The Rise of the Brisbane Music Scene

Lucky for me, I am just young enough to miss the phenomenon of touring international acts skipping Brisbane on their Australia tours. Being the third largest city in the country, it seems to me that would have made these so-called “tours” rather abrupt. After spending the better part of a day at 30,000 feet, you’d think whichever semi-talented flavour-of-the-month would want to spend as long as they could in the country. I guess it just came down to economics.

For me, life was good, and international acts were frequent. From the early ninety’s, I saw Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Nine Inch Nails, Faith No More, The Black Crowes, Jeff Buckley, Alice in Chains, Lou Reed, Violent Femmes, Primus, Tool, The Tea Party, Ween, The Flaming Lips, Pennywise, and even Ice T and Body Count. I’m not sure when Brisbane become economically viable, but I note it was skipped by Guns ‘N Roses and Skid Row in early 1993 much to my adolescent displeasure.

I came of age in 1993, opening up a world of seedy nightclubs and licensed venues. At the time, Brisbane was known around the country for its appallingly bad and numerous cover bands. At any given pub on any given weekend, there’d be a sea of denim and flannelette, writhing en masse to a butchered version of My Sharona or Highway to Hell. It was a great time to be alive.

Somehow, Brisbane still managed to produce talent. Notably, the Saints and the Go-Betweens grabbed international success after clawing their way from this stagnant backwater. Also, the Gibb brothers, who grew up to become the Bee Gees. In more recent times, we’ve seen Powderfinger and Savage Garden conquer the world; the Veronicas and Kate Miller-Heidke seem to have done quite well for themselves; and Regurgitator, George, the Resin Dogs and Custard all immerged from that Brisbane hot spot, Fortitude Valley.

In 2007, the music world had to sit up and take notice when US entertainment bible Billboard magazine ranked Brisbane among the world’s top music hotspots. Billboard named the Queensland capital as one of the five “unlikely” cities spawning exciting new sounds, alongside Beijing, Birmingham, Berlin and Marseille.

Brisbane is a city alive with music. As stated in Billboard, Brisbane “now has such a rich vein of talent that it’s threatening Melbourne’s traditional role as Australia’s main music city.”

So strap in and hang on – there’s a hell of a lot to tell you about!