Making itself heard all the way down High Street, this grungy Northcote venue rocks to the sounds of live bands playing everything from jazz to hip hop.
You know how the noisiest kid in school was usually the tiniest one? Well that's 303. Skip down High Street in Northcote on any night of the week and you'll probably find your mood being elevated as you approach this seemingly small pearl of live music wisdom.
According to the management, Mondays and Wednesdays are reserved for "jazz on the groove side", with musos setting up and playing in the funky front bar. During the rest of the week, the program varies, covering everything from experimental to whacked-out psychedelia.
Just like that noisy kid from school, 303 has a massive set of lungs, which in this case is the sloping room beyond the small front bar. It sits complete with an oval stage which makes it feel like a mini-Shakespearean theatre. The floor's gentle incline ensures that even short people in the back row get to see all the action.
This bar is a beacon for carefree and unashamedly grungy young things. If live music, carpet with more stains than Paris Hilton's bedsheets and political stickers proclaiming 'Iraq: our shame, whose gain?' turn you on, then get down to 303 and make some noise.
Craig Scutt
