Graveyard Bar Launch Shows the Power of Community in the Melbourne Music SCENE
- Keely Naylon
- Oct 28
- 7 min read
The Graveyard Bar in Coburg North, so named for the co-owner Dave Warner’s record label ‘Headstone Records’ and the Fawkner Graveyard down the road, underwent a rapid week and a half long transformation this October in preparation for their official launch weekend beginning Friday the 17th of October and running until Sunday the 19th.
A previously long neglected petrol station that residents would walk past at a pace has been transformed by co-owners Dave Warner and Sav into a thriving meeting place for locals and the Melbourne music scene. The Graveyard Bar takes up a full lot, maintaining the classic ‘CALTEX’ logo on the whitewashed brickwork still visible through the scaffolding that covers the beer garden (soon to be roofed) and share the space with food trucks Brothers Foodies (Kebabs), Street Crepes, and an indoor restaurant option in Hungry Lah (Malaysian).
Immediately, the community feel of the Graveyard Bar was evident, as groups sat around the outdoor tables, chatting, laughing, drinking espresso martinis from the newly launched bar or sinking pints of Graveyard Bar branded Hawker’s Pale Ales and Lagers. The bands were slowly filtering in, shuffling equipment through the beer garden entrance waving and hugging fans, family, and friends as they went. Dave greeted each band with a big wave, smile, and a healthy dose of ‘Dave chat’. (A delightful chat, if you ever get so lucky).
Warner wants to embrace community with The Graveyard Bar, to create a link between the Melbourne music scene and the locals looking for a new nearby watering-hole. The beer garden is bordered by three of the four available practice spaces (one being the bandroom itself).
One of Warner’s goals with the venue is to get locals drinking, eating, and listening to band's practice during the week and hopefully find a new favourite band to come back and visit when they’re playing the real gig on the weekend.
As a major player in the heavy music scene with ‘Headstone Records’ (looking after bands like A Gazillion Angry Mexicans and Warbirds), and running One.B Records just up the road, Dave truly understands the pressure that smaller bands without a label are under when putting together a gig. Forking out cash for the mixing desk, giving the venue a percentage of the door fee, and paying the door person themselves, leaves very little room for profit.
That’s why 100% of the ticket sales made for a gig at The Graveyard Bar go to the artists, with Dave offering his live mixing for free, and creating arrangements with each band regarding who’s watching the door. It’s one of the best deals in Melbourne for any burgeoning musician.
The week prior to the official opening, Dave, Sav, and their close knit team refurbished the bandroom which had already been operating as a practice room and event space for local bands. A freshly carpeted stage and a huge, full, sound was the astonishing result for a week and a half of hard yakka and the four bands of the night made it their mission to prove it.
El Bebe was the first band of the weekend to take the stage. The bluesy-rock ‘riffage jam’ trio from Melbourne set a relaxed, grooving pace for the evening with long, sweeping rock songs that filled the room. Lachlan Bruce shreds on guitar whilst bassist Scott Wilson provides an atmospheric gritty jamming backbone for Bruce to play with. Together with the tight, playful, yet structured drummer Lyle Jenkins the riffing jam band were an excellent start to the weekend.
War Birds took the stage next with an explosive 80’s style hard rock energy and an abundance of stage presence that suggests those that attended were lucky to see them in such an intimate setting. The Graveyard Bar caps out at around 100 attendees though that still leaves room for a lively circle pit (as seen with Body Prisons’ show at the bar a few weeks prior).
The band appeared tonight with a special guest, their original founding drummer Leroy Strapp, who served the band excellently, as though the familiar tracks lived in his bones, despite a two year separation. Anth Nekich impressed with searing, thoughtful, and disgustingly delightful and showy guitar solos the genre is known for. With electrifying stage presence Danny Slaviero delivered fat, thrilling bass solos with a charismatic, playfully arrogant air, hyping up the crowd at every moment.
Both Slaviero and Nekich shouted out Dave Warner, War Birds being under ‘Headstone Records’, and pointed out the importance of these great gigging spaces scattered around Melbourne which The Graveyard Bar would become one of. As Slaviero said, The Graveyard Bar will be one of those places where great small rock music begins, and where great big rock bands return to party. War Birds truly felt like they’d returned to party.
Melbourne classic rock heavyweights Electric Mary performing a rare acoustic set tested the capacity limits as fans packed into the small bandroom. Punters were darting between the main bar, the smokers, and the small side bar stocked with every tinnie you can think of as the men performed a brief sound-check.
It was a sweet reunion for Electric Mary and their long-standing fans, many members of the audience beaming up at the band with unabashed glee as they played through classic hits, whilst lead singer Rusty Brown regaled the audience with memories of gigs and tours past (‘No sex just eat a sausage’ Brown joked about their Germany tour).
Plus stories of Australian music-scene mishaps inspired by those present in the crowd. A previous Triple J booker was in the audience and once spotted by Brown, inspired a retelling of a thrilling story about a Twitter exchange gone wrong between an ex-Triple J host and Brown, in which they settled a longstanding feud with extended apologies thanks to that fickle beast called context.
Brown stated that December 13th would be the end of Electric Mary as a live act, citing his voice as the main offender, (‘I think I don’t sing as good anymore’ Brown said), though the crowd disagreed whole-heartedly.
Despite his self-deprecation, Electric Mary was heart-warming, delivering full, familiar songs with the energy of an old-rocker who has plenty of soul left to share even if his voice wasn’t as strong as it had once been. The band pulled together an acoustic set of typically raucous rock tracks with ease, matching the softer yet still powerful vocals of Brown, and bringing the high-octane energy sparked by War Birds down to a light enjoyable simmer.
Electric Mary’s set began winding down with a calling card for the lead-singer of the final act of the night, Andy McLean lead singer of Truck, (and formerly HorseHead) to come to the stage. McLean came forward pink-cheeked and beaming to cheers and applause from the crowd. Brown spoke of their first meeting, and the longstanding fond admiration he held for McLean. ‘When I saw you at the Station Hotel I knew Rock and Roll was still alive.’ Said Brown of McLean.
The two rockers embraced, swapping stories and sly jabs and decades old inside jokes that an audience made up of mostly their long time fans could laugh along to. The Graveyard Bar was the perfect host for a warm meeting of old friends, as War Birds said, a place for old-rockers to party and reminisce, a place for new-rockers to find their feet and fly.
‘I’m not saying we’re the best band,’ Brown said as Electric Mary’s set came to a close. ‘But we travelled the world and people loved what we did.’
Judging by the people gathered in that room, they still do.
Truck brought the night home with a full five-piece band bringing smart 70’s style rock and roll with a full highly experienced band, (keys player, maracas, tambourine and all). They brought a fun, grooving, all-out set. McLean showcased that old-school classic rock attitude as he periodically ducked down to his bag and swigged from a flask, constantly moving about the stage, reaching out to the audience, and reminding us what is so good about a leading man.
He was the person to connect to, for the audience to reach for, and who will always be reaching back untied by cords and gear, armed only with a flask and a tambourine (or maraca), and a swagger from the 70s that won’t quit.
Guitarist Dave Leslie (from Baby Animals) unleashed tasteful bluesy solos that left punters breathless, quick fingered and sharp yet maintaining an artfully fluidity. Mark Donaldson on the keys accompanied him beautifully creating a sound reminiscent of rock greats Creedence Clearwater Revival and even hints of Australia’s own Sherbert.
The band were tight, sitting in each other's pockets, which made their brief foray’s into a more prog-rock sound work so well.
Their music was fun, grooving, and a kick up from the pared-back sound of Electric Mary’s acoustic set. Time constraints meant Truck were forced to wrap their set up early (we are still amongst the suburbs of Coburg North after all, an issue that strikes many venues (see The Night Cat, Holmes Hall, etc.) no matter where you go). Yet that didn’t deter them from providing an opportunity for their eager, loyal, crowd to dance until the very end.
McLean began Truck’s set with a shout out to Melbourne. ‘The best damn city’ said McLean. Where there’ll always be a punter looking for live music and a band aching to play for them.
The Graveyard Bar’s official opening has given us hardcore, live-music loving, local scene supporting Melbournian’s another place to gather. With an excellent live-sound that will ‘blow your head off’, a smokers’ area that lets you still enjoy the live music, food galore, two bars stocked with only the best booze, and a community first attitude, it’s hard to find a thing to fault about this burgeoning live-music venue.
If you’re ever on the No.19 tram and reach the end of line walk just a little bit further until you see a familiar hulking skeleton on the wall and hear the raucous sounds of old friends partying, or the sounds of a fresh new band taking their first cacophonous musical steps, or even spot a smiley face talking a mile a minute about supporting the local music scene. Either way, you’ll know you’ve found it, The Graveyard Bar. You’re in for a good night.
Check out the Graveyard Bar & Bandroom here.
