Northbridge live music venue Convenients closes its doors

Northbridge live music venue Convenients is closing down.

“It is with a heavy heart and great sorrow to announce that the fridge doors will now be closed permanently from today,” the venue announced on their Facebook page this morning. “This was not a decision that was taken lightly.”

“Convenients was created by a couple of guys just wanting to provide a space and stage for artists to display their art. It was never about money or profit, just a place for alternative live music in the heart of the city.”

Known for its unique fridge door entry and convenience store front, Convenients opened on Lake Street, Northbridge, in April 2021.

Amidst the challenges of the COVID pandemic, Convenients became a popular hub for local original bands, particularly in Perth’s rock, metal and punk scenes. However, it was this same community that came to express frustration with the venue in the past few weeks for not paying artists what they were owed for performing at the venue.

The venue acknowledged that this was behind the difficult decision to close, as the costs of running the venue often outstripped the income.

“Due to rising costs of rents, insurances, wages, liquor, interest rates and tax, the pressures of keeping a live music venue alive have now become so great it has caused upset and aggression within the very scene we were trying to serve.

 

“We had to decide splitting all income between rent, staff, artists, utilities, stock, insurances and all other outgoings it costs to run a venue to stay alive another week and more often than not the amount of income vs outgoings left nothing at the end of the week resulting in losses.

“The venue has been slow to pay artist invoices and that was a choice we made to try and keep the venue alive as we kept on getting asked for bands and promoters to put events on while we tried to find ways and means to get investment or loans injected into the venue.

“We persevered to try and find away and exhausted all avenues but it never came and it now recently all came to a head and the community we lived to serve has made their voices heard about it. Something we never wanted. This is why in good conscience I cannot continue on.

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“For everyone who supported Convenients and played we are truly grateful and we are incredibly grateful for the opportunity to serve and pay just under $327,000 to the Perth live music scenes artists and promoters over the last three years.”

Convenients follows on from a number of popular inner-city live music venues, such as The Sewing Room and Badlands Bar, to announce they are closing down this year.

Convenients has announced it is closing down today. Follow X-Press on Facebook and sign up to our newsletter for updates on this story as it unfolds.