Last night, May 24, we saw the end of the great Kitchener Punk-House, The Sweatlodge. Started by Jesse Robertson, Cory Kobbert, Hugh (Sorry, I don't know your last name) and Kristin (Sorry, I don't know your last name either) in the summer of 2007, the house was a home to many others, including 2 Germans and some of my good friends Sam and Adam.
The house was located in downtown Kitchener, very close to what was considered the "sketchy" area of town, apparently only a few blocks from a handful of crack houses. Despite this, it never stopped kids from packing the house on a weekly or monthly basis. The house held a strict "No Drugs, No Booze, No Bullshit" policy, which helped avoid numerous police visits. It also helped a lot of people to see that you can have the time of your life watching great bands, sober. That might seem like a given to a lot of people, but there's a fair share of people who's only reason to go to a show is to get drunk and break stuff. They also kept nearly every show to $5/PWYC (Pay What You Can), and made a point to pay touring bands every time they played. On many occasions, there would be vegan food prepared for bands and guests. On more than a handful of nights, I'd be at my house trying to cook up a giant pot's worth of food for the show, and having to rush so that I'd be able to get down there before the show started.
In case you're curious about the name, it was given to the house after the first show there, in the summer of '07. You see, the basement is barely 6 feet high, which would be alright for short people watching indie bands, but not great for people to dance to punk bands to. So, they held the shows in the house's Master Bedroom. In an attempt to soundproof the room, the one window in the room was filled with soundproofing material and sealed off. Needless to say, the room got hot, especially in the summer. There were at least a dozen times when the first band had just finished playing, and there was already condensation dripping down the walls. So anyway, after the first show, I think it was Erik from The Decay made a comment that "It's like a sweatlodge in here", and at that moment, the house had it's name. One time, after the Brutal Knights finished, I was walking down the stairs, eager for a breath of fresh, February air to cool myself down, and ended up falling down the stairs because they were so soaked with condensation. The thing was, no matter how hot the house room got, no matter how drenched in your own (and other people's) sweat, you always wanted to stay until the last band was finished playing.
The first show at the Sweatlodge was held on June 9th, 2007, where the bands U-Lock Terror, The Derailers, The Decay, A Good Story and Elsa Jayne played. In that near 2-year period, many bands played, including (in no particular order) Mockingbird Wish Me Luck, Broadcast Zero, Hard Charger, Dead City Citizens, Subsistance, Black Bloc Serenade (My first band), Bomb The Music Industry!(Played their first show in Canada at this house), Yakiniku Warfare (our good friends), Empty Hands (Yakiniku Warfare + Black Bloc Serenade + About To Snap), Confustion Bolts! (Pop-punk amazingness, thanks to Adam), Second Guess (My second band), Titan, RAH, Eating Glass, Vatican Chainsaw Massacre, Black Ships, Fathers Day (an awesome hardcore band, thanks to Cory), Breadcat, Life In Vacuum, A Good Story (Adam's folk-punk band), The Decay, The Rebel Spell, The Fallout, White York, Orphan Choir, Red Inside, The Proof, Spy Machine Sixteen, Lemuria, Summer of '92, What Seas What Shores, Barbarian Electric, Dead Dogs, Reprobates, Brutal Knights, Cursed (played their last show in North America before breaking up in Europe), Newberry Vs. Newberry, The Music Box, Elsa Jayne, Wayfarer, Hinindar, The Derailers, U-Lock Terror, Fairy Boy, Aspirations and Demos. I'm probably forgetting a few, but just by the size of that list, you can see how many great people and bands passed through the house.
The final show was held on Sunday May 24, 2009 with the bands Despite All This, Wayfarer, Adam CZ, Jesse Robertson, Empty Hands, The Decay and Mark It Zero playing. I was amazed by the number of people who came out for this show. Nearly everyone who lived in Kitchener-Waterloo who'd gone do more than 5 shows was there, all of our closest friends showed up, a handfull of kids from Guelph biked from Guelph to Kitchener, bringing with them a couple kids from Winnipeg who'd come down to visit and Adam ventured back from Winnipeg, where he's been living since this winter. It was one of the happiest times we'd ever had at that house, and we're all going to miss it when it's gone.
The Sweatlodge did so much for the Kitchener-Waterloo punk/hardcore scene. In recent years, we'd had numerous venues closed down due to the antics of (seriously) dumb fucking kids who have no respect for the people and buildings around them. Without this house, more than half of the bands in that giant list above would not have played in Kitchener, and so many of our local bands would have no place to play, I think The Decay and Empty Hands played there more than anyone else. We also counted and my brother played there more than any other individual, between Black Bloc Serenade, Demos, Empty Hands and Mark It Zero he played a total of 15 times.
I just want to thank everybody who made that house what it was in the 2 years that it was active for: Jesse, Cory, Adam, Hugh, Kristin, Chris, Josclyn, Sam, Christine, Colin, Mike, Branco (for all the poster artwork), Kyle, Steve, Steve the Ginger, Tyler Savage, Erik, the Bens, Jordan, Dan, Scott, Bill and all the Guelph kids, Blar, Cam, Dave, Kay, The Commotion House Kids who were inspired by the Sweatlodge, everyone who went there and had a great time, all I can say is THANK YOU SO MUCH! I had some of the best times of my life at that house because of all you.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Weekend fun in Montreal
Yeah, so I finally got bored enough with the boatloads of free time I have to finally start writin' shit on 'ere.
So anyway, I just spent the past weekend in Montreal, Quebec. I took the train with my friend Jesse, who was surprised to find that I'd gotten us first-class tickets from Toronto to Montreal. So, in addition to great amounts of leg-room and 'free' food ('free' meaning 'included in the price of the ticket'), we also had access to the Panorama Lounge at Union Station in Toronto, and the station in Montreal. The lounge was alright. There was lots of free juice and coffee, which we each took our fair share of. We both found it so strange that two dirty punks would ever get access to the lounge that we both got pictures of each other reading the Financial Post.
About five-and-a-bit hours later, we got into Montreal. After a good walk, and a falafel stop, we got to our friend Dan's apartment. We hung out for a bit before heading out to a bar called Les Katacombes to see my friend's band, The Rotten (http://www.myspace.com/therotten) (I'm not good with this linking shit, so bear with me) opening for the almighty SNFU.
The Rotten had just gotten into town right at 8:00, when the doors opened at the show, after driving for 8 hours. They didn't play their greatest, but it's always fun to see them. The next 3 bands, I didn't care for all that much. There was one band who played poorly done 80's style hardcore for way too long, a NY-style hardcore band, made up of 4 skinheads and another guy, and a fairly well known Montreal hardcore band called Ab Irato. Then there was SNFU. This was the second time I'd seen them, and they are quickly becoming my favorite band to see live. If you don't know them, and you really really really should, especially if you're into Canadian punk at all, they've been around since 1982 and play sort of skate-style punk with strange, witty, creative lyrics. Their singer, Mr. Chi Pig is by far one of the greatest and strangest people I have ever met. He's this almost 50-year-old half-Chineese guy with a long beard and long hair, both bleached white, so he kinda looks like a cracked-out half-chineese Gandalf. His stage presence is incredible. He gets up in everyone's faces and pulls strange poses, only stopping to make hilarious remarks to the audience between songs. Some good ones I can remember were "I put the 'poo' in poutine" and "Who the fuck are you? You're not Capitain Kirk! This is my fuckin' starship!" On stage, the guy's got more energy than most bands I see who are fronted by guys half his age. Anyway, they absolutly ruled the night, and after singing along for the entire show (and into the mic for about a third of the show), Chi Pig came over and gave me a big, sweaty hug, and a pack of free buttons. Seriously, if you don't know them, you are really missing out. Oh yeah, I also met the singer from the great Canadian punk rock band the Ripcordz. The thing was, I didn't realize it until the train ride home. I was talkin' to the guy after the second band's set (their name escapes me, probably for a good reason), and I knew I'd seen his face somewhere before. The next day, I picked up a Ripcordz cd from Sound Centeral, a cool punk record store, but hadn't bothered to look at the booklette until the train ride home when I realized 'Oh shit! That's the guy I was talking to the other night".
Anyway, the next day, we went to go check out the Montreal Anarchist book fair. It was really cool, lots of interesting people. It was held in this public school with the ‘book’ area being held in the gymnasium area. It got kinda shitty after a while when it started raining, and there ended up being a couple hundred people packed into this gym, but aside from that, it was really fun. After the fair, we headed down to our friend Blar’s place, which is a loft in a building that used to just be a huge warehouse. There, we met the guys and girls from the bands Mutiny and Leper, some awesome crust bands from Victoria, BC (http://www.myspace.com/mutinycreepcore, http://www.myspace.com/lepercreepcore). Later in the night, we went outside to find a bunch of punks gathered around a bonfire in the parking lot, singing folk-punk songs, which lasted until far later than we stayed.
On Sunday, we went back to the book fair to check out some of the seminars/lectures going on. We caught about half of a lecture on squatting before leaving. We hung out at a punk house down the street before heading over to a show at a place called Squalor. Basically, there’s a pawnshop on the street, with apartments above it. You walk through the hallway beside the apartments, down a set of stairs and there’s this big empty room, where they hold punk shows. First on was this great punk band from Montreal called Preying Hands (http://www.myspace.com/preyinghands), who absolutely rule. A few of the members were in a crust/punk band called Ballast not too long ago, who are also worth checking out. The next band, Kanadian Tire Fire, from Guelph were pretty sweet too. A couple of the members from that band played in a crust band called U-Lock Terror, now defunct. Mutiny played next, playing a mix of crust and grindcore, done really well. They did a cover of the song ‘If I Had A Rocked Launcher’ by Bruce Cockburn, a Canadian folk singer/songwriter. If you know the song, try and imagine a grindcore version, I bet you can’t. If you don’t know it, look it up. Try Youtube or somethin’. Ah, fuckit, I’ll do it for you: Needless to say, it was awesome. Next on were Leper, the other crust band from BC. They were awesome as well. Really good sort of Amebix style crust (but a lot faster), with some cool ska/reggae breakdowns. There was another band who played after called Southern Gale, but by then I was too tired to stay standing. I went out into the hallway to sit down. There was a girl sitting in front of me who had somehow had the sole of her boot torn apart from the rest of the boot. She asked if I had anything to try and sew the boot together with, but I didn’t. I looked around and found the wire from the top of a wine bottle, and using that and a Rotten button, we managed to wire the boot back together, afterwards she told me I was like a Punk Rock MacGuyver, which I think is a great compliment. We biked back to Dan’s house, getting back at about 2:30.
The way home was really uneventful. It was kind of entertaining, sitting in the Panorama Lounge again, but this time, we were way dirtier and smellier punks than we were on the way there. At the show the night before, I’d left my backpack on the floor, and it ended up getting soaked in homebrew. I had a great weekend though. Montreal is always a great place to visit, there’s always something going on, whether it be awesome punk shows, or just hanging out with great people.
Holy crap that was a long post. Ah well, it helped kill a bit of time.
So anyway, I just spent the past weekend in Montreal, Quebec. I took the train with my friend Jesse, who was surprised to find that I'd gotten us first-class tickets from Toronto to Montreal. So, in addition to great amounts of leg-room and 'free' food ('free' meaning 'included in the price of the ticket'), we also had access to the Panorama Lounge at Union Station in Toronto, and the station in Montreal. The lounge was alright. There was lots of free juice and coffee, which we each took our fair share of. We both found it so strange that two dirty punks would ever get access to the lounge that we both got pictures of each other reading the Financial Post.
About five-and-a-bit hours later, we got into Montreal. After a good walk, and a falafel stop, we got to our friend Dan's apartment. We hung out for a bit before heading out to a bar called Les Katacombes to see my friend's band, The Rotten (http://www.myspace.com/therotten) (I'm not good with this linking shit, so bear with me) opening for the almighty SNFU.
The Rotten had just gotten into town right at 8:00, when the doors opened at the show, after driving for 8 hours. They didn't play their greatest, but it's always fun to see them. The next 3 bands, I didn't care for all that much. There was one band who played poorly done 80's style hardcore for way too long, a NY-style hardcore band, made up of 4 skinheads and another guy, and a fairly well known Montreal hardcore band called Ab Irato. Then there was SNFU. This was the second time I'd seen them, and they are quickly becoming my favorite band to see live. If you don't know them, and you really really really should, especially if you're into Canadian punk at all, they've been around since 1982 and play sort of skate-style punk with strange, witty, creative lyrics. Their singer, Mr. Chi Pig is by far one of the greatest and strangest people I have ever met. He's this almost 50-year-old half-Chineese guy with a long beard and long hair, both bleached white, so he kinda looks like a cracked-out half-chineese Gandalf. His stage presence is incredible. He gets up in everyone's faces and pulls strange poses, only stopping to make hilarious remarks to the audience between songs. Some good ones I can remember were "I put the 'poo' in poutine" and "Who the fuck are you? You're not Capitain Kirk! This is my fuckin' starship!" On stage, the guy's got more energy than most bands I see who are fronted by guys half his age. Anyway, they absolutly ruled the night, and after singing along for the entire show (and into the mic for about a third of the show), Chi Pig came over and gave me a big, sweaty hug, and a pack of free buttons. Seriously, if you don't know them, you are really missing out. Oh yeah, I also met the singer from the great Canadian punk rock band the Ripcordz. The thing was, I didn't realize it until the train ride home. I was talkin' to the guy after the second band's set (their name escapes me, probably for a good reason), and I knew I'd seen his face somewhere before. The next day, I picked up a Ripcordz cd from Sound Centeral, a cool punk record store, but hadn't bothered to look at the booklette until the train ride home when I realized 'Oh shit! That's the guy I was talking to the other night".
Anyway, the next day, we went to go check out the Montreal Anarchist book fair. It was really cool, lots of interesting people. It was held in this public school with the ‘book’ area being held in the gymnasium area. It got kinda shitty after a while when it started raining, and there ended up being a couple hundred people packed into this gym, but aside from that, it was really fun. After the fair, we headed down to our friend Blar’s place, which is a loft in a building that used to just be a huge warehouse. There, we met the guys and girls from the bands Mutiny and Leper, some awesome crust bands from Victoria, BC (http://www.myspace.com/mutinycreepcore, http://www.myspace.com/lepercreepcore). Later in the night, we went outside to find a bunch of punks gathered around a bonfire in the parking lot, singing folk-punk songs, which lasted until far later than we stayed.
On Sunday, we went back to the book fair to check out some of the seminars/lectures going on. We caught about half of a lecture on squatting before leaving. We hung out at a punk house down the street before heading over to a show at a place called Squalor. Basically, there’s a pawnshop on the street, with apartments above it. You walk through the hallway beside the apartments, down a set of stairs and there’s this big empty room, where they hold punk shows. First on was this great punk band from Montreal called Preying Hands (http://www.myspace.com/preyinghands), who absolutely rule. A few of the members were in a crust/punk band called Ballast not too long ago, who are also worth checking out. The next band, Kanadian Tire Fire, from Guelph were pretty sweet too. A couple of the members from that band played in a crust band called U-Lock Terror, now defunct. Mutiny played next, playing a mix of crust and grindcore, done really well. They did a cover of the song ‘If I Had A Rocked Launcher’ by Bruce Cockburn, a Canadian folk singer/songwriter. If you know the song, try and imagine a grindcore version, I bet you can’t. If you don’t know it, look it up. Try Youtube or somethin’. Ah, fuckit, I’ll do it for you: Needless to say, it was awesome. Next on were Leper, the other crust band from BC. They were awesome as well. Really good sort of Amebix style crust (but a lot faster), with some cool ska/reggae breakdowns. There was another band who played after called Southern Gale, but by then I was too tired to stay standing. I went out into the hallway to sit down. There was a girl sitting in front of me who had somehow had the sole of her boot torn apart from the rest of the boot. She asked if I had anything to try and sew the boot together with, but I didn’t. I looked around and found the wire from the top of a wine bottle, and using that and a Rotten button, we managed to wire the boot back together, afterwards she told me I was like a Punk Rock MacGuyver, which I think is a great compliment. We biked back to Dan’s house, getting back at about 2:30.
The way home was really uneventful. It was kind of entertaining, sitting in the Panorama Lounge again, but this time, we were way dirtier and smellier punks than we were on the way there. At the show the night before, I’d left my backpack on the floor, and it ended up getting soaked in homebrew. I had a great weekend though. Montreal is always a great place to visit, there’s always something going on, whether it be awesome punk shows, or just hanging out with great people.
Holy crap that was a long post. Ah well, it helped kill a bit of time.
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