Bar Open Gig Guide
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
Monday 6 th July
SCREEN SECT: SEXY BEAST (JONATHAN GLAZER, 2000)
Famed music video director Glazer’s first feature is the total antithesis of a Guy Ritchie gangster film. A stylised, surreal story of retired ex-thief Gary Dove (Ray Winstone) who is called on to do one last robbery by his nemesis, Don Logan (a terrifyingly aggressive Ben Kingsley), who won’t take “no” for an answer. Literally.
7pm
Tuesday 7 th July
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.
One of the MIUC’s driving forces in the early days (and one of Australia’s most celebrated avant-jazzers), Tim O’Dwyer returns to Melbourne from Singapore for a brief spate of shows; a new electro-noise collaboration between young avant terror, Sam Dunscome, and legendary Chicago exile, Casey Rice; and, for his debut at MIUC, Perth’s noise deconstructionist, Malcolm Riddoch.
Tim O’Dwyer (Singapore) (alto saxophone and electronics) and Dale Gorfinkel (vibraphone, percussion and extended trumpet)
Sam Dunscome (electronics) and Casey Rice (electronics)
Malcolm Riddoch (WA) (guitar, effects and laptop)
8:30 PM / $5/10
Wednesday 8 th July
EAST BRUNSWICK ALL GIRLS CHOIR
A. WALLACE
TOM HALL (melb)
MARC REGUEIRO-MCKELVIE
Wednesday night will see Bar Open host an evening of hollowed wood and harrowed strings. Featuring a rare acoustic performance by Pop-rock noise extraordinaire Marc Regueiro-McKelvie (of Popolice fame), Takoma tinged bluegrass ballads of Tom Hall, the minimalist death-folk fuck ups of A. Wallace and the wily road ramblings of East Brunswick All Girls Choir (AKA Marcus Hobbs). The bands would all like to say fuck you if you miss it.
Doors 8pm / Free Entry
Thursday 9 th July
TIM RICHMOND & THE OLD CASE
BEN FOUNTAIN
THE LEAFS
Catch Tim Richmond’s original catalogue of songs as they come out of the bag for a rare show this Thursday the 9th of July at Bar Open. His tight, finely crafted songs cross the pop threshold as they take audiences into a lyrical world that has them engaged from start to finish and unable to pigeonhole him. Joining him will be Ben Fountain and for their first ever public performance, newcomers The Leafs featuring members of Battlesnake.
Doors 9pm / Free Entry
Friday 10 th 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 11 th July
DEEP STREET SOUL
Bar Open dancefloor filling favourites Deep Street Soul are returning for yet another night of tearing the roof off the sucker this Saturday. Formed in early 06’, Deep Street Soul are all about recapturing some old skool southern flavors they’d all DJ’ed over the previous decade. Inspired by the breakout of nu funk throughout Europe & the States (not forgetting Osaka Monaurail and Melbourne’s own - The Bamboos) they hit the clubs. Starting out with an initial batch of Booker T & Meter’s covers, these quickly morphed into their own set of break filled funk & soul. So if sweaty dancing is your thing, get on down to Deep Street Soul, the partiest party in town.
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 12 th July
spider goat canyon
fangs of
skinpin (syd)
One of Melbourne’s most prolific and hard-working bands will take over Bar Open this Sunday night. If you haven’t heard of Spider Goat Canyon, you must have been living under a rock for the last five years. They’re three guys who love getting in a room or on a stage to make intense, groovy and brutal rock music. Soaring highs, creeping lows, plenty of arse and fist shaking going on, it’s all there. But it gets better yet, as prog-punk bandits Fangs Of are along for the ride with Syndeysider rhythm-laden noise guitar troupe Skinpin. Guess you now know what you’re up to this Sunday night.
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 15 July: Jona Byron
Thurs 16 July: Children of the Wave
Sat 18 July: Papa Chango
Wed 22 July: Francis Plagne
Thurs 23 July: Extended Family
Fri 24 July: God God Damnit Damnit (LAUNCH)
Sat 25 June: Twelve Tone Diamonds
317 brunswick street fitzroy 3065
03 9415 9601
www.baropen.com.au / www.myspace.com/baropenfitzroy
