Say what you will about Justin Hemmes, he certainly knows how to throw a party. Thursday night’s ‘industry insiders’ pre-launch party at his newest venue, Upstairs Beresford, was as glitzy as they come. You couldn’t throw an impeccably served prawn-based hors d’ouevre without hitting a trendy muso, fish-lipped model, or record label exec.
June 30th, 2011
Although the Beresford Hotel itself has been a fixture of Surry Hills nightlife for quite some time now, Thursday saw the unveiling of the new sister venue, Upstairs, whose inspiration is drawn from various glamorous music venues in New York City. Club owner and CEO of the Merivale entertainment empire Justin Hemmes said in a statement that there was a glaring “opportunity for an upmarket live music venue in Sydney”. Adding this to his already glittering repertoire of Sydney night-spots that include Ivy, Establishment, and Tank Stream, Hemmes could be seen on Thursday night grinning like an actor greeting fans at the stage door, clearly delighted with the reception his new venue had opened to.
From the gorgeous door-ladies who checked names against the guest list on their iPads, to the sprawling and ornate interior of the venue itself, everything about Upstairs Beresford is cutting-edge and exciting. Hemmes is right when he identifies a lack of ‘high-class’ live music venues in Sydney, and the newest member of the Merivale family is certainly unlike any other gig venue in the city. With a large dance-floor/crowd area that nestles between a relatively shallow stage and long bar, the club then recedes into a separate alcove bar at the end of a long central strip of raised seating booths, meaning one can easily hide from the music and kick back with friends if it’s getting too much. The circular seating booths conjure up imagery of a ‘40s jazz club, where the performers’ presence onstage is a compliment to, rather than the focus of, the evening.
This seems to be the vibe that Upstairs Beresford is going for; it is, above all, a nightclub, where there just so happens to be a stage. The closest live music venue in Sydney one could liken it to would perhaps be Oxford Art Factory, but even in the OAF there’s no dedicated area for the punters to withdraw from the stage action for a while. From the wood panelling on the walls, to the super-high ceilings and kitschy pop art adorning the wall, Upstairs Beresford is inimitably a sexy and cool venue, one that will attract crowds that straight-up live music venues would never draw. And it’s this fusion of club and gig venue that makes the Bourke Street spot an incredibly promising and alluring addition to the Surry Hills nightlife scene.
Amongst the ‘celebs’ floating around the joint on Thursday were Thirsty Merc frontman * Rai Thistlethwayte*, Lara Bingle, MTV vixen Erin McNaught, and Channel [V]’s Danny Clayton, the latter of whom’s opinion I asked for when we collided on the dancefloor. “Most people’s first impulse is to sneer when they imagine what Ivy would look like with a stage, however you can’t deny the potential this new venue has”, said Clayton.
The main attraction for the evening came in the form of The Vines, who played a short but sweet set delivering all their well-known hits such as Get Free and Ride, as well as their oft-revisited cover version of Ms. Jackson by Outkast. In this new breed of non-band-centric music venue, it’s hard to see how larger bands will go down when they play here; Hemmes claims to harbour ambitions to bring acts such as Coldplay, Stevie Wonder and Prince to Upstairs Beresford; a perplexing prospect, given that the venue’s structure seems to encourage guests to treat the place as a club first and a music venue second, and also that there’s very little separation between performers and spectators. The stage is a mere step up from the audience, something which I can’t imagine Chris Martin being cool with.
Nonetheless, The Vines’ performance, and the night and venue in general, could not be faulted. If Thursday night’s industry preview was anything to go by, then Sydney has just received one heck of a shot in the arm to what some are labelling as an ailing nightlife scene. The club/venue mash-up of Upstairs Beresford lends the venue an enviable air of versatility, giving rise to a new nightspot that can deliver funky club nights, intimate unplugged gigs, and rowdy rock shows all without moving a chair. Hemmes, it seems, has done it again.
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