UPDATE: Another Beloved Melbourne Live Music Venue Bites The Dust

Another live music mainstay in Melbourne has announced their closure this morning — this time, it's Abbotsford's cherished venue Shadow Electric at the Abbotsford Convent.

Opening in 2012 and permanently hosting live music four nights a week since 2014, Shadow Electric's last musical hurrah will be this weekend for Temporal Cast's Label Of Love showcase, after which they'll close to allow the redevelopment of the Sacred Heart Courtyard.

The sad news about the bandroom and open-air cinema comes just weeks after Shebeen Bandroom announced its closure at the end of June.

Shadow Electric has hosted many blockbuster acts in the last few years, including King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Mac Demarco and Courtney Barnett's first of many sold-out shows. 

The venue's co-director Jay Rayner says, "We’re very proud of the program we have curated, delivered and promoted at the Convent over the last few years … We would like to thank all of the team for their support, patience and faith."

Shadow Electric will be relocating their outdoor cinema soon and will host music and arts events around Melbourne. 

The Music has reached out to Shadow Electric for comment.

Update:

Speaking to theMusic.com.au, Rayner explained that Shadow Electric's four-year stint specifically at Abbotsford Convent is coming to the end, but that the bandroom would continue on at a new home. With a number of events already slated in at Estonian House in Brunswick, Rayner told us there is a chance that Shadow Electric would eventually return to the Convent — "we are working with the Convent to keep a performance space at the site, post-2017."

"We've got a new location for [the Summer Cinema Program] … we initially were trying to stay at the Convent and work around the building but it got a bit too tight for us to plan the Program there. We might get nudged out by a tractor or something because there's literally gonna be a building site.

"We're looking at doing 50 or 60 shows next year [at Estonian House], we ran a dozen shows there over the last six months as sort of an experiment because it's never really been used as a music venue … we had to make a couple of changes to the acoustics so we don't annoy neighbours. We'll be making an announcement very soon about some exciting things happening over there and we're doing little bits and pieces all over town."