Rebeltown – Punk Music in Vancouver
THE SCENE
During the 1970 and 80’s several cities were shaping what would eventually become the global punk rock community. UK punk was exploding. New York was buzzing. Even San Francisco and Los Angeles were churning out a California brand of jock-punk. But up north in Vancouver, something else was happening.
A new kind of punk rock was emerging from the sooty warehouses of Old Yaletown. It was grungier, it was angrier, and it was proactive. The sense of social responsibility adopted by Vancouver’s youth seemed to grow with their music. In fact early bands like DOA were as much about political activism as they were about music. But different winds of change were blowing across the False Creek shoreline. With the arrival of Expo 86 came a re-facing of the old warehouse district, which effectively swallowed up many of Yaletown’s shadowy makeshift venues. Punk’s dark and dodgy neighbourhoods disappeared overnight as an oblivious city remodelled for the World’s Fair. Vancouver’s angry voice grew silent and sullen. By the 1990’s, the 207-acre Expo site was snapped up by foreign investors and converted into multi-million dollar high-rise condo projects. Eventually, all punk’s landmark bars closed their doors; the Town Pump, Starfish Room... even the famous Smilin’ Buddha Cabaret turned off its neon sign. But Punk Rock wasn’t dead. It was just hung over. As the cobwebs steadily cleared over the next decade, punk rose again and with its little brother, Hardcore lifted its leather-clad fist defiantly in the air once more. The warehouses might be gone, the scene might be smaller, but the music is alive and well. You just have to throw on some jack-boots, combat pants and studded leather jacket and go looking for it.
THE ESSENTIAL VENUES
The Asbalt
769 East Hastings St., Vancouver, BC, V6A 1R3, tel: (604) 254-3355
Rocking out at the Asbalt - by Holly Lawrence
Helmed by Wendy13, former owner of the once-famous punk hangout, the Cobalt, this mid-sized East Side establishment in the Astoria Hotel is a real-deal Skid Row bar, right down to its graffiti, super-cheap beer and less-than-ideal location. This factor, along with the terrific sound-system, attract the tattooed, the pierced and the mohawked in nightly droves. Most days of the week will find them thrashing, moshing and otherwise ploughing their way through set after set of some of the city’s finest punk, metal and hardcore. But the Vancouver East Side’s slow-but-steady gentrification has brought a new crowd. Off-nights for the aggressive and leather-clad have become it-nights for the flocks of hipster-kids who, tiring of the incessant top-forty pulse of the Granville Entertainment District, have wandered further East in search of a more visceral experience. Punk, it would seem, is finally learning how to make friends.
The Lamplighter
210 Abbott St., Vancouver, BC, V6B 2K8, tel: (604) 899-3229
The Hot Loins at The Lamp - by Sarah Cordingley
While possessing a rather eclectic calendar of events, the 169-capacity bar in Gastown’s Dominion Grand Hotel caters regularly to the counter-culture crowd by way of burlesque, hardcore and punk shows. For more about the venue, see Loud Loudwest - Where Rock Lives.
Malone's
608 West Pender St., Vancouver, BC, V6B 1V8, tel: (604) 737-7777
Malone's Bar and Grill - by Roland Tanglao
Every city has its hostel-pub -- typically, a lively place catering to a strange cross of carefree travelers and libation-loving locals. Malone’s is no exception. Established in 1992, their downtown pub (they also have a Kitsilano location) is first-and-foremost a sports bar, offering everything from pay-per-view fights to DJ’s to live-music on Saturdays. But this city institution is more than just a great place for beer, burgers and a Canucks game. As well as playing host to various punk and metal acts, Malone’s also features a punk/metal/alt-rock night with DJ A-Sharp every Tuesday and a no-cover metal/rock extravaganza each Friday.
The Piccadilly Pub
620 West Pender St., Vancouver, BC, V6B 1V8 tel: (604) 682-3221
Coffee and Cigarettes live at Piccadilly by Milo de Villiers
Two doors further down the stretch that locals refer to as ‘The Pender Street Bender’, is the red brick-walled, hardwood-floored Piccadilly Pub. A favourite college-kid destination, ‘The Pic’ as it has been affectionately coined, is the most commercial venue you’ll find for hard music. With a steadily rotating roster of bands performing live on its stage seven nights a week, it sometimes takes a little more time and energy to differentiate between a noisy frat-pack beer-fest and an honest-to-goodness wicked show. After all, this isn’t your Asbalt crowd. But when the right band hits this stage, it’s a night not soon forgotten.
Pub 340
340 Cambie St., Vancouver, BC, V6B 2N3, tel: (604) 602-0644
Nervous Breakdowns at Pub 340 - by Holly Lawrence
Pub 340 has been spotlighting heavy, live acts since 2003 via Night Creature Productions and The Nerve Magazine. A modest 140-seater, the pub provides an intimate setting as well as impressive sight lines from almost any seat. A bureaucratic spat saw the club close briefly and almost vanish altogether, but through the never-say-die attitude of its regular patrons and some amazing tenacity from its promoters, disaster was averted. Pub 340 has been reopened, its amplifiers cranked to ten, since January 2008. Vancouver’s punk and metal merchants know how to look after their own.
BACKYARD TALENT
Vancouver has a substantial mob of punk-merchants who have loitered around its seedier sectors for over three decades. Past and present, here are some of the city’s favourite rebel sons and daughters.
- DOA
- The Subhumans
- Bill of Rights
- House of Commons
- Young Canadians
- Death Sentence
- I, Braineater
- No Means No
- Hissy Fit
- Karen Foster
- Mr. Plow
- Satina Saturina
- Leper
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