Ruby’s Summer Socials

Over the course of the last 12 months the live entertainment industry has had to rapidly evolve and innovate in order to find a means to simply be able to perform. One area in particular which has shown promise is with outdoor performance spaces, and Sydney now has a new one to utilise.

For this latest outdoor venue SIMA have partnered with the team behind 107 Projects to open a new outdoor performance space at the Joynton Avenue Creative Centre in Zetland. This new pop-up live music club will now play host to a series of unique fortnightly summer events on Friday evenings. Known as Ruby’s, after the legendary matron of the site’s former Royal South Sydney Hospital Ruby Grant, the venue will play host to Sydney’s up and coming young bands and festival favourites, spanning a variety of genres from reggae groove, through New Orleans funk to gypsy swing.

Speaking with City Hub trumpeter for Crawfish Po’Boys Eamon Dilworth was incredibly appreciative to have this opportunity to get back onto the stage after an extended forced hiatus.

“We’re very much appreciative to have gigs in the diary again… Back in April and May I had 30 gigs booked around Australia and New Zealand but those all got wiped out and we stopped for essentially seven months, which was wild.”

On the plus side though the break allowed Dilworth to take some time to reconnect with “normal life” and prepare to become a father for the first time.

“I’ve been a touring musician playing for both my own band and some bigger names for eight years, so this was a chance to take a break,” Dilworth explained. “Being a musician is so amazing, because you get so many opportunities to travel and experience the high of performing live. The trade-off though is that it’s really hard to be balanced, have a family and community. I feel like I’ve finally got a bit of that balance.”

However, as Dilworth then prepared to return to the stage there were some nerves as he contemplated whether not he had become overly accustomed with “normal life.”

“The nerves for me were more so the thought that I’d become comfortable in this so called ‘normal life’ outside of live shows. I thought maybe I don’t miss my weekends of going out late and travelling around the country to play music but once I started playing I realised ‘oh no, I really did miss this.'”

For the Crawfish Po’Boys show on March 12 Dilworth said that “as much as it’s a jazz focused gig I like to call it social music.” An atmosphere which he feels will only be complimented by the outdoor setting.

“The outdoor component enhances that because thee can be more of a coming together and make it a more community oriented thing where people can kind of hang out.”

In terms of the music the audience can expect Dilworth said. “We play the music of New Orleans, which for me is all about singalongs – it’s folk music. A lot of these songs that we play everyone knows them but don’t really know when they learnt them. These songs are simply in he fabric of people’s minds, almost in their subconscious.”

Every fortnight from Feb 12-Mar 26. Ruby’s Summer Socials, 3a Joynton Ave, Zetland. $10-$15+b.f. Tickets & Info: www.eventbrite.com.au