Live music every weekend at Merri Bar, plus trivia nights, open mic nights, and the return of Fireside Sessions every Wednesday throughout June.
June at Merri Bar is shaping up to be one of the stronger months on record.
Alongside live music every weekend and trivia every Tuesday from 7.30pm, the venue is bringing back its mid-week Fireside Sessions, every Wednesday from 6.30pm through June and July, with artists setting up in the front bar by the fire for something a little more intimate than your usual weekend show.
This month’s lineup is a deliberately varied mix: four different artists, four different sounds, one very good reason to leave the house on a Wednesday.
Open mic nights return on Thursday 11th and Thursday 25th from 7pm, and if June goes well, they may become a weekly fixture from July.
A few acts are worth clearing your diary for. Oscar LaDell opens the Fireside Sessions on the 3rd, with NEGOMi following on the 10th. Adam Hattaway, a name well-regarded in New Zealand roots circles, takes the Wednesday slot on the 17th, and Karakas closes out the residency on the 24th.
Weekend sets sweep across a wide tonal range. Faces in the Street bring their sound to a Saturday evening on the 6th, while Redback Blues give Sunday the 7th some grit. Bossa Brunswick bring warmth and rhythm to the 14th, and Strugs to Funk do exactly what their name promises on the 21st. Brett Franke plays the 20th, Teresa Duffy-Richards takes the 27th, and Ed Reed rounds out the month on the 28th.
Front Porch play Saturday the 13th, a perfect mid-month anchor for anyone who hasn’t made it in yet.
Free entry for all shows. Dogs welcome in the beer garden. No excuses.
Check out our gig guide, our festival guide, our live music venue guide and our nightclub guide. Follow us on Instagram here.
Oscar LaDell
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- 3 June, 6.30pm
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.
Faces in the Street
- 6 June, 7pm
Naarm-based indie folk duo the Keynes Brothers weave acoustic and electric instrumentation around harmonies that linger long after the set ends. Drawing from folk, rock and country blues, their catalogue sits with the weight of real life, the hard bits, the hopeful bits, and everything in between. Haunting where it needs to be, warm where it counts.
Redback Blues
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- 7 June, 4pm
Melbourne’s Redback Blues play electric blues the way it’s meant to be played, with passion, commitment and no shortage of style. No frills, no fuss; just a band that knows exactly what it is and delivers every time. Straightforward, unpretentious, and exactly what a Sunday afternoon calls for.
NEGOMi
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- 10 June, 6.30pm
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.
Front Porch
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- 13 June, 7pm
Front Porch take bluegrass as their foundation and build something genuinely surprising on top of it. Western swing, Dixieland jazz, ragtime and folk all filter into the mix, held together by tight musicianship and a love of American roots traditions. Nostalgic without being backward-looking, familiar enough to draw you in, inventive enough to keep you there.
Bossa Brunswick (presented by Orfeo)
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- 14 June, 4pm
Orfeo’s Bossa Brunswick night is a love letter to the music of the Americas, where bossa nova and samba sit easy alongside jazz, and originals share space with songs written in the spirit of the greats. Warm, unhurried and richly layered, with a distinctly Melbourne sensibility. A Sunday afternoon well spent.
Adam Hattaway
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- 17 June, 6.30pm
New Zealand artist Adam Hattaway made his name fronting The Haunters before stepping out alone with High Horse in 2024, a reverb-soaked collection of loner anthems produced by Marlon Williams and named one of Rolling Stone AU/NZ’s fifty best albums of the year. Searching, quietly brilliant, and impossible to categorise. He’s out here for the ones still looking for answers.
Brett Franke
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- 20 June, 7pm
Brett Franke doesn’t fit in a box and doesn’t seem interested in finding one. His sets move through rock, blues, roots and grunge with an acoustic looseness that keeps things unpredictable, structured enough to follow, wild enough to surprise. Acoustic mayhem, honestly described, and always worth showing up for.
Strugs to Funk
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- 21 June, 4pm
Melbourne duo Strugs to Funk, David and Brenna, cycle through pop-jazz, funk-blues and indie-folk with sweet harmonies and arrangements that feel both playful and considered. They’ve been quietly winning over the northern suburbs, and it’s easy to hear why. Joyful, flavourful, and well worth your Sunday afternoon.
Karakas
- 24 June, 6.30pm
Jimmie Linville has been busy. The singer-songwriter and frontman behind Canyon Spells (formerly Daniel and the Lion) and Big Chance launched KARAKAS as his solo music project, and the man knows his way around a tour schedule, having clocked more than 200 shows a year across the US since 2010. Canyon Spells opened for Counting Crows in 2014 before landing a deal with Megaforce Records and releasing Now That We’re Gone.
Teresa Duffy-Richards
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- 27 June, 7pm
Teresa Duffy-Richards makes music that sits at the intersection of alt-country, roots and something older and harder to name. Her voice draws comparisons to Sandy Denny, Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton, though she sounds like none of them for long. Haunting, idiosyncratic, and shot through with the rawness of punk. A singular songwriter who writes for keeps.
Ed Reed
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- 28 June, 4pm
Melbourne songwriter Ed Reed’s forthcoming album Enjoy the Madness was written through the pandemic years and finished on the other side, carrying the frustration and uncertainty of that time, but also something that sounds a lot like hope. Reed wears his heart on his sleeve and writes like he means it. Honest music, plainly and powerfully delivered.
For more information, head here.
This article was made in partnership with Merri Bar.
