Bar Open Gig Guide
Friday 26 th June
THE VAUDEVILLE SMASH
RICK RALLI
Do you wanna get funky, but don’t know how? Well The Vaudeville Smash sure know how to get the party started and they’ll be doing just that when they rock the house at Bar Open this Friday night. First cab off the rank is Rick Ralli, whose hard-rocking guitar virtuosity is sure to warm you up for a big Friday night. What a way to kick off the weekend with The Vaudeville Smash and Rick Ralli at Bar Open.
Doors 10pm / Free Entry
Saturday 27 th June
MISTA SAVONA
Mista Savona is a Melbourne based producer/engineer /songwriter and keyboardist specialising in cutting edge new sounds and heavy vintage roots music. Hip-Hop, Dancehall, Roots Reggae and Heavyweight Dub sounds are his specialty. As well as performing as a solo artist, he has brought together an incredible 10-12 piece band, including a horn section, African dancers and Melbourne vocalist Vida Sunshyne (whose credits include work with Nitin Sawhney and Lionel Richie). The shows are by far one of the toughest and most exciting presentations of authentic, raw roots reggae and dancehall music in Australia. He nah check ya with no lightweight stuff - strictly heavyweight!
Doors 10pm / Free Entry
DUB CLUB
Downstairs each Saturday afternoon Bar Open hosts the improvised collective Dub Club. The group’s line-up consists of various members from Melbourne’s jazz and reggae scene. With a consistently changing line-up and a variety of guests, punters can expect something different each week. Stylistically anything goes. Spacious dubscapes, four to the floor electronic odysseys, jazz rock and beyond. Perfect way to spend a summer’s Saturday evening.
downstairs / 5pm- 7pm free entry
Sunday 28 th June
RATIONAL ACADEMY
DO THE ROBOT
Drawn together through a love of sonic lo-fi scree and pop music, The Rational Academy began adjusting tuning pegs until melodies and clashing chords worked themselves into a meaningful translation - a distant nod in the direction of “guitar” bands coupled with tender regard towards the avante garde and experimental composers within contemporary culture. They bring their aural masterpieces to Bar Open with the “I Love My Delay Pedal” majesty of Do The Robot, who will shake you back to do the days of Creation records and leaving you wishing you were a bit over fifteen years younger. Sweet Sunday night sounds at Bar Open with two of Brisbane’s finest.
Doors 7.30pm / Free Entry
MATT WALKER (last show of residency!!!)
From his childhood guitar meanderings of wandering the Dandenongs playing and singing Donovan and Led Zeppelin songs, Matt Walker has become one of Australia’s most renowned and talented guitar players. Whether he’s playing solo, as part of his duo with Ashley Davies, or in one of his other many musical collaborations, Matt Walker continues to be involved in some of the best music to come from this fair city. And he’s a smoking hot guitar player to boot! Don’t miss out on the final show of his June residency.
downstairs / 5-7pm free entry
COUCHING TIGER DJS
downstairs 7pm ‘til late
Monday 29 th June
SCREEN SECT: FESTEN (THOMAS VINTERBERG, 1998)
The first ‘official’ Dogme 95 film and perhaps the most pure in its adherence to the strictures of the manifesto. Vinterberg’s film is a scathing critique of Danish society, wrapped in a revelatory plot set during the 60th birthday of the patriarch of a wealthy family. It is at once humorous and harrowing - a gripping, disturbing satire.
7pm
Tuesday 30 th June
MAKE IT UP CLUB
The Make It Up Club is committed to nurturing, presenting and promoting avant-garde improvised music and sound performance of the highest conceptual and performative standards, regardless of idiom, genre, or instrumentation.
Whilst traditional forms of avant garde improvisation are welcomed, MIUC programming policy gives priority to projects which challenge the boundaries of current musical trends and which are predominantly, though not exclusively, improvisational in nature.
In doing so, the principal aims of the Make It Up Club are:
i) To provide performers with a stable and supportive environment in which to publicly exhibit recent explorations in improvised sound.
ii) To curate a regular performance program dedicated to exhibiting local and interstate artists and, whenever circumstances allow, facilitate collaborations between international artists and their Australian counterparts.
iii) To cultivate and maintain a healthy, vibrant and diverse scene for avant-garde improvisation in Melbourne where performers and devotees alike actively contribute to a sense of community.
iv) To promote the quality and diversity of Melbourne’s unique improvised music scene locally, nationally and internationally.
This week, join special guest musicians Shoeb Ahmad (guitar and noise), Leith Thomas (bass and noise) and Joe Talia (drumkit and noise), as well as Evan Dorrian (drumkit) and Ian Wadley (guitar).
Every Tuesday night at Bar Open.
8:30 PM / $5/10
Wednesday 1 st July
BABBLE POETRY SLAM!
Babble Slam!, which runs the first Wednesday of every month, is back again on the 1st of July with a new theme, a new bunch of faces and bundles of poetic genius. The same set of rules applies to every slam, in that poets get three minutes on stage. If they go over three minutes, they get attacked by a ninja or whichever generally angry and violent official gets there first. After poets have performed they are judged by five audience members, that are specifically selected so as to make sure they have nothing to do with poetry in their daily lives, that score the poets between ten and negative infinity. The highest and lowest scores are dropped, and then the remaining three scores are totalled up in order to provide a final score. This, however, is not what makes the slam great. What makes it great is that the audience is given license to not only cheer when they like a poem, but also to display their disgust and loathing for a poem while it’s being performed. Many a poet has left the stage in tears, much to the delight of the listening audience. Poets do not have to perform a piece that has to do with the month’s particular theme, although they tend to, instead the host must present the slam in the spirit of the theme. Oh, and did we mention that the grand prize is TEN DOLLARS! Babble Slam! Perfect!
Doors 8pm / Free Entry
Thursday 2 nd July
DREAMTWINS
BEAT DISEASE
POP SINGLES
DRUMHELLER
If your Thursday night is looking free of social engagements, it’s surely time you had a sneak peak at some of the up-and-comers who’ve been hiding in Melbourne’s musical underground and are just about ready to bustle their way into your record collection. Kicking off proceedings is soundscape extraordinaire Drumheller and his mastery of interweaving layers, followed by 3-piece Pop Singles who draw from the likes of “an incredibly pleasing pop aesthetic” and “a somewhat dreamy endlessness”. Intrigued? Well there’s more, with Beat Disease providing a rougher, noisier edge to the night before Dreamtwins cap things off with their melancholy brand of … something special. Enjoy.
Doors 9pm / Free Entry
Friday 3 rd July
CHECKERBOARD
Checkerboard are about to play Bar Open and there’s one thing guaranteed it’s gonna be the best gig in town this Friday night. Checkerboard are fast becoming an Australian acid blues/soul/rock improvisational institution, traversing a spontaneously inspired universe of sound from the most solid and soulful rockin’ blues and roots-based traditions to dynamic journeys of random collective improvisation. This band is as rare as it is blessed with being perhaps one of the most varied and moment-stealing groups of masterful musicians. The current core line-up is at the peak of their listening relationship and interaction, able to create seamless elements of what appear to be rehearsed outcomes from nothing. That’s pure improvisation! This ain’t no lame promise as the four compadres of ‘the …board’ are music heavyweights in their own right. Check this out!
Doors 10pm / Free Entry
Saturday 4 th July
WHITE BOYZ CAN’T FUNK
VICTORIA DUNBAR
White Boys Can’t Funk are a savvy six-piece destined to prove their own name wrong as they sure as hell funk up the jams with the best of them. Straight out of Footscray to the streets of Fitzroy, this tight, raw and excitable revue will leave you no choice but to dance the night away with their hot tunes incorporating funk, rhythm, soul and Jamaican popular music. This Saturday at Bar Open they’ll be supported by one of Melbourne’s up and coming pop-freaks Victoria Dunbar, ensuring that this is gonna be a night of Funky Fueled Fun.
Doors 10pm / Free Entry
DUB CLUB
Downstairs each Saturday afternoon Bar Open hosts the improvised collective Dub Club. The group’s line-up consists of various members from Melbourne’s jazz and reggae scene. With a consistently changing line-up and a variety of guests, punters can expect something different each week. Stylistically anything goes. Spacious dubscapes, four to the floor electronic odysseys, jazz rock and beyond. Perfect way to spend a summer’s Saturday evening.
downstairs / 5pm- 7pm free entry
Sunday 5 th July
ORACIO
ADRIAN STOYLES (GIN CLUB)
THE BITTER SWEETHEARTS
LYRA WILL
Oracio will grace the stage at Bar Open this Sunday night bringing some warm sounds to heat you up like a nice cup of milo on a cold winter’s night. Joining them will be Adrian Stoyles, better known as a member of the stunning mega ensemble the Gin Club, one of Melbourne’s more happening folk/rock groups The Bitter Sweethearts and the angelic offerings of Lyra Will, who will apparently be singing for her supper. A nice way to draw a cold and blustery weekend to a close.
Doors 7.30pm / Free Entry
The Matt Murphy Hammond Combo
The Matt Murphy Hammond Combo arrives! Fresh from a six and a half year residency at Brisbane’s ‘Bowery’ bar, The Matt Murphy Hammond Combo bring there swingin’ 60’s funk/jazz sounds to Melbourne. With Matt on hammond, this cookin’ trio features two members of Brisbane favourites, ‘Kafka’ - Darcy (sax) and Dom (drums). Come see why Brisbane couldn’t hold these boys any longer! Playing at Bar Open, Sundays 5-7pm July downstairs free!!!
downstairs / 5-7pm free entry
COUCHING TIGER DJS
downstairs 7pm ‘til late
coming up…
Wed 8 July: Tom Hall
Thurs 9 July: Tim Richmond & The Old Case
Sat 11 July: Deep Street Soul
Sun 12 July: Spider Goat Canyon
Wed 15 July: Jona Byron
Thurs 16 July: Children Of The Wave
Sat 18 July: Papa Chango
317 brunswick street fitzroy 3065
03 9415 9601
www.baropen.com.au / www.myspace.com/baropenfitzroy
