Weekly gigs to give musos a boost

A LOCAL musician is looking to give up-and-coming performers a space to test their stagecraft.

Each Thursday throughout March, a mixture of new and experienced acts will take to the stage at Freight Bar as part of Brodie Glen’s Hootenanny Up Late program.

He said the series is about giving less established acts the opportunity for live performance.

“The goal is to give some young bands the opportunity to play because there’s a lot of local bands that haven’t played here for probably six months after The Eastern closed,” he said.

“Younger bands have asked me if there’s anything going around town and there’s really not.

“Kank Wolverang Records have been great but The Eastern’s shut and Volta’s a 260-person capacity joint.

“There’s great initiatives like with Trades Hall happening around town, but on that local grassroots level, it feels like there’s a bit of a hole in the market.”

Each free gig will begin at 7pm at Freight Bar’s Athletic Club Brewery, with fresh acts opening as part of a three-band bill featuring known Ballarat-based headliners.

Next week’s debut show will feature newcomers Otrera, followed by Glen’s band Bad News Brodes, and Ballarat rockers Cosmonaut.

While the gig series is unrelated to Glen’s similarly-named Hootenanny school-based music mentorship program, he said he hopes to see alumni perform at the weekly gigs.

He said the program will have a distinctly local sound to it.

“It’s strongly focused on local acts … who live around here because there’s nothing else for them right now,” he said.

“It’s not just for young people, but we would love to see younger people come and check out these bands because that’s how a scene develops.

“You talk to people, find you have similar interests, do a cover, have a conversation, and suddenly there’s five young bands setting up their own bill.”

Glen said the series may be extended to include one gig per month. To express interest in performing, contact Glen at [email protected]