The Zoo, the Brisbane live music institution which closed its doors earlier this year, has belatedly been saved and will reopen in November under a new name.
When it closed in July, The Zoo was one of the longest-standing music venues in Australia, having first opened its doors in late 1992 under the management of Joc Curran and C Smith.
When it reopens next month, The Zoo will be renamed Crowbar by its new owners Nathan Trad (known as Trad Nathan) and Tyla Dombrovski, who owned a live music venue by the same name that previously operated in Fortitude Valley from 2012 to 2020.
While The Zoo featured a broader spectrum of music, Crowbar stayed tightly focused on heavy metal and punk music until the Covid pandemic forced its closure.
Nathan and Dombrovski opened a second Crowbar in Leichhardt, Sydney in 2018, which is still in operation.
“As a former punter, band member, booker and promoter, playing The Zoo was a great achievement for aspiring bands,” Nathan said in a statement.
“We’re excited to be able to keep music within its walls … Crowbar intends to honour the amazing path laid before us and continue offering great events for years to come.”
The first stage at The Zoo was constructed from timber donated from the film set of Babe. The venue hosted innumerable celebrated shows by national and international artists including Pixies, the Go-Betweens and Ben Harper, and was a significant incubator for a multitude of Brisbane-based acts.
It also served as a midwife for the ongoing collaboration between Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, after Cave joined Ellis’s band Dirty Three on stage in early 1996.
Curran sold the venue in 2016. Shane Chidgzey, who purchased it in 2020, said earlier this year that “a perfect storm” of factors impacting the live music sector had forced its closure.
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These included cost-of-living pressures, skyrocketing insurance premiums and the location of the venue in a safe night precinct, intended to curb alcohol-related violence in entertainment areas.
This required additional outlays on security, ID scanners, insurance and rent, said Chidgzey, who also cited declining alcohol consumption among patrons as an issue.
While ticket sales were said to have remained strong until the end, the venue closed with Chidgzey saying at the time “the model is broken” for live music in Australia.
Last year, Apra Amcos found more than 1,300 live music venues and stages across Australia had closed since Covid restrictions began, meaning Australia’s live music scene for small to medium gigs had shrunk by one-third in just three years.