A CBD hangout for cool kids, vinyl heads and those with a thirst for fine cocktails.
Live music: takes place through the front bar, out the back patio, up the treacherous concrete staircase and in the dimly-lit, sweaty and perfectly vibey bandroom.
Famous for: banging speakers, a good looking group of regulars and $5 cans of Peroni Red. What more could you ask for?
Infamous for: hosting gigs that sell out way too fast, leaving many night out plans crushed and hearts broken (though you’re welcome to commiserate by drinking yourself silly in the main bar if this happens to you).
There’s a sense of cool that oozes out of Angel Music Bar. Located around the Paris End of the CBD, the venue welcomes guests with a glowing neon sign and some ruthless security guards, more than ready to kick out any riff raff (this journalist can attest).
Inside you’ll have to weave your way through a crowd of patrons in the long, skinny room to find a DJ at the back, spinning vinyl all night long.
The music will be bumping, so if you’re trying to have a chat, you’re going to have to lean in close – which makes it an ideal date spot. For some quiet, you could grab a rare seat in the courtyard, if you’re fine with being enveloped in a haze of cigarette smoke.
The cocktails are nice, expertly stirred, shaken, strained and garnished for your pleasure, and the bartenders are usually down for a chat as long as they’re not in the weeds.
Upstairs, the bandroom is ideal for loud, intimate and sweaty gigs, with a powerful Funktion-One sound system and a dimly-lit red glow that makes all your shyness about dancing disappear in seconds. Typically, the space hosts rappers, electronic artists and experimentalists.
If you’re looking for a place to kick it late-night, grab after-dinner drinks or throw a real party, it’s Angel all the way.
WHERE: 12 Bourke St, Melbourne
OPEN: TUE-WED 4am-3pm / THU 4pm-4am / FRI-SAT 4pm-5am