The Corner Hotel will spend October marking 30 years as a live music venue, with a program spanning Bodyjar, Meg Washington, Underground Lovers and a whole lot more.
Three decades of that bandroom carpet deserves a party, and The Corner Hotel is throwing a six-week one.
Running under the banner 30 Years Young, The Corner Hotel’s celebration kicks off on 1 October and stacks the calendar with artists who helped build the venue’s reputation alongside newer names doing the same thing now. Melbourne punk outfit Bodyjar open the run at the room where they played the very first show after it reopened as a live music venue in December 1995.
The Corner Hotel 30 Years Young
- 1 October – Bodyjar with Nursery Crimes + Klinger
- 2 October – Good Music x UNIFIED, plus Red Bull Front Bar DJs Jake Webb + ALLSOP
- 3 October – The Stems with The Johnnys, Benny J Ward, Bagful of Beez + Heir to the Squandered Millions, plus Young Henrys Presents Tentendo (Front Bar)
- 4 October – Underground Lovers
- 6 October – Country Struts boot scooting class
- 9 October – Red Bull Front Bar DJs: Area 3000 takeover
- 10 October – Young Henrys Presents Milly Strange (Front Bar)
- 15 October – The Engine Room with special guests
- 17 October – Young Henrys Presents Lucky (Front Bar)
- 22 October – Meg Washington
- 23 October – Red Bull Front Bar DJs: Chor Bazaar takeover
- 24 October – I OH YOU party, plus Young Henrys Presents Garage Sale (Front Bar)
- 25 October – A Love Police takeover ft. The Bures Band with Mystery Band + Sugar Fed Leopards + Love Police DJs
- 27 October – Drag Bingo
- 30 October – The Buoys, plus Red Bull Front Bar DJs Contrast Radio takeover
- 31 October – Chicksquad ft. A.C. Saunders, Barb Waters, Freya Josephine Hollick, Grace Mitchell, Joyce Prescher, Lisa Miller, Meghan Maike, Sarah Carroll, Suzannah Espie, The Maggie Pills + Zoë Fox, plus Young Henrys Presents Kingswood (Front Bar)
- 1 November – Harts
- 6 November – Punks For Public Housing ft. Banoffee, Tongue Dissolver, Ausecuma Beats, Loose Tooth, Screensaver, Dragnet, FROB, Teaser Pony, Shouse (DJ), Total Giovanni (DJ) + DJVM
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The rest of the bill leans hard on The Corner Hotel’s back catalogue of regulars. Underground Lovers head back to the stage after more than three decades near the front of Australian alternative music, Meg Washington brings her award-winning songbook through, and The Buoys turn up fresh from second album Concrete Cowboy. Harts closes out the main run with his Hendrix-indebted mix of funk, rock and soul.
There’s also a one-off from The Engine Room, made up of Hunters & Collectors founding members Barry Palmer, Jack Howard, Doug Falconer and John Archer, with a handpicked cast of guest vocalists marking 40 years since the release of Human Frailty. Elsewhere, the venue hands the keys over to some of the country’s most active independent promoters and labels, with takeovers from I OH YOU, Good Music x UNIFIED and Love Police, and an all-star Cheersquad Records showcase called Chicksquad.
Young Henrys has five free Front Bar shows across the month from Tentendo, Milly Strange, Lucky, Garage Sale and Kingswood, sitting alongside free DJ sets, The Corner Rewind trivia, Drag Bingo and boot scooting classes. The venue has also teamed with Carlton Draught on a limited-edition merch range modelled on the bandroom carpet, covering a sweater, beanie, socks and a bar runner.
For more information, head here.
