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\n Barrymore’s once hosted bands as big as U2. Now weekends are dominated by electronic acts like Cosmic Gate and Project 46.<\/p>\n
Is live music disappearing from Ottawa nightlife? If so, the PepTides didn\u2019t get the memo: Business is booming for the eccentric Ottawa pop group.<\/p>\n
\n Barrymore’s once hosted bands as big as U2. Now weekends are dominated by electronic acts like Cosmic Gate and Project 46.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re still doing well,\u201d says singer and multi-instrumentalist Claude Marquis, whose band has pervaded the local circuit, playing Irene\u2019s Pub, Ritual, and the Black Sheep Inn two times apiece since January 2012. \u201cWe keep getting asked to play. Wherever we end up playing, they sort of respond, \u2018We got to have you back.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
But despite the busy schedule of certain Ottawa bands, rumours of the live scene\u2019s gradual demise here have gained considerable traction recently.<\/p>\n
Over the past 12 months, two of Ottawa\u2019s more prominent live music venues \u2013 Tucson\u2019s and LiVE Lounge \u2013 have closed their doors. A recent ownership change at The Elmdale has threatened live music\u2019s future at the Hintonburg hotspot. And Barrymore\u2019s, Ottawa\u2019s iconic rock sanctuary, has embraced the economic allure of top-40 and electronica, distancing itself from its own live music roots. This leaves but a small group of local institutions \u2013 the most prominent being Zaphod Beedlebrox, Ritual, Babylon, and Mavericks \u2013 as the city\u2019s remaining bastions of live music. In light of the foreboding signs, there\u2019s a discernible ambivalence among Ottawa\u2019s purveyors of live music as to the health of the scene.<\/p>\n
A scene in flux<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s lots of clubs that are still doing live music that are still doing great,\u201d says Adam Kronick, owner and operator of Bank Street\u2019s Babylon nightclub. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to generalize about the whole industry of live music in the city based on a select few wanting, for whatever reasons, to make a change.\u201d<\/p>\n
Babylon\u2019s proverbial king since the club\u2019s inception in May of 1998, Kronick was quick to dispel any notion of live music going extinct in Ottawa. Despite his protestations, however, Babylon has amended its own live music mandate in recent years, incorporating more electronica and DJ performances to keep up with music\u2019s transient trends.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re keenly aware that we need to be evolving and responding to new aspects in the market,\u201d he says. \u201cTo be still successful after a number of years, you need to evolve your business model. We\u2019re still evolving our business model all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018You get DJs booked constantly now. Hopefully it\u2019s not the death of the scene in Ottawa. But it\u2019s definitely changing.\u2019
\n \u2013 Blake Brooks, pub manager<\/p>\n
However, Kronick refuses to suggest that ever-evolving musical trends portend the end of live music in the city. \u201cI think it\u2019s really hard to to say from a few examples that live music isn\u2019t going well in Ottawa. I think it\u2019s exactly the opposite,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Blake Brooks, manager of Oliver\u2019s Pub and Patio, doesn\u2019t share Kronick\u2019s optimism. He says new musical tastes represent a threat to the live scene.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou get DJs booked constantly now; that\u2019s what younger people are listening to,\u201d he says.\u00a0 \u201cHopefully it\u2019s not the death of the scene in Ottawa. But it\u2019s definitely changing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brooks fondly recalls his formative years as a Carleton student, when up-and-coming Canadian rock bands would frequent Oliver\u2019s pub, and boisterous crowds would gleefully croon along. These days, however, Oliver\u2019s seldom hosts events featuring live music, and when they do, it\u2019s certainly not marquee acts that are performing.<\/p>\n
While renovations have played a large role in the evolution of Oliver\u2019s \u2013 the current floor plan isn\u2019t entirely conducive to live music \u2013 Brooks says the change has more to do with economics than anything else. \u201cI like it when we do stuff here,\u201d Brooks says of hosting live music, \u201cbut we just don\u2019t do it enough, I guess.\u00a0 It\u2019s a money thing more than anything, probably.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\n Thirsty Thursdays, a weekly staple at Oliver’s, features DJ performances and routinely draws large crowds.<\/p>\n
\u2018Live\u2019 not dead yet<\/p>\n
Though the musical zeitgeist might dictate that electronica is the style du jour<\/em>, Kronick points to Ottawa\u2019s hugely popular music festivals as an indication of the local appetite for live acts.<\/p>\n Attendance at Ottawa\u2019s Bluesfest \u2013 lauded as the second largest blues festival in North America \u2013 has grown exponentially since 1994, when the event became an annual staple. More than 300,000 people attended Bluesfest 2012, a 12-day musical binge highlighted by performances by Alice Cooper, Our Lady Peace and Snoop Dogg.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s obviously fans that want to go see music,\u201d says Kyla Clarke, a concert promoter who\u2019s routinely blown away by the Bluesfest crowds.\u00a0 \u201cWhy don\u2019t they do it all the time?\u201d<\/p>\n Clarke, who works for the popular Ottawa rock station 106.9 the Bear, says that contrary to popular belief, the infrastructure for a vibrant live music scene still exists in the nation\u2019s capital; she cites the emergence of groups like the Balconies and the Love Machine as testaments to the wealth of local talent. However, it\u2019s become increasingly difficult to get people to show up to see lesser known bands at more obscure venues, she adds.<\/p>\n \u201cI think there\u2019s probably a lack of promotion going on across the city,\u201d says Clarke. \u201cI think people have this idea that like, \u2018Oh, no one is going to go, so I\u2019m not going to go.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
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