SYDNEY AFTER DARK It’s last call for drinks at Mary’s this weekend, and we think you should get around it
BY: Kartya Vucetic
Sydney loves talking about saving live music. And this weekend, there is a very easy way to do that.
Go to a venue before it’s gone.
After seven years, more than 1,000 shows, 3,000 artists and 150,000 tickets sold, Mary’s Underground is officially closing its chapter beneath Circular Quay. The venue, which took over the iconic former Basement site at 7 Macquarie Place, became one of Sydney’s most important small live music rooms. It’s part gig venue, part late-night basement. But it’s also part reminder that this city is still capable of being good when it really, really wants to be.
Its closure is not exactly mysterious. In their statement, the Mary’s team pointed to the well-versed pressures currently hitting small venues across the country. Declining bar sales presumably due to cost of living, rising overhead costs, sky-high Sydney land values and the increasingly impossible economics of running a live music venue with under 500 capacity in a city that puts up just a few barriers to doing that, to say the least.
Is it bleak? Yes. Is it surprising? Unfortunately not.
Mary’s Underground opened in 2019 with big plans. A burger joint upstairs, a more elevated Mary’s restaurant downstairs, and free live jazz in a room with serious history. Many don’t realise that before Mary’s took the space over, The Basement had hosted the likes of B.B. King and Prince.
Just last year, Lorde surprised fans at a listening night hosted at Mary’s | Image: Instagram @marysunderground
Then COVID arrived, the industry was forced into the cursed era of the “pivot”, and Mary’s Underground eventually reopened as a dedicated live music venue, with burgers still doing their thing upstairs. Since then, it’s carried a lot more than shows. From sweaty club nights to intimate launches and national tours, Mary’s epitomises the sort of CBD energy Sydney keeps insisting it wants more of.
This weekend marks its final party stretch.
Tonight, The Last Dance takes over the venue for one final house-focused night beneath the city, with ASTYLE, Chit Happens, DJ Ellie B, Nate, Dollar Bear, Prinsh and Aimee Wolff all on the lineup. Tomorrow, LOSTNFOUND returns for a Mary’s Underground farewell, celebrating the memories, the music, the people and the room itself.
It’s hard not to see the closure of yet another iconic Sydney institution as part of a larger city-wide problem. Small venues are often where scenes actually begin. It’s where artists test things, DJs build rooms, audiences discover something before they become polished, and where nights can still feel like they belong to the people inside them.
Lose enough of those spaces, and the city does not just lose venues. It loses culture, community and identity.
And while Mary’s will continue to support music through Liberty Hall, this is sadly yet another closure story. It’s also a very obvious reminder that if you want Sydney to have live music, go to live music. Buy the ticket. Buy the drink.
And show up before the obituary.
The Last Dance takes place tonight, Friday 19 June, at Mary’s Underground, Circular Quay. LOSTNFOUND: Mary’s Underground Farewell takes place Saturday 20 June from 8pm.
