Directly across from the loonie bin and one of the most dodgy places to see a show when you were 16/17 yrs old is none other than Toronto's CLASSIC STUDIOS. Being your typical suburban youths, we had never been in the vicinity of schizos or run down houses or anyone with 'shifty eyes' as you walked by them. This was the case when in 1995 we all lied to our parents saying we were going to the adjacent town but were in fact riding the train into the city so we could go see Chokehold. Nevermind we had no fucking clue where this place was or how exactly we were going to get there, it was all in the name of hardcore and straight edge!
How this venue held people, I have no idea. Going to see it now it looks like it could hold maybe 20 people, and maybe it did. The only other show there I can recall was New Day Rising, BlueTip (winnipeg) and Jihad. In fact I seem to remember being totally freaked out by the neighborhood moreso than the bands that played there. Talk about white, middle classed youth! At least our parents didn't come pick us up in their mini-vans.
So there it is. One of Southern Ontario's lost venues in the heart of downtown Toronto. I'm sure there were many more shows than I listed so feel free to list them in the comments section. Let's never forget the great shows and itchy vagrants who were associated with this classic venue! (GET IT? CLASSIC!?!? HAR HAR The Jokeman strikes again!)
9 comments:
That venue will be covered in opcoming weeks/months
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y294/crimsonmire/CB_handbills_3.jpg
I played my first show ever at Classic Studios. Sun Still Burns played there with Fifteen (ex-Operation Ivy dude).
A young Ewan Exall put on the show... and made us pay to get in.
Didn't Facedown play there too?
Nope.
Sun Still Burns is the best hard core band to ever come out of Southern Ontario. I would pay $1000 dollars to see Tony Bright have a rock contest versus Kyle Bishop. Man, if those jokers who started Grade kept Tony as their lead man, they would be getting paid Hatebreed dough.
When I moved to Toronto in the summer of 1995 I hooked up with my old camp friend Bryan from Burlington and we went to that Jihad show at Classics. I was from Montreal and so of course smoked, so I was sitting on those lovely little stairs having a butt (as was the terminology of the time) when my friend informed me that I might be offending Sir Kyle Bishop who was sitting behind me. I didn't even know what Straight Edge meant, thank god. There was a videotaping of a haircut. A crusty old standup video game machine in the club. An asshole bouncer/owner guy, who I think was bald, but definitely mean. I remember smoking Drum(tm) rolling tabacco with Franklin in the parking lot... they played with... friction? faction? function? something like that. Franklin still rule, their van was pimped the fuck out, they'd stuck a couch in the back or something, I remember being totally impressed with the comfort level of that Econoline.
I just remembered I wanted to mention that upon looking at the pictures I thought "Oh shit it's been turned into a 2 1/2 apartment!", but that's not necessarily true because in order to get into the venue you had to walk through the dirtiest little alleyway in the world... I think it was to the left of the building, and then down some stairs... pointless details? maybe.
Today I googled "House for Zak" looking for a picture only to land on this page, with a comment about looking for a picture of House for Zak, that I wrote as Trotch 4 years ago?
Some sort of HC metaphor, or something.
While I'm here I will now confirm being at that first Sun Still Burns show. Good times.
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