the state of venues in victoria

[tylerp]

just an informal discussion. I'm of the opinion that not enough kids are interested in hardcore and it is not economically viable to rent an all ages venue in most cases. the obvious fix to this would be to get more kids into hardcore. I wish I knew how this worked. postering? handing out mix cds? being more accepting and inviting?

I think there's a little generational gap where "starting a band" got really cool shortly after I was already into hardcore. so any young kids interested in exploring music get sucked in by their friends' bands and tastes and miss out on hardcore. most of these new bands are usually some sort of derivative pop punk metalcore image-based kind of thing that falls outside of our interests and values.

the thing that really sucked me into hardcore was how fun shows were. I guess it could help to spread the word, invite people with a casual interest, that sort of stuff.

meanwhile, it seems that Bayanihan is nearly our only option as a cheap rented venue, unless it's a larger show. because not enough kids are coming.

as far as house shows, troy and I want to continue to have them. the cops got called last time, which is reallllly bad news. it's not because the bands were loud. we have been doing listening tests and it sounds super quiet when a band is playing. it's because a lot of people were drunk in our backyard when it was late on a weekday and they got loud.

if they get called at either of the next shows, we're going to get fined and our landlord is going to find out. which means no more house shows. I know you guys have been enjoying the house shows. so we really need these shows to happen -early- and to have no more than a handful of people outside at any given time. and we could use your help in keeping people inside and keeping the doors shut. or keeping the kids outside quiet.

does anyone have any other thoughts on this stuff?

[Jordan f.]

really it comes down to get more kids into hardcore. There are venues in town but not really any that are finanically smart for our scene right now. Getting more kids to shows isn't easy now that metal-core sucks up most kids who are into "agressive music". Ways to introduce kids to hardcore

-Poster at highschools/middle schools
-Notice someone new at a show say Hi. I remember when I first started getting into hardcore alot of people I am good friends with now were super welcoming to me. Being 13-14 and alone at a show is terrifying enough, having people being dicks isn't going to make them want to come back.
-Troy/Tyler, we should find away to let more younger kids know about your radio shows.
-Mix bills. Some kids that came for FIA at hardcore fest were definitly into the actual hardcore bands
-Hand Bills

I'll add to the list later. This board may also help. It's been up for less then a week and this new dude Jordan seems pretty eager to get into more bands.

ATTN Bands: Getting bands like Promises, Black Cloud etc. on shows they wouldn't normally play would be awsome. Yeah, the show might suck but if 2 or 3 kids really liked you, that's 2 or 3 more kids paying at the door for the next hardcore show.

[dalamar501]

attendance is one of the main problems we face. Or well also attracting new young fresh people. In my opinion we have to do a full on flyering of highschools. Also UVic. There is a new group of students there the other day one came through my till at thriftys wearing a Failures shirt!! and had heard my radio show.

Venues. That is a whole other issue. Prices to rent them as well as poster and pay out of town bands are well let's just say crazy. Most Community centres are going to be between $200-300. Bigger gym centres (Burnside, etc) are $500 unless you know the person. Vic Event Centre is cheap weekdays.. but sucks sound wise and also is still expensive. Sunset IS WAY TO EXPENSIVE for its size.
Bayanihan is the best bet now adays.
If Camas can ever do shows again that would be nice too.

There is another new "bigger" venue in town as well on Quadra. "Victoria Arts Connection"
supposedly its a huge room that can be split in 2 rooms. No details on pricing yet. You need to hire pro security. Concession space, etc minimum lighting, small stage, and the person running it wants to get involved with working with the music scene
http://www.victoriaartsconnection.com


SO what do we have for venues:
Troyler house: cheapppppppppp haha
Bayanihan : $100 (small capacity)
Sunset Room: $300+ (almost always available!) 100 in gate capacity, 60 in room.
Burnside Gym: $250/$500 (large capacity)
Orange Hall : ??? cheapish? might cancel a show on you.
James Bay Community Centre: $240 ish?
DAP Studio: don't know the details in Vic West ish
That new place where Jamaican Jerk House used to be.
Norway House: $550. hard to get
White Eagle : $500-550 large
Ambrosia Event Centre : $250? - $400
Vic Event Centre: $275 -$1000 based on day of week
Open Space: forget pricing...
Metro/Intrepid: have to get insurance i think

there are other venues probably.

back what jordan said as well

[Hollow]

Just ordered these.


Also, I back putting up posters for Troy and Tylers radio shows, good way to get people into hardcore. I also think that it's a good call to get Promises and Black Cloud playing shows other than hardcore.

[grind/bro]

I miss the days of the Burnside house. Best venue EVER.?

[Hollow]

I miss the days of the Burnside house. Best venue EVER.

I've heard so many good things about this house.

[dalamar501]

I miss the days of the Burnside house. Best venue EVER.

i remember seeing shows being listed for there.. never went however...

[Josh]

We were just talking about this at practice the other night. Let me preface this by saying that I started doing shows when there were no hardcore shows here and no hardcore kids here at all. In order for this scene to grow, bills have to be mixed, who cares if you dont like a band, if they draw well and play even semi aggressive music, put them on bills. If you have 2 or 3 bands from different genres that draw 20 kids each and a couple hardcore bands, show attendance will be up. Bands with members in high school are generally particularly good to boost attendance numbers, as they tend to bring friends. Unfortunately, Victoria is just far to small to be able to have shows with just hardcore bands all of the time that will be able to pay the bills. Kids who are into hardcore generally got into it through some other genre of music, I was a huge metalhead in highschool) so it is likely that if they arent ostracized they will keep coming back. There will be people push moshing and drinking at shows and stuff, but its up to us to educate tehm as to whats going on.
Concentrating Postering around high schools is also a good idea, although its kindof a pain in the ass, although not really if someone has a vehicle.
Another thing that could help is handbilling. I used to go to shows I wasnt even remotely interested in just to hand out handbills, and I think that seemed to help as well. Handbills should be physically handed out though, not just left in a pile by the door.

[tylerp]

I handbilled the shit out of my last two all ages venue shows, including going to other shows and handing them personally to everyone there. I thought it would work. it didn't, really, but it doesn't hurt I suppose.

I suppose we should probably think about putting more high school bands on our next all ages venue shows? but probably not at the house shows...

[grind/bro]

If you never went to any shows at the Burnside house you really missed what I think underground music was all about. It was filthy, people were smoking, breaking bottles, generally getting fucked up while bands played right in your face. The best shows of my life were in that place. I first saw Goatsblood there and it actually blew my mind. The Cloak had a show or two there, one of which was when I was still in Mitochondrion. They had this magic about them that night, they just sounded like bigger than anything else in Vic at that time. Bury Whats Dead was suuuuch an important band I thought too at the time. Very apt combination of dark hardcore and black metal. Then there was Acting Ensign, a Star-Trek themed doom/sludge band complete with costumes. I really got my start with live music there, watching and performing.

I remember the final show. Every minute. Grimlorn played (most people probably won't remember them but essentially a very early young version of what Apep/Havoc/Miasma became...haha) and were pretty awesome. The grindcore band that later became Chaos Assassin played their first show, which I was supposed to play at but didn't because of my broken arm. I did play with Mito that night though, a very short but sweet set. I'm pretty sure Noel's old band played...can't remember the name right now but they sounded like Bolt Thrower even though some of the dudes had NEVER heard of them before. Goatsblood wrapped up the night as people were literally smoking crack upstairs, and causing outrageous property damage. GB were just this amorphous entity of madness, Blair disappeared after two songs, the bass player started smashing his shit around, Masa obviously lost his shit and Kurt was being Kurt. The whole set dissolved, but picked up as members of the audience slowly participated in a slow rebuild of the broken gear. I was so drunk at this show and was wearing an Ozzy shirt, so it became this fucking just giant destructive jam fest. Fuck, best show ever. Seriously.

Really I think the venue was the best thing for kids coming up in the extreme music scene. It kept things very mysterious still, very unapproachable. It had such a DIY ethic about it all. It was a group of dudes putting on whatever shows they wanted to because they could. You didn't get paid, you didn't expect to pay outrageous prices for entry and you were surrounded by the friendliest people alive. I think hardcore/metal/punk needs a place like this for the live scene to really take off because that's what these genres are founded on. I totally respect all ages stuff when it comes to a lot of the bands in this town, but it sucks not seeing an actual alternative to those events. The Burnside house was that alternative. I could have been watching local bands at a gym, which I did, but that never captured the true energy of the music. A house venue properly set-up needs to happen. Fuck the fancy places around town. Take chances. Get in trouble with the cops. The nature of what you want to build is in that spirit of the unknown, that ghost of complete entropy.

[Fish]

I really like what you guys are saying about having more shows with mix bills -- I try to get out to as many shows as I can, but convincing people to come with me when they don't know the names/genre is kind of difficult. While I can't speak from personal experience, I know a lot of my friends have found bands they are now in love with at shows with mix bills.

As far as venues go, I know next to nothing, but from all the shows I've been too, I personally think the Bayanihan is my favourite, mainly because of its size and location. It's small, which honestly is fitting for the number of people that attend these shows... which makes Burnside my least favourite venue (maybe just too many memories of pop-punk bands on that stage playing to an audience of... say... 22).

I'd love to see more postering happening, especially around the Uvic area, but it seems like they're never up long enough to be worth it; I used to rely on posters for shows, then I realized I wsa never going to find any shows that way.

The business cards are pretty dank though.

[AC]

-Poster at highschools/middle schools
-Notice someone new at a show say Hi. I remember when I first started getting into hardcore alot of people I am good friends with now were super welcoming to me. Being 13-14 and alone at a show is terrifying enough, having people being dicks isn't going to make them want to come back.
-Troy/Tyler, we should find away to let more younger kids know about your radio shows.
-Mix bills. Some kids that came for FIA at hardcore fest were definitly into the actual hardcore bands
-Hand Bills

this is exactly what you need to do also what tyler was saying about continuing to hand out hand bills to people everywhere!

[Tambro]

We were just talking about this at practice the other night. Let me preface this by saying that I started doing shows when there were no hardcore shows here and no hardcore kids here at all. In order for this scene to grow, bills have to be mixed, who cares if you dont like a band, if they draw well and play even semi aggressive music, put them on bills. If you have 2 or 3 bands from different genres that draw 20 kids each and a couple hardcore bands, show attendance will be up. Bands with members in high school are generally particularly good to boost attendance numbers, as they tend to bring friends. Unfortunately, Victoria is just far to small to be able to have shows with just hardcore bands all of the time that will be able to pay the bills. Kids who are into hardcore generally got into it through some other genre of music, I was a huge metalhead in highschool) so it is likely that if they arent ostracized they will keep coming back. There will be people push moshing and drinking at shows and stuff, but its up to us to educate tehm as to whats going on.
Concentrating Postering around high schools is also a good idea, although its kindof a pain in the ass, although not really if someone has a vehicle.
Another thing that could help is handbilling. I used to go to shows I wasnt even remotely interested in just to hand out handbills, and I think that seemed to help as well. Handbills should be physically handed out though, not just left in a pile by the door.

[ZACH ATTACK]

I had a really long reply for this thread, and then my computer restarted itself. I'm leaving for dinner with my dad soon, so I'll re type it when I get home.

[Rude Boy Puff]

Just ordered these.


Also, I back putting up posters for Troy and Tylers radio shows, good way to get people into hardcore. I also think that it's a good call to get Promises and Black Cloud playing shows other than hardcore.

Should read: No Warning is just baby madball so why not just listen to madball, pussy

[keith.]

like jordan mentioned, when i came to vic everyone was so friendly and accepting and thats what should keep happening.

i havent seen too many new faces around but more mixed bills there are always a lot of young kids there (im thinking specificly of the VANGUARD/BEATKIDS show) i mean those are young kids so i kinda feel weird talking to them but the friendly-face thing should at least start up again cause the all-hardcore gigs arnt gonna work all the time

the venue problem is also getting bad. i would still be more than willing to help out/volunteer/fund/build a venue for us to run. sort of a viaduct situation. we had something like that in nanaimo about a year ago called the chrome horse and it was awesome because it turned into a place where all the young kids could go on a weekend and see eachother/hang out (and yes get wasted so that might be a problem) but since they always came, they were always seeing the new bands play and there was good draws. but of course it eventually shut down the bills got too high and it was just too unorganized with 1 guy doing all the leg work

[Jordan f.]

This is hard to word without coming off like a fucking dickbag mosh jock but...... More people need to go off at shows. As lame as it sounds, being in a room with people losing their shit makes shows a lot more intense. Make the shows fun. Hardcore is supposed to be scarry. Honestly, everybody has "that show" they remember where they were pretty new to hardcore and shit got wild. That feeling fucking sticks with you. New kids coming to shows should get that feeling. Fuck looking good, just go off.

p.s, I 100% beleive that more people singing along/going off to the local bands will bring more kids out.

[Rude Boy Puff]

jock

[keith.]

i think if jordan started to wear his full-body fubu sweatsuit he would attract new kids to shows

[Jordan f.]

i think if jordan started to wear his full-body fubu sweatsuit he would attract new kids to shows

that shit was off the hook, I had style back when I was 12.