All photos courtesy of author
Watching the steam from our sweat fuse with the smokers’ exhales, we’d all wait outside The Pavilion during the interim between our friends’ sets. My friends in The Burdocks (who would eventually turn into Halifax’s beloved Dog Day) would play in this sweaty bunker; a de facto mainstay of the Halifax scene. Located in the centre of our Commons park; a large treeless green-space of adjoining soccer, tennis, and football fields as well as a concrete oval used for skating in the colder months, this small 250 capacity brick, practically windowless, graffiti covered cubic structure sits wedged between a skate park, a small pool and an impressively large playground (perfect for grounders on a late night).
Videos by VICE
Condon Macleod started this club in 1998 after the closure of his previous success, Cafe Ole. Ole (pronounced: au lait) was the main dedicated venue during the 90’s, situated on a then bustling Barrington St. and being neighboured by record shops both local Sound Exchange and Sam’s (RIP). It hosted upcoming Halifax bands like Thrush Hermit and Sloan in the midst of the declaration of Halifax as “The Next Seattle” craze of the early to mid-90s.
Jack Daniel’s is supporting music lovers. Enter the Supporting Act contest for a chance to realize your music dreams: www.JDSupportingAct.com
The Pavilion has held an impressive roster of concerts of its own from a number of renowned bands like Fucked Up, Protest The Hero, Cancer Bats, Death From Above 1979, Wintersleep, Ten Second Epic, and The Weakerthans. While not as DIY as the current collective venue Radstorm or the wonderfully named Punker Bunker (which is exactly what it sounds like; punk shows in an old military bunker), the Pavilion has sheer longevity on its side operating since 1998 (with hiatuses). Chris Smith took over the venue in 2004 after one of said hiatuses. He said, in addition to seeing bands like Cancer Bats, Wintersleep or Protest The Hero pack the club, that “seeing bands come up through high school and go on to tour like: A Sight For Sewn Eyes, Black Moor, [and] The Letter Unfolds” has been one of his favourite experience while running the venue.
Like most people who run a DIY space, Chris is in it for the music and for the community the music creates. The problem for most DIY spaces is the hand-off from that original collective starting a space to the next group who will take over the duties to keep the space alive. Many spaces end up having a short lifespan of a handful of years as a result of someone wanting/needing to move on. It’s an intense commitment these space masters put towards facilitating a physical place for people to come. So unlike many of the DIY spaces I’ve seen shows at or played over the years like Vancouver’s Peanut Gallery or Montreal’s Silverdoor and their long list of loft spaces or Toronto’s former locations of the Whippersnapper or DeLeon White or other art galleries doubling as venues during the nights, the Pavilion has survived at the hand of additional city funding. Like our treasured art space venue as well, The Khyber, the Pavilion is sustained by the fact that the city owns both buildings (the Khyber actually had to be shut down last year for asbestos and lead and was in the north end in a temp building and now downtown by pier 21).
In How Music Works David Byrne lays out some rules that a scene needs in order to flourish, one of which is “5. Rent must be low-and it must stay low.” In both the old-Khyber and Pavilion’s case, the venues could not possibly keep those spaces without the partnership with the HRM (much less DIY-sounding). For the Pavilion, when the city cuts funding, another hiatus ensues. “Since 2010 we’ve been running the Pavilion via a non-profit association (the Pavilion Youth Association), in partnership with the city” Smith states. But even with the aid of the municipal funding, running a dry venue is still a challenge as “95% of the revenue is made up of ticket sales or what you can collect at the door” estimates Smith. Surprisingly, not much revenue is made from the chocolate bars, $1 ear plugs or Big 8 pops. He continues, “out of the door, we must cover insurance, security, sound, etc. plus try to find money for the other costs such as marketing (posters, website, etc.), and BANDS!”. Funding/ sponsorship is a must.”
The current hiatus, Smith hopes, will end in the new year when he’ll start programming the space again as a non-profit. Hopefully another wave of high schoolers can cram into the box venue like I did and have the concrete anoint them with a drip from the ceiling’s condensation into the amazing force of rock & roll.
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Open to legal residents of Canada who have reached the legal drinking age in their province/territory of residence. Entry deadline: 11:59 PM ET on February 25, 2016
Rich Aucoin is an artist living in Halifax. Follow him on Twitter.
