoon, a dozen performers including Robert Forster (The Go-Betweens) and Ian Haug (Powderfinger, The Church) – as well as Curran and Clarke – will each read aloud a love letter to The Zoo. The event will end at 6pm on Sunday, marking precisely 30 years since its doors first opened.