Your interpretation of The Zoo likely depends on your age.

To those a little older it might still seem like a relative new comer, which through a combination of spritely ingenuity and uncanny luck has outlasted many of the venues that came before. But for younger gig-goers, The Zoo is as much a fixture on the Brisbane music scene as many of the bands – Powderfinger and Regurgitator among them – who it helped nurture.

And maybe that’s what a 20-year anniversary is all about – a chance to reconcile the past with the present: for the older heads to consider that what they’ve witnessed is no longer just gigs and bands but events in a local history of music, and for the younger generation to understand that same legacy, which has slowly been built inside the humble digs of a former sewing machine factory.

“It was black,” Joc Curran says, describing the day that she and business partner, C Smith, first stepped inside what would arguably become the city’s greatest live music venue. “It had spent 60 years as a sewing machine factory and you know the oil you get for sewing machines? That had gotten into everything. It just had a hundred years of dust in it, basically.”

Curran, Smith and a crew of helpers scrubbed away for days at the grime-covered walls. They were clueless about running a business, but both were photographers and had an eye for art and making do with what they had.

“We had no idea and we couldn’t afford lots of things. And still to this day, our barrels are old Rheem hot water systems. We bought them and they were our tables. Artists did the murals on the walls, and there’s always been a big community at The Zoo – just big groups of people surrounding it and helping us.”

It would be close to six months on from first spotting the venue that Curran and Smith would finally swing open the doors for an opening party that featured Regurgitator’s Ben Ely and Screamfeeder’s Tim Steward. Ask Curran what she remembers of that night, though, and she laughs.

“We were all just frantically chucking things out the back where people couldn’t see. Chucking boxes and that sort of stuff. I can hardly tell you anything substantial about it.”

The communal atmosphere remains at The Zoo. Curran is still in partnership with Smith, but now helms the venue on her own, encouraging a flat hierarchy where staff pitch in to help each other. Maybe that’s why it still feels like the fresh-faced new kid on the block: step inside and you’re greeted by friendly, eager bartenders and a security team that isn’t simply looking for the first opportunity to boot you out again.

“I hear people’s comments when they come for the first time,” she says. “I often wish I could do that. I remember [local composer and media artist] Lawrence English saying, ‘I went to The Zoo five years ago, and then I went last week and it was just the same. Everyone was helpful and friendly.’ I have a really low staff turnover. Everyone does everything and we’re all on one playing field. Everybody is a team and we do it together.

“I’ve always lived by that ethos and I feel like everybody has some input – it’s not ‘I’ and ‘you’, it’s ‘us’. When anybody ever talks about The Zoo, I feel like everybody has a sense of ownership of it – like they’re custodians, like I feel I’m a custodian of that space … Because there’s no way I could do it on my own – it’s everybody doing a small part to make it whole.”
Ask what else Curran thinks has been key to The Zoo’s survival and she taps into similar themes.

“We’ve always run demo programmes, or local programmes, or supported local music the whole time of our existence,” she says. “We don’t worry about what other venues are doing, we just do what we do and try to do it well, and just be true to ourselves. Always running the demo programmes and supporting bands from their very first gig – I think it’s because of that.”
Now Curran and her team are getting set to celebrate The Zoo’s 20-year anniversary, and it’s very much an event that’s about coming full circle.

“It’s great. Regurgitator are playing and Danny Widdicombe’s playing also – he was there on the opening night. So the 20-year celebration is the full circle – it’s about the beginning but it’s also about acknowledging where we are now.

“And then [there are some bands] that I feel like are starting out and I feel like are a prediction for the future – Founds is an example of that – a band that I’ve gotten to know and love, and I just see them taking off ... I think it’s just going to be a lot of people touching base and having their own stories.”

The Zoo Celebrates 20 Years Of Music This Saturday, December 15. Line-Up Includes Regurgitator, Danny Widdicombe & Tylea, Dave & Katch, Founds, And Toothfaeries.