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<\/a>Daft Punk is playing at my house<\/strong><\/p>\n Small house concerts, in all styles of music, are alive and well in Canada. And while most music fans will never experience seeing their favourite bands anywhere smaller than an arena or large nightclub, diehard house-concertgoers, as well as the bands that play for them, swear by the intimacy and connection they feel at these do-it-yourself events.<\/p>\n One of the people instrumental in salvaging Sled Island, which ended up being referred to as Flood Island, was Lee Repko, who puts on shows and runs a record label called No List Records out of Winnipeg. After driving all the way from Winnipeg and watching the festival get cancelled his first night in Calgary, Repko was not about to pack it in and go home.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw an opportunity,\u201d says Repko. \u201cI knew there were close to 200 acts in town that now didn\u2019t have shows. I knew that many of them would leave town, but I was certain that the city\u2019s music fans wouldn\u2019t let their festival be washed away by the flood.\u201d<\/p>\n Soon Repko and a few others were on social media, looking for houses to host shows at and bands to play them. Within a few hours, a number of house shows were popping up. By the end of the weekend, at least 30 small shows had happened around the safe areas of the city.<\/p>\n It was proof that music isn\u2019t dependent upon larger venues or bars. And it was a much-needed way for music fans that were in Calgary to bond together and deal with the trauma of the flood by letting off steam.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople were down for a party and so were we,\u201d remembers Repko. \u201cThere were more high-fives than at the Stampede, it was the good-time, feel-good party of the year, all with middle-finger salutes to the nearby raging Bow and Elbow rivers.\u201d<\/p>\n Victoria House Shows B<\/strong><\/p>\n Over near the corner of Stanley and Grant, in Victoria\u2019s Fernwood neighbourhood, resident Andrew Briggs has been putting on shows in his house since 2007.<\/p>\n With over 120 house shows with high-profile Canadian songwriters like Barney Bentall, Tom Hooper, Jon and Roy, and Vince Vaccaro under his belt, Briggs has created a community of musicians and music-lovers without the trappings of the nightclub or pub scene. In his living room.<\/p>\n A live music fan for as long as he can remember, Briggs says the closure of prominent Victoria venues in 2007 such as Harpo\u2019s (now Upstairs Cabaret) prompted him to bring the music into his home.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the time Tom Hooper from the Grapes of Wrath was playing the Strath to, like, five people and I thought, \u2018This is stupid,\u2019 so every week I\u2019d bring more people with me,\u201d recalls Briggs, \u201cand by the fifth week it was packed. So we\u2019d sit and drink with him and one night I just asked, \u2018How much would it cost to have you come and play my house?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Hooper encouraged Briggs to join Facebook, something Briggs had never heard of in 2007, so he did, and soon after he created the \u201cVictoria House Shows B\u201d group to promote his shows.<\/p>\n \u201cI only called it \u2018B\u2019 because I didn\u2019t know if there was already an \u2018A,\u2019\u201d laughs Briggs. \u201cI\u2019m a music fan first, but I also like to do things for people and see everyone enjoy the music. Also, it\u2019s kind of cool always having musicians around my house.\u201d<\/p>\n Briggs says that he now gets at least one request a day from travelling musicians who have found out about his house shows through word of mouth. He gives them shows, puts them up at his house, feeds them, and gives all of the money he collects directly to the band.<\/p>\n \u201cIt does kind of take away your house. I\u2019m not married, and that\u2019s probably why,\u201d he jokes. \u201cThe musicians come and play and sometimes they stay for up to a week, so when they come from a distance I try to set up two or three shows for them.\u201d<\/p>\n Briggs usually charges $15 to $20 and has had up to 70 people in his house to watch performances he says are unequalled at licenced live music venues.<\/p>\n \u201cOh, there\u2019s no comparison,\u201d he claims. \u201cAcoustically, it\u2019s so much better. For example, Vince Vaccaro plays at my house, and what an amazing voice and inflection! And my room is very church-like in sound, so there\u2019s no reverb, and it\u2019s an octagonal shape and it\u2019s an old house with no carpet in it. So seeing him at a club just isn\u2019t the same.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Briggs, he\u2019s continually planning shows at his house, hasn\u2019t had problems with his neighbors (who are invited), or the police (some have attended), and definitely isn\u2019t allowed to move anytime soon.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople won\u2019t let me move,\u201d he says. \u201cThis house has history now.\u201d<\/p>\n The show is in the basement<\/strong><\/p>\n Do-it-yourself house concerts have been a staple of underground music scenes for decades. From basement noise shows in small towns to large-scale \u201cliving room\u201d tours featuring folk artists playing homes all over Canada, house shows are always happening somewhere.<\/p>\n Winnipeg singer-songwriter Greg MacPherson, heralded as one of Canada\u2019s best solo artists by many, has played more house and basement shows than he sometimes cares to remember.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve had lots of different experiences with house shows, from really, really great, to really, really awful,\u201d says MacPherson, who points out the same could be said of his shows at bars.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Show Is in the Basement,\u201d a song MacPherson wrote and released on his 2005 album Night Flares<\/i>, looks at how house shows can represent the true meaning of music: connection and expression.<\/p>\n \u201cThe song is about anti-establishment sentiment and it was about the feeling of \u2018anything goes.\u2019 And in some ways I think the house show thing can go in that direction and it can be really exciting,\u201d he says. \u201cYou can find out new things about people through music and interaction, and that\u2019s a really special way of connecting.\u201d<\/p>\n Known as a dedicated touring artist, MacPherson was approached by Home Routes, a Manitoba non-profit society who, according to their website, \u201cturn living rooms into mini-concert halls.\u201d In 2011, MacPherson did a Canadian tour through Home Routes that he\u2019ll never forget, he says.<\/p>\n \u201cI got to go to northern Alberta and Saskatchewan and got to see things I never would have seen, and played in people\u2019s homes that would never have seen me. It was a really special endeavour,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n One show in particular has been burned into MacPherson\u2019s memory. To him, it was an exchange with the owner of a home in Camrose, Alberta he was playing at that gave him hope his music could really make a difference. After playing punk basement shows to mixed results earlier in his career (one show in Kalamazoo, MI left him with a broken front tooth), the possibilities of exchange and connection at intimate house shows have always encouraged MacPherson, but the Camrose show was extra special, he says.<\/p>\n \u201cThe show was being hosted by an older gentleman in this gorgeous home, and we\u2019re talking about my music and politics and stuff, because a lot of my songs had content that he was interested in,\u201d he recalls. \u201cSo we\u2019re talking and he turns to me and says, \u2018You don\u2019t know what I do for a living, do you?\u2019 And I said, \u2018No, I don\u2019t.\u2019 So he tells me he\u2019s the Minister of Justice for Alberta and it\u2019s a very conservative government there and here I am having a conversation with him about prison issues and things like that in a really respectful and exciting way. We just both laughed out loud. It was one of those times where you really felt like you connected and people were listening to each other and it was over the music and the circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n Back to the basics<\/strong><\/p>\n Tiemen Kuipers opened his Talk\u2019s Cheap punk rock record store on Pandora Avenue in downtown Victoria just over three years ago. After hearing that a lot of small bands couldn\u2019t get bar gigs in Victoria, he decided to start hosting concerts in his shop.<\/p>\n \u201cThey can\u2019t play a bar because they\u2019d lose money, so they play someone\u2019s living room or my shop and it\u2019s a good time, a fun atmosphere, and they can make a little bit of money,\u201d says Kuipers.<\/p>\n Kuipers claims all of the bands that have played at Talk\u2019s Cheap have come away with a positive experience, and that can only be good for the longevity of Victoria\u2019s underground music scene, one that has hosted house shows for decades.<\/p>\n \u201cThe bands love it,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen you\u2019re in a small room and everyone\u2019s going nuts and the floor\u2019s bouncing up and down and things are falling off the walls and it\u2019s really loud and hot\u2026 you can\u2019t get that in a bar. The shows that go off really go off!\u201d<\/p>\n As a touring artist, MacPherson agrees that house and makeshift venue shows serve to remove some of the trappings of the bar show scene and bring the music back to its basics.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen they work, they are way better than bar shows,\u201d says MacPherson, \u201cbecause it\u2019s generally folks who are very respectful of the arts and of travelling musicians\u2019 efforts. Sometimes you\u2019ll get to a bar and they don\u2019t give a shit about you, you\u2019re just basically a headache to help them sell liquor. But when you play someone\u2019s home, or shop, or basement, or whatever, you end up with folks who want you there, they\u2019re excited about music, and they want to facilitate a performance, which is pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n Like a lot of hardcore music fans, people like Briggs and Repko thrive on house shows and getting a chance to see music in such a close environment.<\/p>\n When the floods came down in Calgary and turned Sled Island into Flood Island, Repko and his community made the best of a dire situation and proclaimed the only thing they knew: the show must go on. (Sled Island organizations later thanked the house show organizers for their efforts to keep the music going in the face of disaster.)<\/p>\n \u201cWe all mobilized and saw some sort of incredible throw-down of pure rock brilliance,\u201d says Repko. \u201cThere is an intimacy that can get lost at bar shows, where the point is to sell booze and not necessarily rock your socks off. At a basement show I feel more a part of a community than a motley crew. There is a heightened awareness of your space because your bubble gets broken very quickly… and if you allow it, that lost layer can really help you find true rock \u2018n\u2019 roll ecstasy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Early the morning of June 21, after the devastating floods in downtown Calgary, the city\u2019s long-running music festival Sled Island was forced to cancel the remainder of its dates. Many of the touring bands scheduled to play the festival were stranded in the city while festival wristband holders appeared to be up the river without […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,112],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-september-18-2013"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7628"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15129,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7628\/revisions\/15129"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}