New Southside Venue Red Bennies Opens

Exciting new live music venue, cocktail bar and arts and cultural hub Red Bennies opened last night.

Catering to those with an interest in underground culture, Red Bennies will play host to the full spectrum of performing arts including music (from funk and soul to jazz, hip hop and disco), cabaret, circus and burlesque, as well as film and visual arts.

The new venue is a collaboration between a group of young owners with a shared history in music of all genres; Chris Mitchell who ran Melbourne’s longest running breaks/drum&bass/hip hop weekly club night ‘Fractured’ and writes and directs short films; Garrath Holt who has managed bars all over the world including on luxury Caribbean tour boats and who has won gold in the prestigious Martinique Bar Flare Awards three years running with a cocktail of his invention, the ‘Creole Ti Holt’; and Daniel Teuma who has been responsible for many of the international dance music and electro acts playing at major venues and festivals in Australia each year.

The Red Bennies team also includes booking agent Edd Fischer, a WAPPA graduate in Jazz composition who has been active in the Melbourne music scene since the age of 15, Alex Mitchell, one of Australia’s most revered young curators who regularly tours international underground street artists across Australia and Japan, and Malia Walsh from Circus Tricktease who books all the performance artists. Located at Level 1, 371-272 Chapel St, South Yarra, the venue has a capacity of 200 people with four bars, including one with a huge outdoor area overlooking Chapel Street, as well as an open mezzanine level facing the stage.

The multi-level platforms and raised seating in the style of traditional jazz clubs, will allow patrons to view bands, DJs and performances from any location within the venue and offer the perfect environment to take in twisted circus show or get loose to a rambunctious jazz band.

Red Bennies’ launch week (first week in Feb) will feature live music by Thief & Wolfgramm, The Melodics and Cookin on Three Burners; DJs Emma Peel, Prequel, Edd Fisher, Dannan, Ennio Styles, Lanu, Obliveus, JPS, Kano and Chris Giles; and performers Etoile Marley and Claudia Sangiorgi Dalimore, James Kingsford-Smith,  Malia Walsh, Zoe Robbins, Steven Williams, Kelly Anne Doll and Tank. And that’s just for starters.