Tucked away in a sleepy suburb of Canberra, opposite an Officeworks and behind a pet shop, is a nondescript, boxy building. But walk through its doors and you’ll find yourself in the Baso, one of Canberra’s most beloved music venues and host of some of the capital’s wildest nights, when rock and metal legends such as US star Phil Anselmo, Ukrainian band Jinjer and Australian group Wolfmother have taken to the stage. Although the Baso has long been a place of pilgrimage for metalheads, it now hosts gigs of all genres and attracts music lovers of all stripes – and across cultures.
“Canberra has a big Nepalese community and they love rock and roll,” says co-owner Mik Bergersen, who bought the venue in 2021 with his wife, Nicole. “Sabin Rai and the Pharaoh - he’s described as the Bryan Adams of Nepal, and every single person in the crowd was singing along.
“I didn’t know the music, I don’t know the language, but it didn’t matter. The joy in the room was amazing.”
Having opened in 1985, the Baso is Canberra’s longest-running independent live music venue and one of its largest, with a capacity of 700 people. It hosts roughly 200 gigs a year, split between its main stage and a smaller room for more intimate concerts. In the central space, the crowd moshes underneath a ceiling studded with electric guitars signed by the musicians who have played there through the decades.
The Baso is a rare constant in the national capital’s changeable live music scene. Canberra had multiple buzzing venues throughout the 1990s, when bands such as Cat Power, Nirvana, Public Enemy and Sonic Youth performed in the city. These international acts took to the stage in places such as the Gypsy, which closed in 2001; ANU Bar, which was demolished in 2018 as part of a redevelopment of the Australian National University; and the Phoenix, possibly Canberra’s most famous venue, which closed in 2019 after a drawn-out dispute between its landlord and property managers.
Several new venues have opened in the wake of those closures and the chaos of the Covid-19 pandemic, but none have the capacity of the Baso, meaning that it hosts many of the national and international acts that pass through the city. However, there aren’t as many of those as there used to be either.
“When touring bands used to drive between Sydney and Melbourne, it made sense to break that up with a show in Canberra, but now people fly,” explains Mik, who grew up in Canberra and attended gigs at The Baso for more than a decade before buying it. “But I think probably the main reason Canberra doesn’t get so many bands is because it doesn’t have a great reputation in Australia or overseas.”
When bands do come, the Baso’s owners say they don’t regret it. “Hundreds of people will come out on a weeknight to check out a band in Canberra because it’s a privilege for us to get them to come through here,” says Mik.
And bands often return to the Baso: Australian singer Clint Boge played sets at the Baso in 2021 and 2022, then came back earlier this year with his band, the Butterfly Effect, for a sold-out gig.
“They’re used to playing bigger venues than ours, but Clint told us that one of his idols said that on a tour you should always play a smaller venue where you can really connect with the crowd, which you can do here,” says Nicole. “The band hung around at the end of the night, met all the fans. It was fantastic.”
The phenomenon of the supportive Canberra crowd has also been experienced by the team at Sideway, a live music venue with a capacity of roughly 120 that opened in the city centre in 2019.
“The kids don’t act too cool. They don’t stand with their arms folded at the back, nodding their head,” says Aaron Crowe, Sideway’s band booker. “When a cool band comes to Canberra, the crowd is really down to have a great time.”
Sideway is located inside the heritage Sydney Building, which used to be home to the Phoenix. Coincidentally, Sideway opened the week after The Phoenix closed. “It was sad to see it go, but it was great we opened because there was still a venue in town for bands to play at,” says Jonathan Corcoran, Sideway’s sound engineer. “One door closed and another opened.”
Like the Baso, Sideway hosts bands and musicians of all kinds. Among the bands who have played at Sideway are Chinese indie trio Carsick Cars, Australian punk group Shady Nasty and US rock band the Garden.
This mixing of styles in both Sideway and the Baso is partly out of necessity: the local scene isn’t large enough for venues to limit themselves to one genre and remain profitable. But one positive side effect of this is that unlike in larger cities, where fans of different styles of music might be siloed in specialised venues, both Sideway and the Baso reach music lovers of all kinds – and sometimes bring them together.
“The Baso is a metal bar, and there’s a community in that, but a lot of the young bands are more punk or indie or folk,” says Mik. “They all have their own scenes, but on a night when we have three or four bands on, they will bring all their friends, all their communities, and they’ll all support each other.”
This is part of a new series turning the spotlight on the best live music venues around Australia. What’s your favourite? Let us know here and we’ll share your stories and memories.
