Toronto clubs for rock’n’roll and modern rock

The following article from the Toronto Star provides clubs new and old and their main claims to fame, as everyone from the Stones to Elvis Costello, The Police to Led Zeppelin have played Toronto nightspots:


Toronto's Rock of Ages

Rolling Stones appearance brings back memories A tour through T.O.'s rocking

live music clubs


PETER GODDARD, GREG QUILL, BEN RAYNER AND VIT WAGNER, ENTERTAINMENT REPORTERS

Whatever the outcome of the Rolling Stones' appearance Monday at the Air Canada Centre, it won't overshadow the band's 1977 El Mocambo show, the first club gig that rock's reigning megagroup had played since its scrappy beginnings in early '60s London.

The El Mo show brought the band back to its roots, and Maggie Trudeau to sit wide-eyed at a centre-stage table. It also confirmed what a great club town Toronto was. Then again, it had been this way since the swing-era '40s.

"Next to Memphis, this is the best city for live clubs," The Band's Levon Helm told the Star back when the Yonge St. strip had half a dozen happening jazz joints, plus its share of rhythm 'n' blues.

"Yorkville was where the action was in the mid-1960s," recalls local guitar hero Danny Marks. He goes on to list a litany of local clubs that have faded into rock history: the Abbey Road Club, Picadilly Tube, Coalbin, Scuffers, The Club Jamaica, The Knob, Mouse Hole, Penny Farthing, El Patio, The Flick, Chez Monique, The Mimicombo, Gogue Inn, Rondun, Muddy York, the Colonial, Meet Market, Bermuda, Coq D'or, Hawk's Nest, Concord, the Red Gas ...

As is shown by the angst surrounding the recent closing of New York's legendary punk club CBGB's, any club's disappearance has era-ending implications. This is particularly true in Toronto, where more music history has arguably been made in clubs than in any stadium concert.

Did you hear about the night Led Zeppelin played the Rock Pile? Or when The Police made their debut at the Horseshoe? Or the afternoon Elvis Costello waited in line outside the El Mo for his own show?

A few Star writers have put their heads (and rusty memories) together to produce a list of just a few definitive club icons in Toronto's past and present, proving that rock 'n' roll never forgets — it just gets nostalgic.


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Present

Bovine Sex Club (542 Queen St. W.) The go-to destination at last call among black-clad downtown ne'er-do-wells with punk, glam and metal pretensions, the Bovine also regularly crams 'em into the narrow chute by the bar for shows by bands of a similar ilk. Folks like Marilyn Manson and Tommy Lee have been known to stop by for a cocktail.

The Cameron House (408 Queen St. W.) In a history dating more than 80 years, the Cameron has morphed from a hotel to a shady flophouse to a well-regarded launching pad for emergent Toronto artists. Blue Rodeo, Barenaked Ladies, Jane Siberry and Holly Cole were regular performers on the tiny backroom stage. The enormous bugs on the outside wall are just plain cool.

El Mocambo (464 Spadina Ave.) Arguably Toronto's most internationally notorious rock venue, the beloved El Mo is infamous for being the site of the Rolling Stones' scandalous dalliance with former Canadian first lady Margaret Trudeau during the recording of the band's Love You Live album in 1977. High-wattage stars like U2 and Elvis Costello also passed through the club's dingy upstairs room back in the day, although only faint traces of the bar's scuzzy glory days survive.

Grossman's Tavern (379 Spadina Ave.) Toronto's longest surviving live music saloon, open since 1948 and since the early 1970s the legit spawning ground for scores of artists, including The Downchild Blues Band, Jeff Healey, poets Milton Acorn and Robert Priest, singer/songwriters Rebecca Jenkins and Alannah Myles, it's still the place to hang for extended jams by emerging and veteran talent alike.

The Horseshoe Tavern (370 Queen St. W.) The legendary 'Shoe has brought in just about every worthy act you can name — the Ramones, the Strokes, the Foo Fighters, Neko Case, Neutral Milk Hotel, the Tragically Hip and, yes, the Rolling Stones — at one time or another since its original inception in 1947. Canadian icons such as Stompin' Tom Connors and The Band made their initial stamps in the back room, while notables who made their first Toronto appearances there include the Police and Wilco.

Lee's Palace (529 Bloor St. W.) Still one of the city's most thriving hot spots for what's current — and coming — the Annex joint marked its 20th year with no fanfare earlier this month. The first Toronto stop for such noteworthies as the Smashing Pumpkins, Oasis and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. And yes, we know you were one of handful of small handful of people who caught Nirvana's Toronto debut there on April 16, 1990.

Phoenix Concert Theatre/Diamond Club (410 Sherbourne St.) If Bob Dylan never plays another club show in Toronto, the Phoenix will be the site of his last such performance in the city. The location had an even more colourful life in its previous incarnation as the Diamond, an '80s focal point that hosted concerts by everyone from Sinead O'Connor and Camper Van Beethoven to Blue Rodeo and Cowboy Junkies to the Kronos Quartet.

The Rivoli (332 Queen St. W.) The epitome of 1980s Queen West hipsterdom, the Riv — opened on the site of the 1920s Rivoli Vaudeville Theatre in 1982 — remains a stable source of live music and comedy. Barenaked Ladies, Ron Sexsmith and the Cowboy Junkies adopted it as an early haunt, while Beck, Iggy Pop and Tori Amos have visited the cramped room over the years. Plus, it launched the career of the Kids in the Hall, which is about the coolest thing ever.

Silver Dollar Room (486 Spadina Ave. at College) Now Toronto's premier blues venue, and always considered the poor cousin to the nearby El Mocambo, the Dollar has a long history as one of Toronto's most used and abused music haunts, hosting hard rock, punk, country, alt-rock and even folk in 50 years of virtually unrefurbished inelegance.

Sneaky Dee's (431 College St.). One of the few bearable spots on the Little Italy club strip, the battered and unpretentious Sneaky Dee's finally brought live music back to the upstairs room a couple of years ago, witnessing boffo shows by the likes of Broken Social Scene, the Constantines, the Creeping Nobodies and the Nein. And the Tex-Mex menu downstairs is pretty fine, too.


Past

BamBoo Club (312 Queen St. W.) An early home to calypso, reggae and world music sounds. Introduced Toronto audiences to Erykah Badu, and was the launching pad for the Parachute Club. The site has since gone from an unpretentious slice of Caribbean flair to its ideological opposite, the chic be-seen lounge Ultra.

The Beverly Tavern (240 Queen St. W.) The closest bar to the Ontario College of Art and Design, the Bev hosted the likes of the Dishes, the Cads, Johnny and the G-Rays, the Country Lads, the Biffs and Cardboard Brains on any weekend night from 1976 through the early '80s. Martha and the Muffins premiered their international hit "Echo Beach" there. The Beverley was central to the artistic revolution on Queen St. W. in the 1980s.

Club Kingsway (Queensway and Kingsway) While not often used as a concert venue, this former bingo hall was visited by punk acts the Ramones and 999, prior to closing its doors in 1986.

The Crash 'n' Burn (15 Duncan St.) Another early punk landmark, this short-lived club hosted 1977 performances by Canadian upstarts the Diodes, Teenage Head, the Viletones and the Dishes.

The Edge (Egerton's) (Church and Shuter). At the edge of the Ryerson campus and now lost to the university's expansive complex of new buildings, The Edge (named after 19th- century Toronto educator Egerton Ryerson) was ostensibly a folk haunt in the late 1970s, but often featured progressive art rockers, experimental instrumentalists and local new wavers as well.

Gasworks (Yonge at Carlton). The Gasworks was a Mecca for headbangers in the 1970s and '80s. Immortalized by Mike Myers in Wayne's World, it was home to Sebastian Bach, legendary local hard rocker Greg Godovitz, Rush, Helix, Kim Mitchell and Lee Aaron. As a rock landmark, the club was on par with the El Mo and spawned similar metal palaces all within a block or two, including The Level Crossing, Yonge Station and The Nickelodeon (now the Hard Rock Café).



Read the full article on TheStar.com




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