"We were so overworked and tired that it was actually fantastic to shut the doors, go home and stay there and cook a meal for ourselves, go for a walk in the sunshine," Mr McRae said.

But as restrictions ease in the territory, a rested Smith's Alternative is happily leading the charge on a limited-capacity return for live music in Canberra.

Smith's has been working with a bandroom capacity of 24, with 20 additional spots outside and 15 in the bar, running open mics since late June and full-band shows since last Sunday.

Mr McRae said their "Bang Beng Bing Bong Bung" open mic nights have been "scarily popular", regularly reaching their capacity.

"We used to do quite a few gigs when there were only 24 people in the room beforehand, not everything was a smash success. But now when you have 24 people in the room it feels like it's packed," Mr McRae said.

"People complained about Canberra being pretty boring but actually there was a ton of stuff going on and you had a lot of choices. Now that's been taken away, suddenly people have realised how good they had it."

The venue will continue to schedule new shows, and plans to move to a model of three staggered sets a night to triple the total number of nightly patrons to 72.

But Mr McRae said takings were still down 70-75 per cent, which was never going to cover the costs.

"If JobKeeper goes away, we'd probably have to close up shop," he said.

The Basement in Belconnen was the first venue in Canberra to host live music after the strictest lockdown restrictions were lifted, with an intimate 10-person dinner show on June 6. They've since been able to upgrade their capacity to 100 people, down from their full 700-person load, predominantly hosting cover bands and tribute acts.

Bar manager Mike Stanker said cover bands made it easier to tackle the demographic because it would lead to a sell out.

"We need it to sell out because we need to make as much as possible to keep it going," he said.

"You can't pay the rent really with just 100 people. We're doing it mainly because we're banking on the restrictions getting better and better each time."

Sideway, an alternative bar and music venue in the city which opened last year, has instead embraced its status as a bar first by reaching for DJ sets and lineups of ambient artists each Sunday, beginning last weekend.

"I liken it to a Japanese-style listening bar where you come in and get some nice drinks with a pretty high quality sound system throughout the week. That's definitely been pretty sustainable with the government measures in place," co-owner Timothy Brown said.

"If people have to sit down for live music, it takes away a little bit of the atmosphere but it's not the end of the world. I think people would rather sit down and enjoy it rather than not enjoy it at all."

All other venues spoken to for this story however said they could not continue for much longer working with reduced capacity.

The Polish White Eagle Club in Turner, previously a regular host of young local and touring acts, has been unable to reschedule gigs as its capacity load is occupied predominantly by its dining guests.

"To be perfectly blunt about it, we put on gigs and a gig is not 40 people sitting around on tables in a room that normally holds 200 people," Polo Live booker Dave Howe said.

"If that capacity went to 80 people, which there was some discussion about happening, even if they still had to be seated it'd probably be a little bit more manageable. It's still not ideal...The financial and administrative burdens of having to do extra work for a smaller audience don't make a huge amount of sense in this particular environment either."

Another previously popular city venue, Transit Bar, has concerts from a mix of local and international artists listed as beginning from August 6, though Australia's current border closures make that practically impossible. The Canberra Times has contacted the venue for comment.