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Bearded Lady Goodbye


All photos by Scout CL
All photos by Scout CL

On the 23rd of May 2025, West End’s eminent music venue The Bearded Lady played her last gig. The night saw an influx of people from far and wide trot down to pay their respects to Brisbane’s beating heart of rock, punk & hardcore. The venue was packed to capacity, with the true party raging outside and around the corner. Inside we saw a stacked card, with Placement (Adelaide), King’s Currency, Double Date and Special Features take to the stage for her swansong. Outside was a veritable street-party, comprising mainly of piracy and tomfoolery. The night was a hoot, but tinged with the sadness of immanent doom. Our friends at The Bearded Lady were nice enough to send us this mad video with farewells and memories from various bands and community members who have contributed to The Bearded Lady’s grasp on the Brisbane music scene for 10+ years. An overwhelming response, you can tell from the length just how many people are gutted with the news and how many thousands of memories are held by patrons and bands from all these good years.


Hearts pour out for The Beardo. Huge thanks to Keeley for the video and making the night happen.

Onwards, to the party! Never waning on fashion, The Beardo delivered one last parade, complete with sparkles, fishnet, black, velvet, ripped & revealing, cozy & covered. We had it all:  Lingerie, leotard, satin, sequins. These hallowed halls never disappoint when it comes to high octane music and outfits turning heads. The night comprised of musical mayhem and streetlight shenanigans. Join me, as we delve back into chaos and relive that unforgettable night.

 

Inside, King’s Currency open up the stage with doomy dissonance. I first saw them a few weeks prior, supporting Fat Dog and the Tits, and they really impressed me. The lights shine for the last time and the speakers squeak their last. The singer barks ominous melodies to the soothing tone of guitar muted harmonics. The crowd’s got their hands up and the drums crash in waves. They take a plunge into their crowd-favourite, ‘Death Is A Man.’ Gronk-ass guitar, crawling vocals and drum-stabs into a drop. Their songs are impossible to find online, but if you see their name on a poster, GO TO THAT GIG. The are playing PFR Lounge (where King Lear’s Throne was) next month on July 4th. They will rock your jocks off!! Their instruments birth some sort of grunge shoegaze gretchling baby. Sustained on time-changes and feedback, it grows. It lurches. My notes have a lot of words scribbled down about them, but the most important one is just the word SHREDDERZ, with ‘someone call the Teenage Ninja Turtles’ beneath it, and the word ‘breakdown,’ with a big tick next to it. They address the crowd before their last song:

“I feel so sad about Bearded Lady. I think it’s hitting me.”

 


Jumping outside into the throng to catch up on the party and interview some peeps about their Beardo memories, someone has let off a fart-bomb in the street bin and a pair or rapscallions are tagging the alleyway, immortalising the final evening. There’s a cute dog wandering through the crowd, making friends as either permanent marker or amyl fight the fart bomb for aromatherapeutic supremacy. I ran into my buddy Che on guitar in metalcore freak wizards Deep Leech and their latest project picking up traction, Valve, and grabbed a cheeky interview:


Me: “Oi I’m here with Che man, from Deep Leech, fuckin’ Valve – got a few bands on the run – What’s your favourite memory of The Beardo, man?
Che: “The best Bearded Lady memory I have, is the band ‘Antenna.’ That was off-tap, it’s the best band ever too, so…”
Me: “Why’s that though? Crazy solos? Crazy crowd? Crazy moves? What were they doin’?”
Che: “Um, best music written ever… Best show ever. They’re just the best, I can’t put it in any other words.”
Me: “You had to be there.”
Che: “Yeah, and everyone WAS there. It was great. But that’s the best band I’ve seen here ever. Listen to Antenna.”


Back indoors and the line-up for the bar is monstrous, but punters are determined to get their farewell beers and pay respects to the hirsute maiden. The backroom sees Double Date whip up a frenzy, with singer Ellis Yunker pulling shapes through a distorted future telephone mic. The music is alien, they’re incredible tight but BY GOLLY they’re a band that will freak the squares. The bassist/singer dons a Santa Claus time-wizard beard for The Lady, ditches the bass and goes anaphylactic with his stage moves. “We’re Double Date Band, it means so much to be here at Beardo.” They rock the house down with intergalactic porn music and the crowd is frothing. I was lucky enough to catch up with them after, out in the churning street party:


Me: “Yo, Hayden Mills here reporting for Livewire. I’m here with the guys, perhaps do you wanna introduce your band?”
Ellis: “I’m Ellis, this is Ben – From Double Date, we just played. It was fuckin’, it was a good time.”
Me: “Aye, whatdya think of the last night; like comedy, tragedy – what are we dealin’ with?”
Ben: “Aw, major tragedy.”
Ellis: “Actually it’s such a fuckin’ loss. It’s such a loss for Brisbane. It’s such an honour to be able to play here, on the last night. But we’re just so, SO sad to see this venue close down.”
Me: “Alright, so! Favourite band you’ve ever seen here or best memory?”
Ellis: “Actually, it’s kinda funny, the first band I ever saw here – and probably the best I’ve ever saw, was Special Features, the first time I came here. They fuckin’ rocked my world, it was crazy. And now we’re like… opening for them on the last night, It’s crazy like.. full circle.”
Ben: “For me it’s probably um.. seeing Naaki Soul here, that was the first time I saw Naaki Soul and… It was just crazy, Iike. It was just, yeah. And they were just INCREDIBLE.”
Ellis: “Fuckin’ insane.”
Me: “Okay, send-off words, what do you think? In memorandum rest-in-peace?”
Ellis: “Let The Lady be loud, I reckon. Yeah, let The Lady be loud.”
Me: “Do you guys have any gigs comin’ up?”
Ellis: “Nah actually, this is our last one on the radar.”
Me: “Have you guys ever played a funeral before?”
Both: “No.”
Ellis: “Hopefully first of many.”
Me: “Oh, by the way, someone let off a fart bomb in the bin. That’s what the smell is.”
Ellis: “That’s what the smell is!”
Me: “Yeah, you buy ‘em from Petra’s.”
Ben: “Petra’s sells fart bombs?”
Me: “Oh yeah, I know because someone put ‘em in the pool tables of Archive the other day. They put ‘em in the pockets. They got banned from the bar and they were like ‘fuck you.’”
Ellis: “What is that? Is that just like.. a bag of shit?”
Me: “It’s a certain chemical, it’s like rotten eggs… Sulphur, or whatever.”
Ben: “SCIENCE.”
Ellis: “Sci-enceeeee.”

 


Re-evaluating the evolutionary edge of olfactory perception, we throw ourselves into the night. It’s the last chance to see the graff and stickers in the bathrooms. The last time you’ll stick your beer in the back of the piano as you saunter off to the smokers area. The final time you can wonder why a beautiful old roof and gutter stick out of the ceiling in the back room, and wonder what the original building must look like. I remember when The Beardo was half the size, with the bar on the other side. Outside, the party is spilling into the back alley and the street is abuzz. I’m not gonna lie, I ended up missing a whole band because the party was inseparable (Sorry Placement!!!) But I heard they blew it out of the water. But got some mad grabs from some mad ladz:

 

“I cannot count the number of times I have stumbled into that venue, so blind drunk, and refused service. And then only the next morning to find out that I actually even entered the building – totally forgetting that I’d tried to get in there in the first place. And they still just keep serving me, and it’s the most beautiful thing ever and I’ll miss it a lot. Favourite gig is weirdly enough, I just saw 01 Thurman do the last Sunday, like the last Sunday of the business. So I guess kinda just by default, that’s gonna be my favourite. Because it was the most beautiful.” – Tom Housely
“The demographic is anyone and everyone. Like, it is going off! The fashion? UGHH, alternative to the core. Like anything goes.” – Maximus
“Hey, how’re ya goin’, my name’s Big Nate, and this is my most umm fond memory of The Bearded Lady West End. Just a quick statement, I absolutely LOVE Beardo, like rest in peace Beardo, like my heart’s seriously broken tonight. But anyway, I’ll continue on – cuz that’s what we gotta do for Beardo, ya know? So long story short, we were walkin’ in to the little stage area, and we’d just bought our tickets at the front door and me and my mate Ryan were like really cooked like off our face, just so fucking cooked. Like it was actually ridiculous. We’re like queuing up for the little stage area, and we’re feelin’ a bit anxious like Ryan’s thinkin’ everyone’s lookin’ at him y’know, as ya do. Like the bud-xiety. As we got closer to the front of the queue, we saw this lady sitting there. This beautiful fair-skinned lady, and she had a MASSIVE beard on ‘er. And like as soon as I spied that, it all ticked mate. I was like, ‘is THAT the fuckin’ bearded lady? Like is THAT her?’ And I tapped Ryan on the shoulder, and I said ‘is THAT the bearded lady?’ And we both just lost our shit, like what a wig-out. I absolutely love Beardo. Rest in peace Beardo.”
“Best band? I reckon definitely… both times I saw Endless Valley here. I got right up to the front, I was dressed up just like the band – in like.. red, exotic garments. And makeup, with one of my good friends. We both dressed up together. Hung out beforehand. Yeah, and, they’re just such a sick band! With such an intimate space, so you really feel the energy they give off, and the passion. And how ritualistic it is. There’s a spiritual energy.” – Caleb Jaaniste

 


Heading back in for the final act, Special Features take to the stage. Our players strut the boards for the last time on this iconic stage. “Thank you so much to The Beardo.” Everyone’s wearing beards. The singer. The crowd. Everyone. The guitar eeks in, committing crimes. A rasp of vocal stirs, into a howl. The venue is sold out. The street is packed. The night is combusting. The air waves are invading. The taps are running. It’ll never happen again. The crowd go wild at the announcement of a fan-favourite: “This next song is about blokes who make podcasts. It’s called ‘Gimme a break.’” There is not an inch of the building that is not moving. The crowd, the rafters, breathe, sweat, condensation and smoke. The Lady is alive.


We see a tearful goodbye, with words from Jaimie, and the owner gets crowd-surfed out of the building.


Huge thanks to Jaimie, he's been running this venue with his mum for 10+ years. Legend.
Huge thanks to Jaimie, he's been running this venue with his mum for 10+ years. Legend.

And with that, my notes end. The night is commemorated in the gallery below, listed in reverse-chronological order. Huge thanks to my buddy Scout CL for capturing the night, these photos are wild. The jostling of the crowd, the power of each band. Usually I’d not put so many in a gallery… But I think we need to have every single one documented so we can never forget the beating heart of Brisbane’s music. We wanted to get the energy and ambiance of the final night, and it's all there in 4k! Its like Where’s Wally in these photos, so you’ve got to find yourself - there's heaps of crowd shots. The music scene may shift and adapt, but The Bearded Lady has a vice grip on our hearts. She is a chunk of Brisbane history that can never be repressed. Gone. Never forgotten. She is irreplaceable. So many bands had their start there, or their big break. Each moment and every musical note, every beer downed, the building will always remember them, we will always remember. And no matter what goes in her place, those floorboards will still hum. The walls will always sing. Let The Lady be loud!




FOLLOW Scout CL photos | Instagram | Website

FOLLOW King's Currency | Instagram

FOLLOW Double Date | Instagram | Website

FOLLOW Placement | Instagram | Facebook | Website | Bandcamp | Linktree

FOLLOW Special Features | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Spotify | Linktree



 
 
 

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