Beer Bar Band's Winter Solstice

9:09am on Thursday 21st June 2012 and it's the Winter Solstice here in Melbourne. This annual occurrence has brought us another miserable cold damp dark day across the city, so we are very thankful that the days will once more stretch longer towards Spring.

To celebrate, here is a short post for the shortest day...a beer, bar and band with a rather loose connection to the Winter Solstice...

Beer - I wish I could recommend for everyone to grab a Dieu du Ciel Solstice d’Hiver bareleywine, but I have never seen it available in Australia, despite the regular availability of several other Dieu Du Ciel beers from Canada. Solstice d’Hiver is one of few quality craft beers brewed specifically for the Winter solstice, as the name indicates.

Today requires a deeply dark, full bodied, big warming beer. An Imperial Stout it will be. And there are many such fine local beers to celebrate these days. However, on this darkest day of the year, it can surely only be the Murray's Brewing Company barrel aged Heart of Darkness Imperial Stout.

Bar - Hmmm...any suggestions for Melbourne's shortest bar? How about Pony...? Ok, the Pony bar isn't as short as some bars around here, but ponies are short! Also, Pony is a very small venue and always dark. Grungy but cosy, Pony is actually very Winter Solstice. Best of all, you can head their today and celebrate the passing of the solstice all night long (...it's open until 7am).

Drinks, couches and live music. Find Pony at 68 Little Collins Street Melbourne.

Band - Ok, I didn't dwell too hard on this and I'm out of time...so here is the lyrically short, dark and seasonally appropriate Winter by Melbourne duo, Big Scary (...hear the rain):

"Look to the sky, as she opens up on me...hands in my pockets, and a smile that only...she understands..."

Band - Sin City

Gig: Sin City, Pony bar 10th Birthday party weekend
Venue: Pony, Melbourne – 2am, free gig
Date: Sunday 31 October 2010

Sin City have been kicking around for years now, punk-pop-rocking out many small live music venues in Melbourne and across Australia. Originally from Western Australia, they relocated to Melbourne in 2004 and found their niche for a hard rockabilly punk style that Melbourne embraces.

Made up of Tash (vocals, guitar), Josh (lead guitar), Kane (bass) and Tom (drums and the band's heart & engine), Sin City are pure dirty rock fun. Loud and brash, they ooze sex and menace but are never frightening. On the contrary, they are a joyous rampage, capturing and feeding off the hearts of many gig goers who fall under their messy spell.

On this particular night, we stumbled into Pony's upstairs bandroom well after 2am to find Sin City in full swing. We had just trekked across the city in pouring rain, following a big night out at Biero Bar for their choice "Fright Night" Halloween event. It was welcome relief to find a warm and very awake Pony bandroom enjoying the punknroll music being thrust out from the tiny stage.

The set list covered Sin City's 2007 album, Hungry for Love, and EPs Sweet Lies (2005) and Sin City (2009) plus other random bits and pieces. Songs pumped out during the relentless gig included "Can You Feel It", "Dating the Undead", "Don't Eat Your Heart", "Man Alive", "Punk Pussy" and "Teenage Rampage". Every song was as energetic as the last, as they once again displayed how well they work together as a live band, thanks to years of performing similar gigs. Their playing connection is tight, feeding off each other whilst they also pull every awesome rock pose ever written...and then some, adding to the fun of a Sin City experience.

There is nothing slick about Sin City's live sound. They are pure dirty rock...and that is what I love about them. Their loud and distorted live sound is actually fairly different to their cleaner and often poppier recorded tracks. However, their rough and rowdy performance is always bursting with talent and effortless command. It is boisterous entertainment that perfectly suits their image and the rooms they play, such as Pony where they have rocked out countless times.

Lead singer, Tash, has been described as a "barbie-from-hell", which is an awesome description of this raunchy rock chick.  Unfortunately, during live sets her vocal talents are often drowned out by the drums, guitars and beer (in particular, her own beer), but this is often on a minor flaw for what the gigs are really about - a rock party.

The band has a loyal little cult following, with familiar faces present at every Sin City gig. Although, the whole crowd (small may it often be) always recieves much love from the band, especially from behind the drums where Tom leads the audience interaction with his animated appreciation for anyone enjoying their show.

As common with Sin City gigs, by the end of the set the band are drained and drunk yet always keen to keep the party going. Before you know it, the time is past 4am and the band closes the night with their 5th "just one more song". When all is done...the crowd is on a natural high and still hungry for more.

For me, this gig 2 weekends ago was another awesome night of pub rock gratification, hitting right on my love for Melbourne's pub rock scene.

I can not fault Pony as a bar and live music venue. It is what it is. Small, grungy, characterful, rough and splendid.

Thankfully, Pony has somehow survived 10 years relatively unchanged as a loud rebel amongst the ever increasing conservative nature of Melbourne's city, which has battled against drunken behaviour and noise. I suspect that there is a fair amount of coin backing Pony, but also...I have never encountered any "trouble" in Pony. The patrons are generally easy going, diverse, bohemian folk...there to enjoy this cosy Melbourne gem. Sure, the pretentious few will slip in (hence the reference in The Bedroom Philosophers' "Northcote (So Hungover)"), but those posers won't still be there at 2am.

And for the beer loving side of me, it is always good to see a range of beer choices available, including Mountain Goat Hightail Ale, Matilda Bay Fat Yak and Coopers alongside VB, Carlton Draught...unlike most similar small rock venues, which tend to offer very little draught beer choice (like down the road at Cherry bar where you will only find Stella Artois on tap).

There will be one final chance to catch Sin City play this year (according to their Facebook page), with a gig at The Brunswick Club on Saturday 20 November, supported by Kingswood Factory, The Ramshackle Army and The Tearaways. As with most Sin City gigs, it is free...and guaranteed to be a fun night of awesome dirty Melbourne rock!

Another Beer Bar Band weekend with added Brewery!

A quick heads up, looking towards another excellent few days beer-bar-band style.

Tonight a pseudo long-weekend beings in Melbourne, with next Tuesday's public holiday for the Melbourne Cup horse race leading many people to take a four day weekend.

Personally, that is not the case for me this year. However, it will certainly be another big weekend be beer-a-plenty flowing, a return to some favourite local bars, a band and a bonus trip to one of my favourite Australian microbreweries.

Today the weather in Melbourne is beautiful and must be taken advantage of, so the wife and I will be heading down to the Mountain Goat Brewery for goat beer and pizza to kick off the weekend.

Saturday night...I am eagerly anticipating an amazingly flavoursome experience with the "Fright Night" Halloween event happening at Biero Bar!

On tap will be the incredible and unique line up of:

1. Murrays Pumpkin Ale
2. Moondog Imperial Pumpkin Stout**
3. Brewdog Dogma
4. Be Molen Imperial Stout
5. Voodoo Witchdoctor Nitro Stout
6. 2 Brothers Taxi Blood Pilsner
7. Brewdog 5am Saint
8. Renaissance Stonecutter Scotch Ale
9. Timmermans Kriek
10. Weltenburger Asam Bock

**Moondog is a brand new Melbourne based brewery that hopes to open sometime next year, I believe, potentially with a focus on brewing extreme beers...so it will be super exciting to try this exclusive Imperial Pumpkin Stout! And keep your eyes out for Moondog in future...because Melbourne may just be getting our own BrewDog type team!

All I can say is...wow! More about this event can be found on The Crafty Pint's events page, as well as on the Biero Bar Facebook page.

Hopefully we will somehow be sensible enough to not go overboard with all these incredible beers, as we plan to kick on to Pony for a 2am gig with Sin City. Pony's late night shows are a live music institution in Melbourne...and have provided many historic nights of dirty pub rock. Going to one of their 2am gigs in on my wife's unwritten Fuckit List (not a Bucket List...but a list of "to do" stuff for the settled and domestic "young ones"...that is a bit extreme because it's kinda fucked and likely to leave you a bit rough). Being a Queenslander, she has never experienced the glory of Pony at 2am.

For Cup Day Tuesday, we will be joining follow bloggers from Eat Drink Stagger for a trip down to the lovely Red Hill Brewery and an afternoon of festivities, including a 3 course gourmet bbq lunch, sweeps and...of course...brilliant beer.

Looking forward to reporting back on this weekend...!

Bands - Melbourne still rocks...so LOOK OUT, Summer!

With Summer approaching, the pages of the local music street-press magazines are growing thicker...as peak live music season returns...and it is shaping up to be another fine Summer of rock in Melbourne!

Live music venues and bars are certainly buoyed by the prospect of a bumper Summer music season after the mess of last year's Liquor Licencing fiasco, which saw many small venues under threat from conditions that restricted their activity. This was due to an unjustified link between live music and violence, which was suddenly being enforced like never before. However, in the last month - through the great work of Music Victoria, SLAM and Fair Go 4 Live Music - the Victorian State Government has now removed the link between live music performance at licensed premises and crowd controller licence conditions, with the Live Music Agreement!

You can read more about that on the Music Victoria website.

For me, it will all kick off again next weekend with the Melbourne International Arts Festival, celebrating music passion and diversity with cult bands, through two nights of big gigs held at the beautiful Forum Theatre, which will be transformed into the "Beck's Festival Bar" (ug, Becks...I do hope I have time to enjoy some quality craft beer at Beer DeLuxe before and after the gigs...!)

• First up will be next Friday night (22 October) with The Drones, supported by China's P.K.14 and The Twerps.
• On Saturday night (23 October) we will be back for The Bronx in their mexican-alter-ego-mode, Mariachi El Bronx, supported by Eagle and the Worm and The Ukeladies.

Looking ahead, other gigs that are locked in include The Drone's frontman, Gareth Liddiard, showcasing his debut solo/acoustic album at The Thornbury Theatre on Friday 5th November (which will actually be my first ever gig at The Thornbury Theatre)...and some little band that I liked when I was a kid, called U2, who are playing Etihad Stadium on Wednesday 1st December.

A couple of my favourite little Aussie bands will be kicking around too. I recommend checking out The Jezabels at The East Brunswick Club on Friday 26th November. The Basics at Northcote Social Club and Papa vs Pretty at East Brunswick Club during October are gigs that I have on my radar as well. Also, if the Collingwood fans have stopped celebrating at the Grace Darling Hotel, it may just be safe to return to catch Blackchords play a Thursday residency.

December will also be a good month for the "old guys" who are still doing good things...especially at The Corner Hotel where you'll be able to catch gigs with Colin Hay, Hoodoo Gurus and Peter Combe! Now that is serious fun!

And for the ultimate experience is Melbourne dirty rock...catch Sin City play the Pony late show (2am) on Saturday 30th October!