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The joy of discovering an up-and-coming band while they're still playing local gigs, or getting on the stage yourself, is an experience young Aussies have long held dear.
But what happens when local venues shut down and you can no longer get your music fix?
The closure of 1,300 venues across Australia since the COVID-19 pandemic has been a huge blow for performers and music lovers alike.
In regional areas, which might only have had one venue to begin with, this impact has been felt all the more.
Evie Dalton performing at the Port Fairy Folk Festival in 2024. (Supplied: Rob Gunstone)
Evie Dalton, 19, hails from the town of Port Fairy, a short distance away from Warrnambool.
Performing as Evie Mae, she's released an EP and played at local festivals.
But Dalton said opportunities to perform at home up were rare.
"You couldn't really play pub gigs and it wasn't really a good scene to be in," she said.
Like many regional centres, Warrnambool has a number of pubs and a night-club, but no dedicated live music venue.
"There's no place for bands to go and see other bands play — that's the only avenue you have to learn about live music," Dalton said.
Now, Dalton lives in Melbourne — but she wishes she had the same early opportunities as her city-dwelling mates, who were able play original music and get paid for it as they learned the ropes.
"There's such a disparity between living regionally and living in metropolitan cities," she said.
Local scene still feeling loss of venue
Warrnambool is set to host the triple j's One Night Stand this weekend, which will see acts like G Flip, Ruel, and Thelma Plum take to the stage, as well as local act Flynn Gurry.
But opportunities to see live music in town are still few and far between.
Warrnambool used to have a permanent live music venue called The Loft, but it shut down in 2019 due to poor attendance.
The Loft used to be the epicenter of Warrnambool's music scene before closing in 2019. (Supplied: Sam Pyers)
Over the two decades it was operating, Didirri, Sarah Blasko, and Kate Miller-Heidke were just some of the much-loved Aussie acts to grace its stage.
Dalton said touring acts used to stop in Warrnambool, often picking up a local act to open, too.
"That's how [musicians] made connections and you met people," she said.
Warrnambool band 80 Aces was among the bands that performed at The Loft during its heyday. (ABC South West Victoria: Emily Bissland)
"Quite often [bands] would get picked up for the rest of the tour and you'd go and play shows with them in other places, which just expanded your world a whole lot more."
Dalton said the area needs another venue like The Loft to bolster the local music scene.
Younger crowds don't want covers
Recent research by Australian youth music organisation The Push shows a shift in how young people create and consume music, and how audiences engage with it.
Kate Duncan says research shows young peole aren't interested in cover bands. (ABC News: Supplied: Kate Duncan)
Chief executive Kate Duncan said the survey found young people weren't as interested in the kinds of gigs common in regional towns, such as cover bands and singer-songwriters crooning in the corner of the pub.
"When you think about it like that, of course, then interest or lack of interest is going to come up highly … when that is your only live music options," she said.
"We need to be talking to young people and giving them opportunities to programme the music that they want to see — and maybe it's not the covers band on a Saturday night anymore."
Hopes of new space to build community
Restaurant The Dart and Marlin brings a slice of Melbourne's trendy inner suburbs to the region.
The bar is trying to fill Warrnambool's venue void by hosting about a gig a month.
Manager David de Carteret said it used to do more shows, but it cut back for a number of reasons, including pushback from neighbours with sound complaints.
"I think it's hard to maintain a community around [the music scene], so it's certainly a massive challenge not having a dedicated stage," he said.
David de Carteret owns The Dart and Marlin, which hosts about a gig a month. (ABC South West Victoria: Jean Bell)
Mr de Carteret plans to build an upstairs function space, which could be used as a live music venue, but the expansion could be 12 months away due to budget constraints.
Dalton hopes plans like these can come to fruition, so the next generation of young regional musos have more opportunities than she did.
"The only way you learn is by playing and seeing other people play," she said.
"You can still learn by watching YouTube or seeing bands on in massive stadiums in Melbourne, but you're not seeing the little intimate things that you only see in small venues."