Crowbar Brisbane is my home. It now has a sister, called Crowbar Sydney.
I went looking for a description of the venue and found passages that were correct, but were pretty clinical. Here’s what Big Sound said:
“Since its establishment, the live music venue has continued to expand and diversify from a basement dive bar into a multi-level live entertainment venue. Including the development of Crowbar Black, a street-level social bar in 2015, and the recently developed multi-purpose gallery and functions space Church in 2017.”
True. Crowbar is a two-level music venue at 243 Brunswick Street in Fortitude Valley (next to the city) that has metal, punk and rock bands come through night after night.
But to me, Crowbar Brisbane (@crowbarbris on Instagram) is so much more than that. Trad and Tyla left for Sydney last week and I wanted to share some of my favourite photos from Crowbar Brisbane, even though nothing changes for me continuing to shoot there. Trad and Tyla are going to run both bars, but just base themselves in Sydney while the Bald Faced Stag transforms into Crowbar Sydney. Who knows, maybe I’ll be spending more time in Sydney, too!
Title Fight is my first show at Crowbar
Title Fight was the first band I photographed at Crowbar. I bought a ticket and took my camera in and the rest is history. I’m glad Trad liked my photos enough to ask me to come back and be “part of the wallpaper”. You can buy this print as part of the No Pits, Just Pits exhibition I held in 2017 at Crowbar Church.
Violent Soho at Crowbar Brisbane
Violent Soho played at Crowbar with no notice.
Once word got out an hour before doors, the line wrapped around the entire block. Afterwards, we had a huge party and it felt like everyone was there. I’ll never forget this show. I think there was over $4,000 raised for 4ZZZ from this show.
The Melvins play at Crowbar Brisbane
I don’t know much about The Melvins other than they’re huge and Jake from Clowns loses his mind over them. They were nice people.
Clowns at Crowbar Brisbane
Halloween 2016 had Clowns play, and somehow within a minute, the stage was covered in beer. Slippery as anything, Stevie hit the ground a number of times. Here’s him licking the beer of his paws like a cat.
Ceres at Crowbar Brisbane
This was the first photo I took of Ceres while I was on tour with them. Sometimes I feel like photos need to be deleted when they’re actually liked by the band. I don’t necessarily love this photo of Ceres, and I feel I’ve taken much better, but I love the vibe of this photo because it reminds me of the time I first got to know how amazing Ceres are as humans. Baby’s Breath forever.
Pagan at Crowbar Brisbane
I photographed Pagan something like three times back-to-back it felt like. I had a really good time and now Trad and Tyla manage them through Hearts Mgmt. Pretty cool full-circle.
Gig of the Century
When Trad first asked me to come in and start taking photos regularly, I imagined that one day there would be a gig that wound together two huge bands that would be able to individually sell out Crowbar. That happened when Violent Soho joined The Smith Street Band raise money for 4ZZZ. Here’s the Crowbar Couch photo of that time. This one is hanging in my house.
Totally Unicorn at Crowbar Brisbane
I never asked Drew to take his pants off. But I saw his man meat and then asked him to put it back on for the photo. You’re lucky you’re just seeing the photo with the pants on.
What’s coming up at Crowbar Brisbane and Crowbar Sydney
Check out everything that’s upcoming at Crowbar Brisbane and Crowbar Sydney and buy tickets straight through their website. I’ll see you at a show sometime soon!