EDITORIAL: PUNK BARS KILL FASCISM
By Ben Rispin
11/07/2024
As more and more small music venues close, it's never been more important to support hubs that celebrate counter culture.
Patrons stand outside Toronto's Bovine Sex Club. Photo used without permission and stolen from The Scoundrels Field Guide
PUNK BARS KILL FASCISM
By Ben Rispin
As more and more music venues keep closing in small cities, it has never been more important to support local night life.
Here in Hamilton, Ontario, "Music City" is at risk of losing its soul.
Since the beginning of the pandemic we have lost several venues. This Ain't Hollywood, Club Absinthe, The Lazy Flamingo and many more have either closed up shop or moved on.
Most recently, Hamilton's beloved Casbah announced that it was closing its doors due to condo development, and the same week, Hamilton lost Sizzle/Koi in Hess Village - who had recently begun hosting live music
Many factors contribute to venues closing their doors and its not always due to lack of support. City development, over taxation, and a constant rise in expenses all contribute to not only live music venues, but night spots across the country closing their doors.
Stats Canada has stated that a change in the public's entertainment habits have evolved since the legalization of Cannabis. Claiming many music fans have opted to use cannabis over alcohol which plays a factor. There has been a call to bring Cannabis products into night life hubs, but as of this editorial, very little progress has been made.
Fascists love blaming weed.
Font entrance to the Casbah (Lounge) in Hamilton
PUNK BARS CREATE THE NEXT GENERATIONS ANTI-FASCISTS
While some in the Greater Toronto Hamilton Area deem these types of congregation hubs a gathering place for degenerates, they may be surprised to learn that they are only partially wrong. One generation's degenerates are the next generation's leaders.
Since the days of CBGB'S and beyond, it has often been convenient for governments to let live music venues, especially DIY venues, close up shop. Not only are these types of places the home of some of our future leaders in industry and politics, but leaders of thought and change as well.
I started throwing punk shows with my friends back in the early 90's while in my mid to early teens. I've been promoting events in one way or another my entire life. I played in all kinds of garage bands growing up in a small rural part of Ontario. My first live club gig was at Hamilton's X-Club, which was located on the corner of King William and John St. An area of Hamilton where Fever Night Club, Club Absinthe, Homegrown Cafe and more have called home over the decades.
In the 90s, it was still very much the Jocks verses the Freaks and my friends and I being a skater-punk-arty-types, fit into the ladder. I was a young 15 year old (I may have snuck in. I can't remember) and the X-Club is where I began to see a much bigger universe.
At the X-Club I saw older bands who looked like my friends and I or our favourite bands on TV. There was a unity and feeling of acceptance among the artists and crowd. No matter who I annoyed, I never felt like I was uninvited. Just maybe young and dumb. Bands like Gorp, The Killjoys, and Tristan Psionic were the soundtrack to a young promoter and activists cultural awakening.
The Killjoys - Hamilton's own
At these shows I would meet people who helped me to develop positive views on gay culture, women's rights, cannabis legalization, and found people who shared our antiracist views. Ideas which seemed radical to a much more conservative society.
My friends and I would bring these ideas back to our small towns and share them. They contributed to our art, conversation, and fashion.
I guess we were radicalized.
FASCISTS WIN WHEN PUNK BARS CLOSE
A few years later, my family moved to the near by suburban city of Burlington. Pre-Internet, a city next door still seemed like it was much farther than it actually was. Burlington had a great music scene in the 90's. Tons of bands, tons of venues, tons of spirit.
Hundreds of kids would show up to almost every show. The city supported several venues like Universe, NRG, No Rules Cafe, Manhattan Rocks, The Yellow Submarine and more.
Grade - Burlington Screamo Pioneers
Burlington's music scene were large contributors to birthing the genre of screamo, and later inspired artists who would change the North American and global music infrastructure forever.
It's hard to believe this when you visit Burlington now. A sleepy retirement community mixed with wealthy families.
In Burlington, the local government actually set out to destroy the music community and night life. City Hall would issue zoning changes with little notice, raise taxes, and eventually tried to ban live music on patios. They claimed frequent complaining from the public was to blame. However, when local musician Brad Hails took the city to task and protested the notion, it later became clear that the city wasn't interested in night life, and wanted a new type of citizen and higher tax bracket.
One by one, venue after venue shut down. The Legendary Red Rooster, being the last to fall. There would no longer be hubs for progressive thinkers to congregate and organize. The city would became a wasteland of traffic jams and super centres. Full of chain restaurants and stale franchises.
Kinda fascism-y. Don't ya think?
ISO: MORE PUNK BARS TO KILL FASCISM AND CREATE THE NEXT GENERATION OF LEADERS
In the early 2000's, the Burlington music community began migrating to Hamilton and Toronto and quickly found homes in those communities.
A new era was beginning.
The dawn of the internet brought in new ways for artists to communicate. It was a good time for live music. Venues were thriving. Some of the continents greatest innovators in entertainment would cut their teeth and develop transferable skills by participating in concert promotion, event coordination, marketing, all levels of production and more
Young entrepreneurs would gain valuable network and knowhow simply by getting involved.
Many would discover places in Toronto like Bovine Sex Club , Sneaky Dees, The Kathedral / Big Bop, Horseshoe Tavern and more. In Hamilton, there was Club Absinthe, The Underground, Corktown, The Casbah, The Lazy Flamingo, Doors and a sea of pubs and restaurants that all welcomed different types of music.
THE BIG BOP: KATHEDRAL, REVERB & HOLY JOES - RIP
Things trended upwards for quite sometime.
Eventually, the community began to get so strong locally, producing dozens and dozens of bands that still thrive today, that the agency side of music began to cannibalize itself with success. Much needed independent infrastructure began to conglomerate.
These conglomerates would eventually become the first strike against DIY venues. As Southern Ontario became a hotspot for talent, large ticket vendors began taking notice and began buying up venues to capitalize on the community. Not understanding what makes community tick.
Community.
Doors Pub in Hamilton. One of the last strong holds.
PUNK BARS FIGHTING FASCISM POST PANDEMIC
Many of us disagree about the ongoings of the pandemic. Dear lord, I will not get into that shit. I promise. However, we can all agree that it was hell on independent business. While the middle class continued its hurling path towards extinction, so many people lost their livelihoods. Most independent venues had already begun to struggle to stay alive fighting the conglomerates. With the onset of the pandemic, or "The Pandy" as funny assholes call it, it was too much financial burden to hold out against the unknown and several entertainment hubs were lost.
SUPPORT - Hard Luck Bar in Toronto
Venues bought up by conglomerates had the financial cushion to survive. A positive is that this maintained rooms for bands to play. A negative was most venues were restaffed.
The temporary loss of the DIY live entertainment industry caused huge gap in knowledge transfer to the next generation. Just about every corner of music business development struggled and still struggles to find new talent. The Pandy also created a gap in developing bands. New artist struggled to launch, build audience, and gain valuable real world experience.
The silver lining of this situation is that the next generation of industry and live talent is very hungry and committed.
All we have to do is help them.
I would argue that this is why it is more important than ever to support live music venues. Not only for the musicians who feed their families by their craft, but to support the development of the next generation of entrepreneurs and creatives.
The DIY environment is integral to our culture and our future. Live venues are the breeding grounds of inspiration, visualization, and innovation.
Not all ideas are formed in the class room.
Whoa.
SUPPORT HAMILTON VENUES
Here in Hamilton, our friends at Vertagogo who we partnered on Skate-or-Dive Fest with have been working diligently to keep the machine rolling. They'll be hosting Hamilton indie-folk legend Wax Mannequin in November along with Day Drunk and Beef Boys.
The Legendary Corktown has managed to stay alive and is being run better than ever, with the addition of a second floor room, there is much potential for growth.
Corktown will be hosting our unofficial end of year part with Pound Promotions' Past Presents Future.
The Casbah Hamilton plans on going out with a bang so check their calendar. On November 14th Black Throne Productions bring Sons of Arrakis, Biblical, and The Electric Cactus to the ol' Bah. This show will for sure melt your face off.
The Black Throne crew will also be taking this tour over to Hard Luck Bar in Toronto who's run by some of the truest music professionals the city has ever known. Thats November 15th.
SAVE TORONTO MUSIC VENUES - AN ANTI-FASCIST MOVEMENT
In Toronto, the music community formed Save Toronto Music Venues, a DIY charitable organization built to support independent venues and spread messaging of support.
Save Toronto Music Venues celebrates its 5th Year on Friday November 22nd at Bovine Sex Club. SCHOOL DAMAGE, PLAN 37, SMOKING IN BED and JERKOFF DIARY will all be performing.
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