NOTES FROM VIVACE:

Part 2: Looking for the Music Scene in Vancouver

In part 1, I totally struck out in my search to final the local music scene in Vancouver – well, not a total strike out, I just didn’t have the necessary funds. That night might have qualified as a music strike out, but it was fun just walking around the city. On Tuesday, I found one of Vancouver’s local weeklies, WE. I scanned the nightclubs section and this led to some success on Tuesday and Wednesday night.

Overheard conversation one: I was eating at an Indian restaurant. There were only two other customers in the restaurant. I couldn’t help but over-hear their conversation. One guy was talking about his marital problems with the other. He talked about how he now had different interests in life compared to his wife’s interests. He liked going out to various Goth Nights around Vancouver. He’d head out once a week, but his wife never liked going to these nights. If he had another try at life, he’d have married someone with similar interests instead of marrying an opposite. Goth equals knowledge of the music scene, I thought. I almost went up to him to ask him about the music scene in Vancouver, but I just didn’t have the guts to admit that I had listened in on his conversation.

Tuesday night. Media Club. Cover $10 CND. I’d say that this is Vancouver’s version of Hotel Café. Folks sat on ottomans spread around the floor. It was a singer-songwriter night. Now doesn’t that sound like Hotel Café? Okay, so Hotel Café doesn’t have ottomans, but benches. A guy named Rick Waines was the main singer-songwriter of the night. My interesting find of the night was seeing a poster for an upcoming night – June 12th. Who was playing there on June 12th? No other than Kate Voegele. Who is Kate Voegele? Before leaving for Vancouver, she was highlighted like crazy on Myspace. I even noticed that she was signing CDs at the Borders located on Vine and Sunset.

Overheard conversation two: I was taking a bus to one of Vancouver’s parks. A young lady was on the phone having an argument with her current/ex-boyfriend. “This is such a double standard. We were broken up.” Hmm, sounded like a Rachel and Ross moment from Friends except for the fact that Rachel was the one who cheated.

Wednesday night. Railway. Cover $10 CND. It was another singer-songwriter night. When I got there a guy named Wil was in the middle of his set. The place was rather crowded. After awhile, I was able to maneuver my way to the front. The highlight of his set: his last song. He broke the two middle strings on his guitar and played a four string song. Next up were a couple ladies from . . . the good old USA. First up was Lauren Zettler from New York. From her myspace page, it indicates she’s played Hotel Café and has a live album from that night. Next up was Allison Weiss from Atlanta. Allison Weiss is one energetic personality. From the start, she did her best to get people involved in her set. She had an interesting story about her encounter with the border police. “When I got to the border, the border police asked me questions like: Why are you coming to Canada? How long are you going to stay? I responded, I am a musician and I’m doing some sets in Canada. I was getting questioned about everything.” The audience responded, “Yah, they’re all jerks.” She continued with her story, “So when I told them I was a musician, they asked me if I was bringing any CDs into the country. I said yes. I was asked how many. I replied twenty or so. The guy laughed at me. He obviously was thinking that I wasn’t a real musician.” Checking out her myspace page at a later date, I saw that a few days after her Railway gig she was heading down to Los Angeles. While at Railway I did consider asking a couple people about the Vancouver music scene. During the Lauren Zettler set, a guy who played drums for Wil and a female friend of his were talking about their upcoming gigs. I didn’t though, because I felt I’d gone out enough in search of the Vancouver music scene.

 

  

 

  

 

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Scene one: I was walking around town on Wednesday night. I randomly looked up and into an office. I noticed a young lady doing some dirty dancing for her co-worker/lover. She then started to do a mini-lap dance for him. I was like, “Oh no, she’s going to start stripping.”

Anyways, that was my experience with the Vancouver music scene. There was one other music venue I wanted to check out called Cobalt. My impression was that this was a punk-metal music venue. The problem about heading out there was all about timing. I could have gone on Tuesday or Wednesday night, but I wasn’t comfortable with the transit system yet. When I did get a comfort level with the transit system, it was a metal band night and I just didn’t find the bands very appealing (via their myspace pages). (Note: I read that this place might also get shut down due to noise pollution – gee whiz, that door guy was sort of down on the Vancouver music scene, I wonder how bad it’ll get if Richard’s and Cobalt shut down.)

Scene two: I was sitting on a bus heading back to the hotel after a day of site seeing. A young couple sat on the same row of seats I was on and started a heavy make out session. So uncomfortable.