303

We played at 303 last week and it was a great night out.
With the band room on a gradual slope to the stage, everyone gets a good vantage point, and with couches scattered around the edge of the room, if you’re in early, you have a comfy lace to watch the music from all night.
With the small front bar serving up a good range of drinks on tap and in bottles including Coopers, Mountain Goat and more on tap, plus a huge range by the bottle, a round will set you bag a fair bit if planning to drink by the bottle.
The fact that there is no kitchen is hardly a worry with the Northcote right next door serving up food, and the souvlaki place next door perfect for after beer roughage.

Here are 303 reasons to go:
1. It is easy to find at 303 High Street, Northcote.
2. The Melbourne Ukelele Orchestra members host open mic nights every month. Go on you know you want to!
3. It is right next door to the Northcote Social Club, which can get very busy and loud.
4. It is more refined than said Social Club — refined in the sense that when you are sitting at the bar in 303 you feel a bit like you are in a jazz student’s living room: dingy couches, neat whiskies and an old smell in the air that could be culture or it may just be the rat that crawled under the bench and died a few years ago.
5. Not convinced yet? Well then there is the bizarre and absolutely must see back room. Not to hang out there mind you, but just to see this massive space. There is a huge stage that is truly epic, a remnant perhaps of headier days gone by. Most music you will find played out the front in the cute little living room atmosphere of the bar. But maybe the large stage out the back is there to entice lowly musicians in to play at this establishment with dreams of grandeur. Either way it is for me, one of Northcote’s many mysteries…

Another haunt of the infamous MUK (Melbourne Ukulele Kollective), this place has a wonderful low key feel about it.
The front bar area has a limited bar serving a few goodies, but the stranger space is that out the back. Often with cover charge, a long hall area descends into the back of the building, behind which toilets can be found. Adorning the walls of this space ate street signs and posters, a stage at the tear end happily fits a five piece band and the PA is of the not-so-loud-it’s-dangerous variety.
Most gigs will find the punters, when not dancing like maniacs, seated around on the minimal chairs or taking up space on the concrete carpet combo beneath them. Most the music booked here is the quieter kind, and is a great way to lose an afternoon or night. The bar itself faces onto High street, so is also a great meeting place for those planning to move further down as the night progresses.