In Search of Lost Venues – Details, episodes & analysis

Jade Blade was the lead vocalist and guitar player for legendary Vancouver  punk band The Dishrags. The band played the first punk show in Vancouver on July 30, 1977. This conversation took place on August 25, 2024.

Venues visited:

The Japanese Hall on the 400 block of Alexander Street is still the Vancouver Japanese Language School, a cultural centre. The building is from 1928.  It hosted the first punk show in Vancouver and very occasionally hosts a music show.

O’Hara’s was a bar which hosted punk shows in 1979, at the north end of Main street, past Alexander. It was part of the pier built by the Canadian National Railway in 1931 for their steamships. It was demolished in 1984.

Gambado’s was an underground art gallery at 55 Powell which had shows in 1979.

310 Water Street housed a warehouse where the Dishrags played in 1978.

The Smilin' Buddha Cabaret at 109 East Hastings Street began live as a cabaret in the 1950s. It evolved into Vancouver's iconic punk music venue in the late '70s and early 80s. It was a diy venue under the name SBC from 2013 to 2019, when it re-opened as Buddha's. It was the site of a fire in 2023 and is now closed.

The Windmill at 1047 Granville St was a bar which became a punk hangout and venue in 1978/1979. According to Public Enemeny zine, by March 1979 Windmill shut its doors to new wave “due to the destructive tendencies of the patrons.”

The Quadra Club at 1055 Homer  later became Club Soda and then the Starfish Room. It was a lesbian bar and had punk and new wave shows. It was demolished in the early 2000s.

Bands discussed: The Furies, The Dils, The Avengers, DOA, The Clash, The Ramones, The Subhumans, the K-Tels, Bo Diddley, the Pointed Sticks.

All of The Dishrags’ music is now available through Supreme Echo.  Four, an album of remastered later material, was released in 2024.

Music excerpts used with artist permission:

I Don’t Love You (Three, Supreme Echo 2014)

Tormented (Three, Supreme Echo 2014)

Welcome to Season 2, starting next week with a very exciting guest. 

Nicholas Krgovich has played in the bands p:ano, Burquitalam Plaza, Slavs, No Kids and also under his full name. This conversation was recorded on November 14th 2023.

The Sugar Refinery was a vegetarian restaurant and music venue from the mid '90s to 2003 at 1115 Granville Street. It was known for fostering local music projects which were experimental, collaborative, and whimsical. It was the site of a 48 hour show by the band Beans, who played there dozens of times.

Ms T’s Cabaret was at 339 West Pender. The building began life as it started life in 1906 as the Myers Hall and later held the city’s first purpose-built bowling alley, the Canadian Cycle and Motor Co, the Canadian Legion, the Boilermaker’s Hall, and the Marine workers’ Pender Auditorium.  During the 1960s the Auditorium was booked by music series, including the Afterthought, and was the site of an early Grateful Dead concert. The building was home to Vancouver’s earliest drag bar, BJ’s, open from 1970 to 1983, and later, the Vancouver Club Baths also opened in the basement area. After being sold, it took on a western theme as Saddle Tramps before converting to a lesbian bar, Ms. T’s, which also had music shows. It was demolished after a fire in 2003.

Other venues mentioned: The Royal, the Starfish Room, 1067 jazz club, Blim, The Blinding Light!, Richard’s on Richards, Graceland, Luv-a-fair.

YIMP fest is an annual show at Falaise park since 2021.

Bands mentioned: The Secret Three, Radio Berlin, Beans, Adrian Orange, Slavs, Tujiko Noriko, Belle and Sebastian, Looper, The Strokes, Interpol, Yo La Tengo, Smog, Blonde Redhead, Red House Painters, Peaches, Low, Luscious Jackson, Cibo Mato, Butter 08,  Bettie Serveert, Six Organs of Admittance, Joel R L Phelps, the Radio

Thank you to Kellarissa for the original theme music. Thank you to Geooge at Zum.

Music clips used with artist permission.

p:ano: "All of November, Most of October" from When It’s Dark and It’s Summer (2002)
Beans:  "Alpaca Llama" from Tired Snow EP (2000 Zum Media)
Burquitlam Plaza: "Round One" from Big On Fall (2003)

Larissa Loyva has played in p:ano, Kellarissa, Fake Tears, the Choir Practice, How to Dress Well, Destroyer, Dream/loss. Jonelle Aspa has been in the bands Sontag, Hen Party, Anybodys and Dream/loss. Both are involved in organizing Girls Rock Camp Vancouver. This conversation was recorded on December 29 2023.

The Secret Location was a venue, rehearsal space and artists’ studios collective located at 841 E Hastings St between 2003 and 2021.

Other venues discussed include Red Gate, the Astoria, 333, Merge, 360 Glen, the Emergency Room, CBDB’s, the Black Lab, Goodie, Franklin Studios.

Other musicians discussed: Nu Sensae, White Lung, Twin Crystals, Fortress, Anju Singh, Holzkopf, Whip of the UFO, Channels 3 and 4, N.213, Shearing Pinx, Diane, Monashee, Baptists, Cult Babies, Winona Forever.

Huge thank you to Kellarissa for the original theme music.

Music clips used with artist permission

Kellarissa: Carrying On from Flamingo (2008, Mint Records)

Anybodys: RFK (2020 version) from Acts of Endurance (2021)

Harley Rothstein’s first band was the folk duo Russ and Harley. He then played in the psychedelic rock bands The French Hand Laundry, Pacific Nation and My Indole Ring.  The conversation was recorded on August 30 2023.

Russ and Harley played at The Bunkhouse, a folk music coffee house at 612 Davie Street in the 1960s.

The rock bands played at The Retinal Circus at 1024 Davie Street in 1967 and 1968. The club was operated by Jim Allan, Blaine Culling and Roger Schiffer.  Memorable shows there included Country Joe MacDonald and the Fish, Bo Diddley, Muddy Water, Charlatans and the Velvet Underground. Some of the local bands which played are Pacific Nation, The Painted Ship, Mock Duck, Papa Bear’s Medicine Show, The Collectors, Mother Tucker's Yellow Duck, My Indole Ring.

Video of six psych bands filmed for three episodes of the CBC show on Let's Go.

The Kitsilano Theatre was at 2114 W 4th Ave. Since 1958 it has been the Russian Community Centre, and in 1966 was often rented out to The Afterthought, a concert series which put on shows at various venues over the decade.

Huge thank you to Kellarissa for the original theme music. And thank you to Vancouver's Regenerator Records.

Music clips used with artist permission.

Harley Rothstein: Karen’s History Book from Songs of Love and Humanity (2023). The song was written in 1968 by Harley, Russell Precious and Stan Persky for the band The Pacific Nation.

Mother Tucker's Yellow Duck: I (from The Cool-Aid Benefit Album [1970] re-released in 2010 by Regenerator Records)

Mock Duck: Do Re Mi (from The Cool-Aid Benefit Album [1970] re-released in 2010 Regenerator Records)

Adrienne LaBelle has played in The Barcelona Chair, Aunts and Uncles, Movieland, Garbage Dreams, Supermoon, Lazy Bear.

Venues visited: Red Gate (855 East Hastings), 121 Heatley, Hoko’s (362 Powell), The Astoria (769 E Hastings), Spirit Vegetable studio (876 Cordova Diversion), Ironworks Studio, the Zoo Zhop (223 Main Street), Chapel Arts (305 Dunlevy

Other venues mentioned: La Casa del Artista, Toast Collective, the Cobalt, Little Mountain, Railway Club, Red Cat Records, The Waldorf, Pat's Pub

Also mentioned: the Wind Whistles, Johnny de Courcy, Lié, They Shoot Horses Don't They, Ian Mackaye, Japandroids, Chris-a-riffic, Kidnap Kids, Apollo Ghosts

Music Waste is Vancouver's diy music festival which started in 1994.

Mint Records an independent record label in Vancouver founded in 1991.

Steve Louie has been documenting the Vancouver music scene since around 2007.

Shindig is UBC radio station CiTR’s annual battle of the bands, going since 1984.

Safe Amp was the Safe Amplification Society, a non-profit which worked to create an all-ages venue in Vancouver in the early 2010s. They established a venue at Astorino's for several years.

Fake Jazz is a long running experimental music series in Vancouver. It continues today after a few hiatuses.

Huge thank you to Kellarissa for the original theme music.

Music clips used with artist permission.

Supermoon: Powersuits from Comet Lovejoy (2015, Alarum Records)

Movieland: Politics of Ecology from blows up (2013, Green Burrito Records)

Garbage Dreams: Tooth & Nail from Demonstrations (2018)

This conversation was recorded on December 12 2023.

Chris Alscher AKA Chris-A-Riffic played with the band They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? and has performed as a solo artist for several decades. He is a radio host on CiTR, the University of British Columbia radio station, with his show Parts Unknown which has been on the air for over two decades. We walk down Main Street from 29th avenue to 22nd avenue, discussing Little Mountain Gallery, Chroma Books, Blim and more.

Chroma Books was a bookstore upstairs at 4424 Main Street which opened in 2002 and occasionally had shows of experimental and lo-fi music.

They Live Video, at 4340 Main St, hosted bands in the 2010s.

Little Mountain Gallery was at 195 E 26th Ave built in 1930. It became an art space known as the Butchershop Collective in 2001 and Little Mountain Gallery was established in 2006. After music shows, it became an underground comedy club. It was demolished in 2023 despite the attempts of arts groups to preserve it.

Lucky’s Comics was a comic and bookstore at 3972 Main Street which has now relocated eight blocks north.

Other venues mentioned are The Regional Assembly of Text (3934 Main Street), Blim (opened in 2003 in the old BC Electric Building at 23 W Pender, then at 197 East 17th Ave and now at 115 E Pender St, an art shop, no longer a venue) Solder and Sons (247 Main Street), Chris’s shed, the Java Joint (Surrey), the New York Theatre now the York Theatre (639 Commercial Dr).

Bands mentioned include Apollo Ghosts, Chain and the Gang, Charlamides, Fanshaw (Olivia Fetherstonhaugh), Kellarissa (Larissa Loyva), Tygh Runyan (Beans), crys cole, Nicholas Krgovich, connect_icut, Collapsing Opposites, the Diskettes, Tough Age, Darto, Weed, Hemogoblin, Cascadia, Smithy Ramone, Kidnap Kids (formerly Beggars & Chairs), Better Friends than Lovers, Marta McKeever, the Unicorns, Swamp Camp, Sandro Perri (Polmo Polpo), Gal Gracen. Rose Melberg, Leah Abramson, Search Parties, Holtzkopf, Cub, Gob, Sparkmarker, NoMeansNo, All State Champion, Tricky Woo, Ahna. 

Huge thank you to Kellarissa for the original theme music.

Music clips used with artist permission.

Chris-a-riffic: Late Night Vietnamese Restaurant from Treats (2019)

Apollo Ghosts: Things You Go Through from Mount Benson (2010)

Kidnap Kids: Kids from You Would Run from Ratboy Grave (2009)

This conversation was recorded on September 24 2023. Our unexpected audio guests were Jarrett Evan Samson  and Lauren Smith of the band Tough Age.

Welcome to In Search of Lost Venues, where I walk through a neighbourhood with one or more Vancouver musicians, talking about the sites and locations of their favourite venues, places where significant events occurred, both personal and artistic.

In this season you will hear conversations with:

• Chris-a-Riffic about Little Mountain Studios and other venues on Main Street
• Adrienne LaBelle about the second Red Gate, Hoko's, the Zoo Zhop and more
• Nicholas Krgovich about the Sugar Refinery, Ms T's Cabaret and the Starfish Room
• Lindiwe Coyne about the Malcolm Lowry Room
• Harley Rothstein about the Retinal Circus and the Bunkhouse
• Jonelle Aspa and Larissa Loyva about the Secret Location
•  Ida Nilsen about The Blinding Light!, Railway Club and Sugar Refinery
• and more!

You will hear stories from the late 1960s until the present day about the local music scene and the urban landscape in which it takes place.

Celina Kurz has been playing in bands since she was in high school. Her current projects is Future Star. Former bands are True Crush and Kidnap Kids (originally Bears and Chairs) and has played in others, including The Trolls and Only A Visitor.

Venues visited:

The Mansion was a venue for house shows on Victoria and Adanac.

 Astorino’s was the venue for the Safe Amplification Site Society (Safe Amp 2013-2015) at the site of a former dining hall at 1739 Venables Street.

Franklin Studios (1654 Franklin St) is an artspace which existed as a music venues for a period in the 2010s.

Flatlands is a house on Victoria Drive, north of Venables, which hosted an annual music festival called Flatlandia starting in 2016 and continuing for several years.

Other venues mentioned: TheTeen Raveup, the Zoo Zhop, the Moontower.

Musicians discussed include Tommy Tone, Chris-a-riffic, Rockridge, Lunch Lady, Dogbreth, Diners, Greenbelt Collective, Nicholas Krgovich.

Shout Back Festival! (2012, 2013 and 2014) was an anarcha-feminist, queer, radical, anti-capitalist DIY music festival .

Circle ‘Round is a new music series organized by Celina at the Lido.

Music clips used with artist permission.

Kidnap Kips: Stories from You Would Run From Ratboy Grave (2009, Geographing Records)

Trush Crush: diss appear from We Like Us (2013)

Future Star: Karoake from cryorities (2016)

Veda Hille is a beloved Vancouver musician, composer, theatre maker, and performer. She first played in a band called Mudlarks and started making records under her own name in 1991. She also had a children’s band called Duplex. She has been involved in music, art, and theatre for several decades, creating and collaborating in many genres. This conversation took place on May 14th 2024.

Venues visited:

La Quena Coffee House was at 1111 Commercial Drive from the early 1980s until 2000. It was a non-profit political meeting hub.

Cafe Deux Soleils (1393 Commercial Dr, ) was a vegetarian restaurant which hosted music and poetry events starting in the ‘90s, and closed in 2022.

Edison Electric Gallery of Moving Images, an experimental film centre run by Alex Mackenzie, was near Commercial and Venables.

The Oddfellows Hall at 1720 Graveley Street (a branch of the international frateral orgnization), held at least a dozen punk shows fom 1979 to 1984.

The York Theatre (639 Commercial Drive), where Veda Hille stages the East Van Panto each winter, was previously the New York Theatre rock venue in the ‘80s and ‘90s before becoming the Raja Bollywood Cinema.

Royal Canadian Legion Branch 179 at 2205 Commercial Dr.

Music clips used with artist permission.

Veda Hille: Neighbourhood Song from Songs About People and Buildings (1991)
One Hot Summer from Spine (1996)
LuckLucky from This Riot Life (2008)
Tracers from Beach Practice (2020)