Many of us have heard stories from our parents about seeing legendary acts like Queen, The Rolling Stones, or The Ramones perform live in concert. What is often left out of these stories are the venues that housed these memorable shows. Without concert halls and stages, there would be no place for artists to share their work and for us to enjoy it.
Over the last few years, Toronto’s music landmarks have been threatened by general development and the city’s ever-expanding condo market. Only a few years ago, concert-goers felt the loss of longstanding multiplex venue The Big Bop and its stages — The Kathedral, the Reverb, and Holy Joe’s — with continuing remorse over the 2012 closure of mixed-use punk venue Siesta Nouveaux.
Today, even more venues face the possibility of closing their doors. This year has witnessed a call to the music community from The Great Hall to stave off encroaching condo development. The Guverment’s Kool Haus will close in early 2015, and the complex is set to become a condo and retail development.
In an interview with Sam Grosso, a veteran of the Toronto live music scene and owner of the El Mocambo and Cadillac Lounge, he spoke about the issues threatening live music venues in Toronto. Grosso suggests that combatting venue closures requires appealing to the local government and the community to lend a helping hand.
“People don’t want to pay a cover charge,” says Grosso, “and that includes those who have money and those who don’t and I don’t know why.”
Grosso stresses the importance of paying musicians and artists. Venues can’t survive if they cannot pay their overhead costs and their entertainers. For those who don’t own their own properties, it’s especially difficult: “The rent for some of these venues is incredible and if you don’t own the property yourself you are at the mercy of the market and the landlord. Local government should be doing something to help out so we can keep Toronto’s live music alive,” says Grosso.
Grosso suggested venues should reach out to a younger, under-aged crowd with disposable income. He stressed that having young patrons is key to prosperity and longevity, — but risking a coveted liquor license in Toronto is not worth the trouble for most owners and patrons. The bar, in many of these venues, is what covers overhead costs and keeps the door open. Losing that revenue, Grosso stressed, is often the last nail in the coffin for a venue.
Anyone who has been to a show at a smaller venue can attest to how they build a closer relationship between artists and fans. It likewise builds community among local artists who help to grow and progress Toronto’s diverse and innovative artistic landscape. It is these communities that are under threat, and that may find themselves without a hall to meet and play.
