{"id":885616,"date":"2026-09-09T11:44:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T11:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/885616\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T11:44:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T11:44:14","slug":"angel-music-bar-sounds-better-than-ever-thanks-to-new-owners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/885616\/","title":{"rendered":"Angel Music Bar Sounds Better Than Ever, Thanks to New Owners"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you wanted two new business partners to carry a respected Melbourne nightclub safely through the next decade and beyond, good luck finding anyone better than Edd Fisher and Jamie Bennett. Fisher is half of beloved DJ duo Wax\u2019o Paradiso<\/a> and runs a show on PBS FM<\/a>. Bennett is one third of Northcote venue High Note<\/a> and founded longstanding music agency Crown Ruler.<\/p>\n

In October 2025 the friends quietly went into business with prolific restaurateur Con Christopoulos, buying into his seven-year-old Angel Music Bar<\/a>. (Christopoulos\u2019s former partner at Angel, Mahmoud Taleb, has moved on.)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe made no public announcements,\u201d Fisher says. \u201cWe wanted the venue to speak for itself in terms of a new direction, new vision and a bit of stewardship, bringing our combined 40-plus years of music industry know-how into the space.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regulars and other close observers will have noticed. Over the past year the upstairs music program has been reinvigorated by the likes of enigmatic Belgian selector Nosedrip, New York duo Musclecars, emerging Irish star Spray, dreamy Norwegian act Prins Thomas and American house icon Maurice Fulton.<\/p>\n

But as our special feature on the health of Australia\u2019s club scene<\/a> reiterated, institutions are built by residents, not ring-ins. <\/p>\n

Fisher and Bennett are all over it. Angel now opens on Wednesday nights for PBS DJ Richie 1250\u2019s long-running club night Slow Grind Fever<\/a>, where all the music is under 100 beats per minute. Thursdays and Fridays belong to a rotating group of promoters, including Holy Trinity Collective<\/a>, Septem FM<\/a>, Pearl<\/a> and Ultraviolet<\/a>. And on Saturdays, Fisher, Bennett and their house programmer Naomi Salim (aka DJ Crybaby) take full control, drawing a consistent crowd and building that all-important sense of community.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speaking from recent experience, they\u2019ve also made upstairs sound better than ever. And it was already one of the best-sounding rooms in the city, thanks to a Funktion-One sound system. \u201cIt\u2019s got a lot of sound in there for a small room,\u201d Fisher says. \u201cIt\u2019s got two 21-inch subs for 80 people, right? Yeah, it\u2019s overkill.\u201d<\/p>\n

An acoustician re-mapped the room and the speakers were re-hung and re-tuned. And in an expensive but largely invisible renovation, the original DJ booth was demolished and a hole cut in the floor. Underneath, the team installed horizontal steel beams running wall-to-wall across the building. A new custom-made American oak DJ booth was mounted on steel beams connected directly to this sub-structure. The booth now floats a centimetre off the room\u2019s actual floor, completely isolating it from vibrations, a gamechanger for those playing vinyl. The turntables also rest on 80 kilograms of sand ballast and rubber isolation stops imported from Spain. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe quickly learnt that it was going to be a much bigger job than anticipated making a functional, well-isolated DJ booth on the second floor of an ageing building,\u201d Fisher says. \u201cBut after some blood, sweat and tears we\u2019ve come up with what we think is one of the best DJ booths in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not content to stop there, Fisher and Bennett have also updated the downstairs food menu, which is available until midnight. There\u2019s milk bread pastrami sangas with maple mustard, Danish-style hot dogs with pickled cucumber and crisp shallots, a trio of beef tartares on hash, and a classic tiramisu. The bar\u2019s capacious cocktail freezer is still good for Martinis and Negronis, while a new signature list features easy-drinkers mainly built around vodka, white rum and tequila.<\/p>\n

\u201cAngel made a big splash when it came onto the scene. As soon as it opened its doors, it felt like it had always been there. It was somewhere Jamie and I frequented a lot as patrons. I used to DJ there, I threw parties there,\u201d Fisher says. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel incredibly lucky to have been given an opportunity to make our mark on what was already an incredible space that\u2019s had such a big impact on the culture of this city. Late night spaces like this are so important. We\u2019re here for the long haul and deeply committed to building Angel into a lasting cultural institution. We want to protect what makes it special, keep pushing it forward and make sure it remains an important part of the city for the foreseeable future. That\u2019s something we take very seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

Angel Music Bar
12 Bourke Street, Melbourne<\/a>
No phone<\/p>\n

Hours
Tue to Thu 4pm\u20133am (upstairs closed on Tue)
Fri & Sat 4pm\u20135am<\/p>\n

instagram.com\/angelmusicbar<\/a><\/p>\n