Level 1, 371-373 Chapel St, South Yarra, Melbourne
03 9826 2689
Red Bennies, an exciting new live music and performance venue and cocktail bar opened its doors early February. The space caters to those with an interest in underground culture with Red Bennies playing host to a 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 venue is located on the site that previously held the Viper Room. The project 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.
Designed as a rich, multi-layered venue, Red Bennies is unique on the south side of the river, and a return to the bohemian, artistic flavour of the area in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Owner Chris Mitchell believes that for too long Chapel Street and the south side of the city has been starved of the kind of live music scene found in the city and in Melbourne’s north. “We are confident Red Bennies will play a big role in filling that void and developing the scene south-side,” explains Mitchell. Red Bennies will be a home for quality live music, performance art and visual art, a space for art with roots in soul, jazz, funk, circus, cabaret and street culture.”