"Somebody always asks: 'Hey! Were you at the club last night? Everybody was there!' If you tell them that, no in fact you were at home sleeping, they will insist that you missed the biggest event ever. But how could it be such a big deal when there were what, 60 or 70 people there?" - Pierre Fortin, 1984.
The Death House nightclub in the Fattal Lofts in St. Henri has closed and looks unlikely to ever open again.
Here's why that's more important to some than you might imagine.
Your typical nightclub offers a place to meet up with your friends, have a drink, listen to loud music and do some people watching.
But sometimes a nightclub is part of a crucial statement of identity, psychologically necessary to a young person's human emotional advancement.
I came of age during the punk-mod-new wave-new romantic era or the early 80s and the city was knee-deep in stylish subcultures.
Blues, a basement nightclub with an illuminated glass floor on Crescent just north of Dorchester, offered a fuse for my developing young mind that helped me connect with the world.
I've long since lost contact with most of my fellow travelers from that time* but the memories remain crystal clear, such as the explosion of energy that would unite distrusting punks and mods when DJ Will Baird would play Antmusic or Public Image.
Certain people still become attached to subversive youth subcultures and create families of friends that wear the same clothing and listen to similar music. Punk is still happening in Montreal and there are no shortage of young people attracted to the movement but venues are hard to sustain.
The reason the Death House closed isn't clear but it's always money, ain't it?
*Paloma Boiles, Johnny Prince, Blake Gopnik etc.
The Death House nightclub in the Fattal Lofts in St. Henri has closed and looks unlikely to ever open again.
Here's why that's more important to some than you might imagine.
Your typical nightclub offers a place to meet up with your friends, have a drink, listen to loud music and do some people watching.
But sometimes a nightclub is part of a crucial statement of identity, psychologically necessary to a young person's human emotional advancement.
I came of age during the punk-mod-new wave-new romantic era or the early 80s and the city was knee-deep in stylish subcultures.Blues, a basement nightclub with an illuminated glass floor on Crescent just north of Dorchester, offered a fuse for my developing young mind that helped me connect with the world.
I've long since lost contact with most of my fellow travelers from that time* but the memories remain crystal clear, such as the explosion of energy that would unite distrusting punks and mods when DJ Will Baird would play Antmusic or Public Image.
Certain people still become attached to subversive youth subcultures and create families of friends that wear the same clothing and listen to similar music. Punk is still happening in Montreal and there are no shortage of young people attracted to the movement but venues are hard to sustain.
The reason the Death House closed isn't clear but it's always money, ain't it?
*Paloma Boiles, Johnny Prince, Blake Gopnik etc.
It's not always money. I had the great misfortune to live on the edge of a bar district for a couple of years. There is no noise coming through your windows at night that's worse than the mindless screeching of drunk people. At an age when I should have been hanging out in bars, I was calling the cops frequently and encouraging my neighbors to do the same. I would rather live next to a rendering plant than anywhere near a nightclub or a bar.
ReplyDeleteSadly, this isn't a surprise if you consider the typical course of gentrification. For years, the cops turned the other cheek to Deathhouse because the area was seedy and full of poors so nobody cared. Now with the superhospital open and an influx of more moneyed individuals setting up house west of Courcelle, its existence is suddenly an issue. Soon, Sam Fattal is going to cash in on that pretty parcel of land and sell to developers for an absolute fortune, and all those lovely punks will be cast out, and St-Henri will officially be over. I've had some tremendous times at Fattal and met some of the most honourable people I could ever hope to know, but you can't swim against the shitcurrent.
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