{"id":9411,"date":"2009-10-26T00:06:10","date_gmt":"2009-10-25T14:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=9411"},"modified":"2009-10-26T00:06:10","modified_gmt":"2009-10-25T14:06:10","slug":"underage-gig-venues-proving-popular","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=9411","title":{"rendered":"Underage gig venues proving popular"},"content":{"rendered":"

Underage gig venues proving popular
\nTessa Hoffman
\nNorthcote Leader<\/em>
\nOctober 25, 2009<\/p>\n

MUSIC venues popping up across Darebin are proving a boon for underage live music fans.<\/p>\n

With the bulk of Melbourne\u2019s music scene firmly centred around pubs and clubs, youths are increasingly flocking to shopfronts such as the recently opened El Joyero<\/a> cafe, on [923] High St Thornbury, to get their fill of live music.<\/p>\n

El Joyero is the third such venue to open in Darebin in the past two years, following High St\u2019s Loophole<\/a> and Barricade Books<\/a> in the Melbourne Anarchist Resource Centre on [62] St Georges Rd, Northcote.<\/p>\n

All regularly host all-ages shows where alcohol is not sold and a range of punk, hardcore, rock and folk bands play to crowds that usually average 50 people. Punters say the first thing they notice about the venues is their safe feel and community atmosphere.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are a safe space for kids,\u201d said Jem Moloney, 24, whose punk band Fangs of<\/a> a TV Evangelist has played at all three venues.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe opportunities to see live music as a kid are nowhere near as common as they should be. So these places are often the first point of contact for live music.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moloney said liquor licensing laws made it \u201cimpossible\u201d to stage all-ages gigs in pubs, so bands like his sought out venues such as Loophole.<\/p>\n

Since 2005, pubs and clubs running events for under-18s must obey stringent conditions. These include removing all visible alcohol and related advertising and writing a safety plan outlining how young people will get home safely.<\/p>\n

The events must end by 10pm and over-18s cannot attend.<\/p>\n

Liquor Licensing spokeswoman Natalie Staaks said conditions were imposed after a series of violent incidents to \u201censure young people can attend such functions and have a safe and enjoyable experience in licensed premises\u201d.<\/p>\n

Loophole caretaker Katie Pace said a collective of artists, musicians, anarchists and students opened the \u201cexplicitly not-for-profit space\u201d in 2007, which now hosted all-ages shows most weekends. \u201cWe\u2019re getting requests from (all-ages gig) organisers from interstate, even New Zealand.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey say how thankful they are … it\u2019s hard for them to find somewhere to put on all-ages shows.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo far there hasn\u2019t been any dramas with the police, the gigs end by midnight … but if the neighbours said this is a problem, we would have to respect that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Northcote Sen-Sgt Michael Reeves said he was not aware of complaints relating to noise, street drinking or anti-social behaviour outside any of the venues.<\/p>\n

But he said: \u201cWe would like the organisers to let us know (so we can) provide a patrol, for parents\u2019 peace of mind … just to drive round and make sure everybody\u2019s OK and neighbours aren\u2019t being affected.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnderage drinking is always a possibility where young people gather (and) that\u2019s one of the things we would be mindful of if we patrolled.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brunswick\u2019s Liam Osborne, who started going to all-ages gigs at Loophole when he was 16, said the shows \u201cstopped me having to go to pubs and get turned away\u201d.<\/p>\n

While he had just turned 18, he still preferred their laid-back communal atmosphere over pubs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re just two different vibes,\u201d he said. \u201cAll-ages shopfront community venues have a community feel. The band plays on the floor and there\u2019s not an emphasis on alcohol sales as opposed to pub shows.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

El Joyero officially opened this weekend. Loophole is currently re-locating (from 834A) to 670 High Street — Barricade Books is also expected to re-locate to the new space at Loophole very soon. The Melbourne Anarchist Resource Centre<\/a> is having an ‘Open Day’ on Saturday, November 28.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Underage gig venues proving popular Tessa Hoffman Northcote Leader October 25, 2009 MUSIC venues popping up across Darebin are proving a boon for underage live music fans. With the bulk of Melbourne\u2019s music scene firmly centred around pubs and clubs, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[453,452,392],"class_list":["post-9411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","tag-el-joyero","tag-loophole","tag-melbourne-anarchist-resource-centre"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6AyE-2rN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9411"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9439,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9411\/revisions\/9439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}