Kindred Bandroom

Kindred Bandroom is a 250-plus-capacity live room in Melbourne’s inner west, at 3 Harris Street on the Footscray–Yarraville edge. Its distinguishing feature is the setting: this is the performance arm of Kindred Studios, an artist-run complex with rehearsal rooms, recording, dance, photography and co-working spaces alongside the bandroom. That makes a gig here feel connected to the work that happens before showtime, with touring names and local bills using the same creative infrastructure. The venue’s own roll call spans Dan Sultan, Sampa The Great, Nia Archives, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard and Parliament-Funkadelic.

A warehouse made for bands

Kindred opened in 2005 as a privately owned, artist-operated venture. Owner Simon Hodgson found a large empty warehouse in Yarraville and converted it into a bandroom with 11 rehearsal rooms, designed so bands could drive to the rear, unload and get straight to work. The practical layout set the premise for a venue that has operated as both rehearsal facility and live-music room for two decades.

Its 20th-anniversary celebration on 2 May 2026 put that history onstage: a free bill of artists connected to Kindred included Goose Calaboose, Locus and DJ Diddy Wah. Venue manager Angus Ingram described the lineup as a cross-section of the room’s regular traffic—indie rock, jazz, funk and DJs through midnight—while the anniversary coverage recorded the site’s expansion to private offices, workshops, meetings and hire spaces around its original bandroom-and-rehearsal core.

The room now

Kindred books original live music across jazz, R&B, pop, folk, indie, rock, electronic and alternative bills, with booking enquiries handled directly by the venue. Expect a flexible, warehouse-scale environment instead of a single-purpose club: the bandroom sits within a large two-storey creative complex, and the adjoining bar carries beer, wine, cocktails and snacks. Thursday’s Flow Motion jam has invited players to join an improvised jazz, funk, house and hip-hop set, while Friday and Saturday programs mix emerging acts with established artists.