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 Street, built in 1911 as a single room occupancy hotel. In the early 2000s it hosted at least two music shows (Smog, Interpol) in the hotel pub.

The Sugar Refinery was a vegetarian restaurant and music venue from the mid '90s to 2003 at 1115 Granville Street. It was known for fostering local music projects which were experimental, collaborative, and whimsical. It was the site of a 48 hour show by the band Beans, who played there dozens of times.

Richard's on Richards (1036 Richards) started as a yuppie nightclub in 1981. In the late 1990s it became a live music venue, hosting hundreds of bands until 2009, when it was demolished.

Bill Copeland Sports Centre is an ice rink and arena in Burnaby. Terry put on an iconic show for Fugazi here on July 7th 2001.

The last location of the The Hive Recording Studio in Vancouver was at 8561 Goverment St (Burnaby) from 2003 to 2013. It hosted some live sessions. The previous location of The Hive was a house at east 5th Avenue and Kamloops Street and also hosted shows.

Other venues mentioned: The Aquatic Centre, The Starfish Room, the Waldorf, the Java Joint.

Bands discussed: Interpol, Radio Berlin, Beans, The Strokes, And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, Fugazi, p:ano, Pedro the Lion, Veda Hille, Thanksgiving, Jon-Rae Fletcher, Burquitlam Plaza, Great Ant Ida, The Secret Three, Parks and Rec, Chet, Murder City Devils, SNFU, DOA, Gigi, Hot Hot Heat, Jerk with a Bomb, Destroyer, Black Mountain.

This episode features the following music:

Radio Berlin: Rote Lippen from Glass (2003)

Beans: Tired Snow from Tired Snow E.P. (2000)

Fugazi: Long Division from Live Recording July 7 2001 at Bill Copeland Sports Centre.

Reserve 34: Cold Front from Rain City Games (2000)

Coco Koop: Faded from Try (2024)

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 it was one of the main venues for local bands and out of town bands looking to play smaller venues. The building still exists and has been renovated into a bakery, vintage shop and coffee shop.

Other venues visited: Selectors Records, Blim.

Other venues discussed. Columbia, The Old American, Smilin' Buddha, Hoko's, Web Cafe, Starfish Room, Richards on Richards.

Bands discussed: Chixdiggit, Fluff, Sunn O))), Boris, Groovy Ghoulies, Smugglers, Maow, And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, At the Drive-in, Matmos, Modest Mouse, Close Caption Radio, Wide Mouth Mason, Kinski, Industry & Agriculture, Unclean Wiener, Destroyer, Jerk with a Bomb, Jennifer Gentle, Sleater Kinney, The Evaporators, Seam, GOB, d.b.s.

This episode features the following music:

Kinski: Point That Thing Somewhere Else from Semaphore EP (2002).

d.b.s.: Galleon's Lap from If Life Were A Result We'd All Be Dead (Originally released on Crap records, 2014)

Bat Leather: Pageantry (2025)

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 Pender), The Lotus, In Concert, the Lamplighter, the Town Pump, John Barley's, the Savoy, Gambados, Lanalou's, City Space.

Other venues mentioned: the Railway Club, the Commodore, PUMPS, Smilin' Buddha, the Plaza, Cinderella Ballroom, Glass Slipper, Cambrian Hall.

Musicians mentioned: Captain Beefheart, UJ3RK5, Zealots, I Braineater, the Psychic Healers, 54-40, Los Popularos, David Thomas, Tragically Hip, Red Herring, Death Sentence, the Odds, The Rheostatics, the Clash, the Dishrags, Bo Diddley, Los Lobos, the Frights, the Moral Lepers, the K-Tels, Subhumans, DOA, the Pointed Sticks, Work Party, Emily Faryna, Tin Twist, the Dils, Rank and File.

This episode features the following music:

AKA: CIA from Dead Therapy

Rhythm Mission: Shudderdown

Tin Twist: Sitting Here, Waiting Here (Mo-Da-Mu 1980)

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 Building. It moved to 197 E 17th for 2005-2010 and then to its current location at 115 E Pender. This coversation was recorded on November 26, 2025.

Venues visited: 3 locations of Blim

Venues mentioned: Unit/Pitt, the Sugar Refinery, the Binding Light!, Kisaten, Squib.

Bands mentioned: p:ano, Nicholas Krgovich, Tygh Runyan, Crys Cole, Tunnel Canary, Joshua Stevenson, The Hidden Cameras, Dandi Wind, Josh Rose, Brady Cranfield, Loscil, Fieldhead, Lee Hutzalak, Cartoon Express, connect_icut, Prophecy Sun, Jeffrey Allport, Johnny Wakeham, Standard Grey, Pink Mountaintops.

This episode features the following music:

p:ano: Trouble Ahead from Ghost Pirates Without Heads (Mint Records, 2005)

Kellarissa: Harlean from Superstar EP (2008)

Fieldhead: he'd found the sea from they shook hands for hours (2009)

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, Iron Road Studio, Fingers Crossed, Bullet Farm.

Other venues discussed: Jam space at Main and Powell, Crace mountain

Bands mentioned : Time Cops, Flat Bed, Shearing Pinx, Wameki, OK Vancouver OK, Red Circle, Screaming Queens, Bad Sister, Hag Face, Jo Passed, buddies, Felonious Parker, Freak Dream, Garbage Dream, Bereaved, Mansion Music, Imaginary Pants.

This episode features the following music:

KMVP: Anarchist Superstar from NUCLEAR FREE NANAIMO VOL III ( 2023)

Bash Brothers: Party Hat from BASH (2014)

KMVP: Swimming //without frogs from KMVP "goes Ribit" WITHOUT FROGS ( 2024)

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 at Pat's for several years in the mid-late 2010s. The downstairs bar in the Patricia Hotel has had music shows for over a hundred years. It was once a renowned jazz venue, and in the early 2000s hosted local bands for many years. The space was originally called the Patricia Café and opened in 1914.

The Hawks Street House was a women's collective house and a community space at the corner of Hawks and Georgia.

Hoko's/Lanalou's

Other venues discussed: The Chapel, The Interurban Gallery, The Lido, Richard's on Richards, the Brickyard, the Commodore, the Marine Club.

Bands mentioned: The Cave Singers, Better Friends than Lovers, Rae Spoon, Ladyhawk, Animal Collective, Mecca Normal, Jerk with a Bomb, Megamall, Magnolia Electric Company, Murder City Devils.

This episode features the following music:

Black Mountain: Druganaut from Black Mountain (Scratch Records, 2004/Jagjaguwar 2005). Kodiak Deathbeds: Borderlines from Kodiak Deathbeds (2015).

Lightning Dust: Diamond from Fantasy (2013 Jagjaguwar).

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).

Dunlevy art space at Dunlevy and Powell (1998 art and music studio with Steve Wood, Scott Morgan, Neko Case. Destroyer practice space)

Art Studio at Gore and Powell. Pat's Pub. The downstairs bar in the Patricia Hotel has had music shows for over a hundred years. It was once a renowned jazz venue, and in the early 2000s hosted local bands for many years. The space was originally called the Patricia Café and opened in 1914.

Other venues discussed: the Starfish Room, the Sugar Refinery, the Railway Club, the Or Gallery.

Bands mentioned: The Beans, Destroyer, Battles, Pink Mountaintops, Capozzi Park. Loscil, Black Mountain, The Secret Three, Rodney Graham, Radio Berlin, Book of Lists, Nikki Sudden, Jonathan Richaman, Luna, Yo La Tengo, The New Pornographers

This episode features the following music:

Hello Blue Roses: The Aloe from Wild Nights! (JAZ Records, 2020).

Bonaparte: Tree Song (recorded by Kurt Dahle and Dan Bejar on Cordova Street at Kurt and Coco's house 2005/6).

The Choir Practice: Believe in Something from The Choir Practice (Mint Records, 2007).

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 Lanalou's.

The Zoo Zhop (223 Main Street) was a venue and record store in the 2010s.

The Prophouse Cafe (1636 Venables Ave) was a coffee shop and venue in the 2010s.

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 mentioned: Starry Dynamo Cafe.

Bands mentioned: Half Chinese, Apollo Ghosts, Kidnap Kids, Chris-a-riffic, OK Vancouver OK, Mt Eerie.

This episode features the following music:

Collapsing Opposites: Places from Microchips Implanted In Your Brain (2005).

Apollo Ghosts: Shanghai Alley from Forgotten Triangle EP (2009).

Collapsing Opposites: Non Profit Volunteer Band from Real Moving (2011).