In Search of Lost Venues

Terry Ondang has been running music shows since she was a teenager. She put on shows at the Java Joint in Surrey before promoting shows around Vancouver, co-owned The Hive recording studio and ran Hive Fidelty record label. She lives on Gabriola Island where she runs The Noise Floor recording studio and released an album under the name Coco Koop. Venues visited: The Royal Hotel, at 1025 Granville...

Thank you so much to everyone who listened and participated. There will be a new conversation in the next few months, and the occasional bonus episode. I always saw this as a finite project; there are way more stories to tell but I don't want to get repetitive in my own angle into this topic.

Luke Meat was the music director at CiTR radio during the 2000s. From 1998-2000 he was the DJ at the Brickyard under the name Audio Where. Luke was a member of the bands Damn Fine Sandwich, Storc, Value Village People, and Zero Percent Interest and currently in Bat Leather. This conversation was recorded on January 15 2026. The Brickyard was at 315 Carroll Street. In the late 1990s and early 2000s...

Dennis Mills has been playing with bands in Vancouver for over four decades. He was in AKA and Rhythm Mission, and still plays with the Judys and the Jazzmanian Devils. This conversation was recorded on November 28th 2025. Venues visited:   Tamara Restaurant (311 W Hastings), site of the first Jazzmanian Devils show in 1983. Warehouse show location (152 West Hastings). Helen Pitt Gallery (163 W Pe...

Ziggy (Yuriko Iga) opened Blim in 2003, after graduating from the Alberta College of Art and Design and starting a venue called Kisaten in Calgary. Blim was a music venue performance space, art gallery and much more. Blim hasn't had music events for about 14 years but is still a shop/retail art installation. Blim began as a venue   in 2003 in the penthouse at 23 W Pender St in the old BC Electric...

Kristjanne Vosper's current project is KMVP. She has played in   Smearlord, Bash Brothers, Repukes, and OK Vancouver OK. She lives in Nanaimo. Venues visited:The Black Lab ( E Hastings) was a " DIY, collectively run, volunteer-based punk space "   on Hastings Street , just east of Main , in the Downtown Eastside, from about 2014-2024. Other venues visited: Pat's Pub, The Secret Location, Red Gate,...

Amber Webber is known for the bands Lightning Dust and Black Mountain. She briefly had a project called Kodiak Deathbeds and has been a guest singer on many other projects. She started in the band Dream On Dreary. This conversation was recorded on August 13th 2025. Venues visited: Pat's Pub was the site of the first Black Mountain show around 2004. Shindig, the CiTR battle of the bands, took place...

Sydney Hermant played in the bands Bonaparte, Hello Blues Roses, and the Choir Practice. She is also an artist and was the curator of the Or Gallery. She put on cabaret shows with the Hot Rod Puppet Ensemble. This conversation was recorded on July 30th, 2025. Venues visited: Sydney's house from 2004 - 2012 at Princess and Powell (Bonaparte, The Choir Practice and Destroyer practice spaces). Dunlev...

Ryan McCormick is the band Collpasing Opposites and has also played in Green Belt Collective, They Shoot Horses Don't They? and others. He was a director of the Safe Amplification Site Society. This conversation was recorded on July 10, 2025.   Hoko's was a sushi restaurant at 362 Powell Street that started having shows in the 2000s. It was closed due to licensing problems and is now the venue Lan...

Ana Rose Carrico is a grassroots arts administrator who co-founded The Red Gate Arts Society. She is the current Executive Director, a former Station Manager of CiTR & Discorder Magazine, and a lifelong advocate for the cultural life of Vancouver. This conversation took place on May 9th 2025. The Red Gate first opened on Hastings near Cambie in 2004. It moved to 855 East Hastings between 2012 and...

Keith Parry founded and ran the legendary record store and label, Scratch Records, which opened in 1987. He played in bands including Superconductor, Octatrackter, Twerdocleb, Kicking it with Coho, The Gay, Pink Mountaintops, and Neko Case. Keith lives on Vancouver Island and we walked and talked on April 25th 2025, when he came to Vancouver to see some music shows. This conversation will extend a...

Keith Parry founded and ran the legendary record store and label, Scratch Records, which opened in 1987. He played in bands including Superconductor, Octatrackter, Twerdocleb, Kicking it with Coho, The Gay, Pink Mountaintops, and Neko Case. Keith lives on Vancouver Island and we walked and talked on April 25th 2025, when he came to Vancouver to see some music shows. This conversation will extend a...

Josh Stevenson has been playing experimental music since the 1990s in projects like Staked Plain, Jackie-O Motherfucker, Glow worm, Bold Axis Arms, -Outhern Acific+, Magneticring, July Fourth Toilet, and Von Bingen. He also does audio mastering under the name Otic Sound . This conversation was recorded on April 17th, 2025. The Anza Club is on the corner of Ontario and 8th Avenue, the home of the A...

Marita M. is a musician, performer and arts organizer. She has been in many bands including True Crush, Lunch Lady, Derek Wheeler, Divorcer, Reveal Yourself and Bill Can. This conversation was recorded on April 3, 2024. Astorino's was the venue for the Safe Amplification Site Society (Safe Amp 2013-2015) at the site of a former Italian dining hall at 1739 Venables Street. Other venues visited: Bri...

Jerome is the founder of the band M01E, and of UBC Cry Club, which took place weekly, at one point, at the Fraser River Parkade at UBC. Cry Club started in 2021 and continued, usually weekly, for a couple of years, and then less frequently. It is unrehearsed and open to participation from everyone who attends. Cry Club is on hiatus but hopefully will return. This conversation was recorded on April...

Lisa Marr played bass and sang in the beloved Vancouver band Cub. She started by playing in the Evaporators.  She continues to play music, make films, and do all kinds of other art and activism. This conversation was recorded on January 28th 2025. Venue visited: Cub House (1992-1997) at 837 west 19th Avenue. Other venues discussed: Pop, Studio J, the Cruel Elephant, the Commodore, Notorious, the A...

Phil Smith began in the awesome Vancouver punk band Wasted Lives, whose few recordings were recently released by Supreme Echo . This conversation was recorded on December 18 2024. He went on to musical projects like Snow Geese, Blanche Whitman, Bud Luxford and the long-running band Corsage. Venues Visited: Starvin' Marvin's was a nightclub on Burrard and Broadway which closed in the late 1970s. Qu...

Selina Crammond has played in the bands Movieland, Supermoon, Kiss Painting   and currently, Midnight News and Roswit. She also runs Monotapes with Gal av Gay. This conversation took place on December 7 2024. Horses Records was an independent record and bookstore on Hastings and Nanaimo ( on 2447 E Hastings Street ) from 2014-2016, opened by Katayoon Yousefbigloo and Dan Geddes. The store frequent...

In this bonus episode I talk separately with Rachel Melas and Conny Nowe, who played bass and drums in the all-female, post punk band the Moral Lepers, in the early 1980s. Rachel was also in the art punk band animal slaves among many others and Conny played in Tin Twist, and Junco Run. They now live together in Toronto where they play music in genres like cajun zydeco, swing, ragtime, folk and kle...

This is a remote report, a conversation conducted virtually rather than in person. In these episodes I speak with musicians who have moved away from Vancouver about their experiences and the venues they loved. Mar Sellars started playing in bands as a teenager in Vancouver, including The Riff Randells, The Ewoks   and the Engaged. She also played in bands while living in the UK, and worked at the...

Lyndsay Sung is a musician, writer, filmmaker and cookbook author. She was in the bands the Sob Story, le Petit Mort, Radio Berlin and Pink Mountaintops, and now plays in KCAR, Foxgloves and Strawberries and Cream. This conversation was recorded on November 5 2024. The Blinding Light! was an underground cinema which ran from 1998-2003 at 36 Powell Street. Founded by Alex MacKenzie as a follow-up t...

prOphecy sun is an artist, musician and educator who divides her time between Vancouver and Nelson, BC. She has been perfomring experimental music in Vancouver since the early 2000s. This conversation was recorded on November 3, 2024. Sixth Fest happened on 6th Avenue between Ontario and Manitoba beginning in 2009   and latest for several years. Video In (later VIVO) began life as The Satellite Vi...

Jesse Gander grew up playing music as a teen in the band d.b.s. (1992-2001) in North Vancouver. He went on to play in numerous other bands, currently Uptights.    He started recording bands while still a teenager and has done music production for over 500 bands and artists from around the world.  Seylynn Hall was a community recreation centre in North Vancouver which held shows for about fifteen y...

Rose Melberg has been making music for over three decades as part of the bands Tiger Trap, The Softies, Go Sailor, Imaginary Pants, Brave Irene, Bleating Hearts and many more. She is originally from California but has lived in Vancouver BC for close to twenty years. Most recently she is one tour with her band The Softies, who have released a new album, and is playing in the band Bratmobile.  The S...

Jen Thorpe and Andy Healey were members of the punk band Submission Hold from 1993 to 2005. Their house, at 2024 East 1st Avenue, known as Submission Hold House, hosted many shows from 1993 to 2001. Venues mentioned: La Quena (co-op coffee house), Strathcona Community Centre, Seylenn Hall (North Vancouver), Crosstown Traffic (Hastings and Homer, active in the 1990s), the Plaza (punk house on Georg...