Bang! Nightclub is held exclusively on Saturday nights at the Royal Melbourne Hotel on Bourke Street. It is a lung shaking experience of voluminous hard metal that will be pulsing through you for hours after you leave. It is a popular meeting ground for Melbourne's punk, Emo and metal heads so, naturally, coloured clothing is a rarity.
Entry prices vary from free to around $20 depending on what bands are playing. There are always guest lists that offer cheaper entry as well, check Facebook to stay updated on these. They accept cash only at the door although there is an ATM just inside. After squeezing through a human sieve that is the outdoor smoking area, you reach the main room. This has a large curving bar that is always surrounded by queues. Expect to be waiting upwards of five to ten minutes for service.
Live bands play in this room and there is commonly a merchandise table set up with t-shirts and CDs for sale. At the back of this room is a small corridor shaped room that plays a mix of genres. Like everywhere else in this venue it is extremely crowded and it is a real fight to wiggle your way in. Between these two rooms are a second bar and the cloakroom, $4 an item.
Just before you head up the stairs to the second floor, check out the little room hidden away on the left. It plays nineties tunes and has a karaoke machine set up. There are also some welcoming armchairs that snuggle around you as you sit down. After the crush of people in other rooms, this is a good space to take a breather and rest your ears from the onslaught of metal.
Upstairs is the home to yet another live band that rotates with a DJ. It is also home to head banging and strobe lights. Definitely not recommended for anyone who has epilepsy, this floor is a plethora of bright flashes intermixed with brief moments of darkness. It is full on to say the least. A result of the lights or the general drunken state of the patrons I can't say but the floor up here is almost completely covered in beer all the time, not to mention the bottles. At one point I walked off without my shoes because they got stuck to the floor.
Aside from this, the atmosphere here is insane. The crowd is united in their passion for the bands and when a crowd favourite is played you can bet your how-have-they-not-burst-yet eardrums that you will know about it. As for having a conversation - forget about it, it's impossible.
For a night that will ring in your ears, thump through your knee joints and echo through your teeth, there really is no better place than Bang. There are so many rooms and different areas to enjoy and with different bands every week there is always something new.
Personally, I cannot stand Bang and will happily never be going there again but for people who enjoy punk/metal/hard rock music it would be pretty good. I find it way too loud and don't like the ear-raping I got during my visit. Also, having my shoes stick to the floor because it was so sticky with the beer film was extremely gross! read more