The fire's staying lit, the open mic is going weekly, and July at Merri Bar has a lineup worth building your weekends around.
Merri Bar is keeping the goods comin’ next month with some exciting new additions to their packed schedule.
Trivia continues every Tuesday from 7.30pm, and Fireside Sessions carry on through July with a twist: rather than a rotating cast, the whole month belongs to one artist. Suzie So Blue takes up residency every Wednesday from 6.30-8.30pm, bringing her alt-country sound, equal parts melancholic soul and deep folk-blues, to the front bar fire for four weeks running.
The bigger news is Open Mic Night, which from July onward is a permanent weekly fixture every Thursday. And there’s a new addition to go with it: Women’s Open Mic Night lands on the first Thursday of each month, hosted by NEGOMi, a supportive space for women to get up, try something new or sharpen what they’ve already got. Every other Thursday reverts to the usual all-comers Open Mic.
On the weekend stage, July swings from blood-related indie rock to French chanson to early New Orleans jazz, with a strong run of Melbourne soul and blues artists holding the room together. Hugernaut open the month, Oscar LaDell and NEGOMi both return for headline sets, Samara teams up with Melody Moon, and Manul Roux and the Steamboat Whistlers bring something properly different on consecutive Saturdays and Sundays.
Free entry for all shows. Dogs welcome in the beer garden.
Check out our gig guide, our festival guide, our live music venue guide and our nightclub guide. Follow us on Instagram here.
Hugernaut
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Saturday 4 July, 7pm
Crisp drumming, menacing bass, brooding vocals and raucous guitar accents sit this Melbourne three-piece on the slightly-less-distorted end of indie alternative rock, with more of a pop-rock feel than the description suggests. The family connection runs deep: all three members are blood-related, with Horvat’s older brother Gerard on drums and their dad Gabriel on bass.
Billy Cart Crash
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- Sunday 5 July, 4pm
A three-piece from Melbourne playing rockabilly and jump blues, upright bass, twang and swing, built for a Sunday afternoon in the beer garden.
Oscar LaDell
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- Saturday 11 July, 7pm
Melbourne soul and blues artist Oscar LaDell has a voice that stops a room. Drawing on Curtis Mayfield, Al Green and Muddy Waters while writing with a present-tense immediacy that’s entirely his own, his 2024 debut EP No Blue turned heads across Australia and beyond. With a debut album due in 2026, he arrives very much on the rise.
Samara ft. Melody Moon
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- Sunday 12 July, 4pm
Samara Adele is a soul singer from Melbourne, sharing the bill with Surf Coast songwriter, producer and performer Melody Moon. Melody’s love of nature and wellbeing shapes her creative evolution, moving from folk to mantra and weaving local nature samples into pop beats as she explores new territory with each release.
Manul Roux
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- Saturday 18 July, 7pm
A change of pace for the front bar: Manul Roux play French jazz and chanson, with shades of Josephine Baker, Charles Trenet and Serge Gainsbourg, plus a few surprises along the way.
Steamboat Whistlers
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- Sunday 19 July, 4pm
A Melbourne acoustic band dedicated to early jazz and blues, tracing the sound from New Orleans up the Mississippi and around the globe. Expect traditional jazz, depression-era blues, ragtime and spirituals from a repertoire built on serious musical range.
NEGOMi
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- Saturday 25 July, 7pm
Singer, producer and multi-instrumentalist NEGOMi operates in the ever-shifting terrain of neo-soul with real authority. Silky vocals, a dreamy stage presence and lyrics orbiting nature and the universe make her sets feel genuinely transportive. She’s part of a wave of female soul artists making serious noise right now, catch her up close by the fire.
Whisky & Wine
- Sunday 26 July, 4pm
Closing out July’s weekend lineup, Whisky & Wine round off the month in the beer garden.
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This article was made in partnership with Merri Bar.Â
