Live Music In Regional Victoria Is Back! But It's Still Going To Need A Leg-Up

Tune the Strats and slap the bass, live music is legal again. In recent weeks regional Victoria was given the green light to resume putting on gigs, and many of the state's venues are, if not already there, building towards getting bands back on stages.

Of course even in the latest updates, there are caveats. Indoor venues are completely closed and live music in outdoor spaces is only possible under several conditions. Gig-goers have to remain seated, are limited to tables of ten and must be at least 1.5 metres apart from any other table. Band members - who must be masked, singers excluded - also need to stand at least two metres from each other and five from the audience.

That’s a big spread, space is going to be a problem and at a premium for venues in step three - but this hasn’t stopped the industry's push forward.

When asked about their own efforts to get the ball rolling again, Matthew Stone,- co-owner of The Eastern in Ballarat, says there is a lot of work in the mix.

"We’re doing a fair bit in the background. We're just trying to figure out the best way of doing it without getting in trouble or causing any more grief, what we can and can't do, and things like that at the moment.

"All the punters want to go to shows, and we want to see them. We're really keen to get going again, we've missed it pretty bad."

Image via Facebook

In Castlemaine, the team at The Bridge Hotel are also making moves to kickstart the local live scene. Their first return shows were last weekend with more in the pipeline (five sets from CW Stoneking in late November have already sold out).

"I’m really excited," says co-owner Jeremy Furze, sharing Stone’s opinion that the community is rearing to go.

"Some of the other venues have already started, and I've seen that they've gone really well with things they've done, so far. I think the only trepidation is about managing the numbers. Because if we do free shows, we just have to make sure we don't go over our limit, and we have to make sure everyone stays seated. And, you know, we have to keep it COVID safe, obviously. So that just requires a little bit more attention."

With metro and interstate travel still broadly closed, sourcing acts could seem another issue, but if Melbourne is the state's most visible scene, country Victoria has its own well-deserved reputation for producing beloved acts. Both The Bridge and The Eastern have a longstanding policy of booking locally, and praise the quality of the regional scene.

But even with a deep pool of local talent to draw from and venues willing to adapt, it’s going to be a long time before the state - and the country - has a viable live music industry. Running shows at massively reduced capacity just isn’t a long-term solution. If it wasn’t for JobKeeper and the recent Victorian Live Music Venues Program (VLMVP) grants, neither Stone nor Furzer would be entertaining the idea of putting on live music. The reality is that if Victoria wants to see the same music culture that it enjoyed before the pandemic, then we need to keep supporting it now, when it’s limping.

"We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for that [VLMVP and JobKeeper]," says Stone. "We'd be bankrupt if we didn't have those.

"The [VLMVP] funding and JobKeeper have been great at getting us through to this point. But there's no end in sight at the moment. So who knows where we're gonna be at in six months?

"Just, it's the uncertainty. I know [the music scene] will survive, because it's so strong. That's why we're in the deal we're in, because we love it. 

"I know it'll survive, but it's going to be on its knees for a bit, I think… We just don't know what's going to happen."

Furze says that before receiving VLMVP funding, he had written off The Bridge functioning as a live music venue again at all in 2020.

"Every venue who gets [VLMVP funding] is so grateful, from what I can tell," says Furze, "but also just so reinvigorated and re-enthused to do what they do and get back to being their venue rather than just focusing on trying to make ends meet under really limited or restricted rules."

Even so, at the moment it sounds like these shows are likely going to be more beneficial to the general Victorian music scene than the venues.

"The gigs will be fun," says Furze, "they probably won't make money because we'll spend money on the sound engineer and we'll spend money on the artist fee, and probably a door person if need be, and our band booker, but that's ok, because, for two reasons, we've always seen it as part of our brand, to put on shows, and I think it helps a lot of things to support the industry, to support live music. It comes back around.

"It’s going to be a long time before a profitable, sustainable, live music industry can return. Because until you can put a room full of people together - and sell out a show, sell out a room properly - you're operating at 50 percent of capacity, or 30 percent of capacity, or whatever it is. And it's just not viable for any venue.

"You need to be able to operate big gigs that make money for the artists and the venue and the manager and the booking agent and the crew. There's a critical mass of punters that need to get into that room and do it.

"Until we can reach 100 percent capacity of the venue, as we know it, it's going to be a situation where gigs aren't actually viable. They will need to be propped up with funding like this."

Skyscraper Stan @ The Bridge. Image provided.

It’s an impasse. Touring and gigging pay the bills, the music industry can’t survive without them (reports on the effect of closing live music and the information collected by groups like Save Our Scene and Support Act are distressing). Nobody wants to rush into a third wave but, at the same time, Victoria’s cultural structure isn’t something that can be rebuilt in a day if it were to collapse.

"Venues are so hard to get going," says Furze. "To start a new venue is a really hard thing. That's why the most popular venues are the ones that have been around for a long time and have got the loyalty of the artists and the industry. And people can, you know, confidently go and play shows there. If a venue like The Corner went under, it would be just an absolute devastation to Victorian music.

"Once a venue goes under, it's a long time before it can return under a different owner, or whatever happens. So that's the worst-case scenario, is that venues close up shop. And they need to really take care to ensure they don't get to that situation.

"And then, hopefully, they can also invest some of the funding in doing some music, to keep artists engaged and keep artists paid, and their team, and then we all get by that way. How long it lasts is anyone's guess, but money's going to run out. It's finite. And the longer it goes, the more likely it is that venues will need propping up again.

"But, we're working really hard and I'm in constant communication with lots of other venues in Melbourne and around the place, and everyone's working really hard to make sure that, if they can get back open in some capacity and try and make money in some capacity that they will, and that they really can find a way of, basically, seeing out the storm. And then we'll be able to return once it's all over."

This article originally appeared on Recharge VIC