Big, man, on Campus

>> Café Campus celebrates 40 years in style 

Staying in the game for four whole decades is a remarkable feat for any entity in the everchanging nightlife of Montreal. So for that alone, hats off to Café Campus, which kicks off over a week’s worth of 40th anniversary celebrations tonight, Feb. 8.

The Campus crew should also be proud of having successfully maintained an employee-owned-andoperated co-op system since pretty much square one, surviving and even thriving while other co-op venues collapsed, and of consistently providing a wide diversity of music in an inviting and professionally managed space. No wonder Café Campus elected singer Marco Calliari as their official anniversary spokesperson. The affable, trilingual artist has a CV that mentions both metal (his old band Anonymus) and world-beat (his more recent exploration of Italian folk music, and by extension his Rital Fest events).

“I kind of grew up in there, I guess, musically and artistically,” says Calliari. “It was the kind of family that would always open their doors to me, in all my different styles of music. They give me a chance to do whatever I want there. That’s why I always go back.”

He’s not the only one. Take rocker Xavier Caféïne, who’s opening for Malajube there on Feb. 16 (see this week’s Mirror cover story). Caféïne has a stack of albums to his credit, and he’s never launched one anywhere else. And then there are the regulars, the clientele, the drinkers, dancers, rascals and romancers. While the latest generation of students pack the dancefloor at the popular Mardis Retro and Dimanches Francophone nights, you’ll still find the old-timers dropping in, no doubt tossing around tales of the club’s original location on Queen Mary, where in February, 1967, it began as a student-initiated alternative to Université de Montreal’s overpriced cafeteria. By the time noise complaints obligated the relocation to Prince-Arthur in 1991, Café Campus was a cornerstone of the club scene, with a lil’ something for everyone.

FOR RESPECT: Marco Calliari

“It doesn’t just have one personality, it has many,” says Calliari, “and it shows.” The anniversary programming certainly reflects that—there’s a ska night with the Planet Smashers on Feb. 10, techno-jazz with Plaster and Dee on Valentine’s Day, and the burlesque bonanza Diary of a Lost Circus on Feb. 17. This coming Sunday boasts a doozy of a Dimanche Francophone, with Raoul Duguay taking the stage. “I find it really special to have Duguay,” says Calliari. “It’s actually very emotional. If we could say there are a top three songs that have grown up with Café Campus, his ‘Abitibi’ is one of them.”

Tonight, Feb. 8, however, is the big event, the Soirée Gala 40 Ans. It’s a gloriously glorified night of karaoke au québécois, with a live band backing everyone from Marjo, Antoine Gratton and Lucien Francoeur to Calliari, Caféïne and Call Me Poupée.

“There are a couple of songs that have been playing at Campus for a long time, so we’re going from Offenbach to Prince to Joan Jett— to, for sure, songs by these bands, like GrimSkunk, Groovy Aardvark and Mononc’ Serge. It’s gonna be a huge night, the place to be. You won’t see as many artists as that in one night, in a whole year—or in 40 years, maybe!”.