The Fortitude Music Hall marks six years at the heart of Brisbane’s live music scene
Build it and they will rock? The team behind this 3000-capacity theatre hoped that’d be the case when doors opened in 2019, and as it approaches its 1000th show, that dream has become reality.
The five members of one of the nation’s best bands are lounging backstage at a music venue, waiting to perform a soundcheck on a Friday afternoon in May ahead of playing a sold-out concert in a few hours’ time.
For Brisbane quintet Ball Park Music, this quotidian routine has formed the basis of a 17-year career as an indie rock act: you either learn to enjoy – or at least endure – the hours of waiting around before you get to do the thing you love in front of a crowd, or you find another line of work.
On this occasion, though, Review has been invited into the chart-topping, ARIA-nominated band’s temporary inner sanctum – nearby a large print of the Beatles’ Abbey Road album cover, which fills a wall – to discuss the venue itself, as Ball Park Music were the headline act at The Fortitude Music Hall when it opened almost six years ago.
Its creation took a combination of artistic and business forces joining together to build something the Queensland capital was sorely lacking: a 3000-capacity venue in the centre of Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley nightlife precinct.
Casting his mind back to that debut concert in July 2019, guitarist Dean Hanson speaks of “the honour of being asked to open a venue that was potentially going to be significant for the city, and I remember thinking, ‘This is amazing. I can’t wait to play here for our own show’ ”.
His twin brother, drummer Daniel Hanson, recalls the thrill of “knowing that they’d delivered on the promise to make it a venue that was specifically built for artists, and for live music”.
“We’re walking in, being proud as a Brisbane person to have it – because it’s the best venue in the country, from an artist’s point of view,” he says.
That is no small claim. But it’s one made from a position of authority: from its humble beginnings in 2008 – when becoming popular enough to sell out 500-capacity hometown venue The Zoo was a major aspiration – on to theatres, festival main stages and outdoor amphitheatres, Ball Park Music have played just about everywhere in Australia. (Except stadiums, but that’ll change later this year, when they support reformed British rockers Oasis in Melbourne and Sydney.)
Why does the band rate it as the best? Putting aside its top-quality sound and lighting technology – as you’d expect to find in a newly built room – it’s the smaller details that have helped the Fortitude sing. For patrons, that includes the multi-tiered mezzanine, which offers seven different height levels, ensuring maximum eyeline potential for a good view at what’s happening on stage, as well as multiple bars, upstairs and down, to minimise queues.
For visiting artists and their crews, it’s things like being able to drive a truck under the venue to greatly assist with the load-in process. As well, there’s the private side-of-stage viewing platform, which means the headline act can watch the supports without venturing deep into the crowd. “You feel that proper touring musicians have been involved in the design, and it shows,” notes frontman Sam Cromack.
Dean Hanson chips in another idea that’s much more personal, but no less important: there’s a bathroom right behind the stage. “It seems so petty, but that’s in my mind: if I need to pee before I play, where am I going to do that?” he says. “Some venues, it’s like, ‘Oh, you’ve just got to go out this door, you’ll see a white wizard, he’ll ask you for a password, that’s ‘Walla-walla-bing-bang…’,” as his bandmates crack up.
Placed on a coffee table between comfy couches is a handwritten card, which keyboard player Paul Furness reads at Review’s prompting.
“To Sam, Jen, Paul, Dean and Daniel, on behalf of the Fortitude team, I would like to congratulate you on selling out tonight’s show,” it reads. “We always feel very grateful and honoured to have great artists play in our venue. Thank you for trusting us with your show. All the best for tonight – I’m sorry I couldn’t be there, as I’m loving the new record. Love your work, Queenslanders! From JC.”
A couple of weeks later, the JC in question – John Collins, bassist in much-loved, now defunct Brisbane rock band Powderfinger – meets with Review at the Fortitude. On the floor downstairs, road crew are unpacking boxes ahead of a show that night by Fremantle indie rock act Spacey Jane – the first of three sold-out concerts to mark the beginning of a national tour for the ARIA Award-winning quartet.
Joining Collins on this Wednesday morning in early June are two other key players in the Fortitude’s opening six years prior: Paul Piticco, former Powderfinger manager, Splendour in the Grass co-founder and recently appointed director of touring and venue development at concert promoter Live Nation; and Scott Hutchinson, chairman of Hutchinson Builders.
Ahead of doors opening for that first show in 2019, Hutchinson – whose company put up the $43m in construction costs – was bluntly pragmatic about the venture, which was a passion play inspired by his ongoing mourning for the loss of Brisbane’s 4000-capacity Festival Hall, sold in 2003 to make way for apartments.
Hutchinson told this writer six years ago the building was a “disaster commercially, in the short term”, but “it doesn’t have to always be about money for Hutchys – it’s a private company. I was born here, and I want to help Brisbane … When this place opens, I think people will say they can’t imagine Brisbane without The Fortitude Music Hall”.
With the benefit of hindsight, how does this trio reflect on what they – and scores more workers in their respective teams – have achieved?
“The part that makes me happy is we’re getting acts that we weren’t getting,” says Collins. “When Festival Hall went (in 2003), where were they playing? Now they’re coming, and they weren’t before. Brisbane deserves that.”
Piticco nods, and says: “The thing that the three of us had in common was pursuing as close as we could get to a perfect venue of this size for this city.”
Having delivered nearly 1000 shows, the Fortitude will have notched up more than one million attendances by the end of this year. “Even at a low percentage, if 10 or 20 per cent of the audience is having one of the best nights of their year? That’s a huge impact on the community,” says Piticco. “That excites me; that gets me out of bed.”
Reminded of his 2019 quote that the building was a “disaster commercially”, Hutchinson replies with a shrug: “It’s not a disaster until you sell it, and we’re never going to sell it. The valuation will catch up to what we spent.” When it comes to the venue itself, his eyes light up: “It’s better than I could have ever imagined,” he says.
The Fortitude Music Hall marked the second time Hutchinson Builders had partnered with Collins, Piticco and concert promoter Live Nation for a Brisbane venue build, after opening The Triffid in 2014, an 800-capacity room that has become a vital rung on the national club touring circuit, having last year marked its 10th anniversary.
“The Triffid was such a great experience for Hutchys – and also, I should admit that we bought the land around it (the Fortitude), so that’s going to all prop up one day,” says Hutchinson with a smile, clearly unworried about imminent commercial disasters.
As for that handwritten card? It harks back to Collins’s 21 years of performing with Powderfinger, who concluded their live career in 2010.
“I remember being on tour, we did two shows at the Apollo (in London, 2007), and on the second night, the promoter gave us bottles of Moet,” says Collins. “That stuck with me, so we try to do that at The Triffid and here. I’ll do the same for Spacey Jane tonight: ‘Thanks for trusting us with the show, and congratulations.’ I just think it’s nice for bands to feel like they’re being loved and respected.”
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