By Jeffrey Trainor (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: May 20, 2015
Local artists lack space to perform. Besides Jam in Jubilee, which is consistently the most in-tune local musical body, there is an inability for musicians to perform anywhere, turning the entire Abbotsford area into a perennial wasteland for musical acts. Even the places artists have had available to them have been less than ideal.
A few years back, we had Champion Jack’s in old Downtown Abbotsford, a swanky vintage clothing and vinyl shop that put on bi-monthly shows. The issue there was that the whole room couldn’t have been more than 30 square feet. More recently, the venues have been O’Neills sandwich shop — which, again, is a tiny space and is not well suited for a full-band situation — and basement or church venues, which are just that: basements and churches.
It’s interesting when you compare Abbotsford with a smaller city like Kelowna. Kelowna has a population of around 106,000 according to the 2006 Government of Canada census, while Abbotsford has nearly 18,000 more at 124,000 residents. Upon searching “musical venues in Kelowna,” an abundance of actual spaces come up right away, such as Fernando’s Pub, the Habitat, Doc Willoughby’s, Streaming Cafe, Grateful Fed, and Blue Gator Bar.
But do the same search with Abbotsford and you get Abbotsford Centre, then a plethora of options such as Chances Playtime Casino, Abbotsford Arts Centre, and Matsqui Centennial Auditorium. These are great spaces, but they are not geared towards the local music scene. More troubling is the fact that the venues that actually put on shows are off the grid, which means you have to be “in the know” to get to shows by local artists.
All of this creates a scene that consists of the same people going to the same shows over and over again, diluting every band that starts out here until they need to either invest some serious time and money by booking a promoter in Vancouver, or simply fade into oblivion, having only performed in basements, shops, and diners.
This is just one piece of the tapestry of Abbotsford as the most boring town in BC. Hardly any bars in Abbotsford bring local acts in to play, even on “slow nights.” Something needs to change in this town. There needs to be a place that is dedicated to helping local artists build into something worthwhile. Every band, be it Muse, Kings of Leon, or Death Cab for Cutie, started in a local environment and pushed through that glass ceiling to become the artists we know them as today. There needs to be a space in Abbotsford where that creativity can flourish.
