Boiling Point: Thomas Schumacher

The Colonial Hotel is a pub on the corner of Lonsdale St and King St in Melbourne's CBD. During the week, and weekend daylight hours, The Colonial Hotel operates as a normal pub. Come 10pm on a Friday and Saturday, The Colonial Hotel becomes Brown Alley, one of Melbourne's most iconic nightclubs in Melbourne. Named after the alleyway behind the entrance of the venue, Brown Alley s a multi-level juggernaut with world class speaker systems.

The Colonial Hotel was built in 1854 and has undergone a number of renovations in order to operate as a nightclub. Brown Alley is a huge venue with 5 rooms and a 1300 person capacity. During the 1980's, King St was the main nightlife precinct of Melbourne, and considered by most to be a bit wild, as the area attracted a lot of strip clubs, brothels and a nightclubs.

Fridays at Brown Alley can be a mixed bag. For the most point they are a venue for hire, with a range of promoters and touring agents making use of he space. While the events sporadically happen, there seems to be a leaning towards specific subcultures of electronic rather than a general house/techno approach.

Saturdays, on the other hand, is a massive, weekly event run by Levels. Levels started as a nightclub in 2012 with a weekly event called Nightcrawler Saturdays. While the nightclub rebranded to Two Floors Up, Levels took their brand to Platform One and ran their Saturdays until 2019, at which moving to Brown Alley. In 2015-16, Levels would occasionally return home to 139 Lonsdale to party with the Two Floors Up crew, before TFU closed down in late 2016. At which point, TFU rebranded as Dirty Days and work with Levels Entertainment, and exclusively put events on for public holidays, usually at Brown Alley as well.