Bar wars!

by JACK OATMON

Amidst the inebriated madness of last weekend, bemused and somewhat livid about the dire straits of Mile End Cultural Centre (meaning Green Room and Main Hall), I went out on the lookout for potential surrogates. While there’s not much more to do for the MICC than spread the word and sign the petition organized by some of the staff (at www.petitiononline.com/m1l33nd/petition.html), I did manage to case a few fresh alternatives for the meantime.

Like any member of my generation of disparate taste, I dig my retro, and I dig it with heaping piles of corny pop-culture references, idealistic revisionism and college-movie exaggeration. How happy was I, then, when I wandered into a club that can only be described as a perfect cross-pollination of a sweaty high-school locker room and the interior of the Death Star? And it comes complete with all the ’70s trimmings, from pool tables and tipsy foosball machines with dice-counters and beer-holders, to a mauve, taupe and maroon-painted concrete interior accented with delightfully hideous glass bricks, to a big, hexagonal, latticed window overlooking the city fronted by, not Emperor Palpatine, but beautiful bargirls. Heck, I even heard a rumour that the owner queries staff members about their astrological signs when they get hired. Groovy!

The nuts and bolts of it are that le Gymnase (4177 St-Denis, at Rachel) is a two-storey club with a great layout, a 350-person capacity, an amazing location and a respectable sound system with two nice subs upstairs and a stage downstairs. Three weeks in business, they’re focusing on weekends. On Saturdays, they’ve got (you guessed it!) retro-Franco night, while Friday promises equal hilarity—Sixtoo and Masyr played last week when I showed up, while Ghislain Poirier holds it down this week as guest rock bands kick it downstairs.

Tonight, Thursday, July 12, is gonna feature one of the best shows of the week as Chromeo and Flosstradamus invade Club 1234 for live performances alongside the Peer Pressure family. When you wake up and peel the underwear off your face the next afternoon, if you still feel the need for more synth-poppin’ hip hop, fish out the Chromeo ticket for a rebate for the Tittsworth show at Lambi on Friday the 13th.

Saturday, July 14, starts early with a bonanza of DJs mixing house, breaks, electro et al at the Ste-Catherine street sale, in case you didn’t already get your fill of enormous crowds of gawkers herded like cattle through downtown (viva Jazz Fest!). Later that night, I would suggest you go see justifiably hyped-up Brit-rockers Maxïmo Park at la Tulipe. After that, you’ll be in proximity of a new night being launched at Zoobizarre this weekend. That’s Bass Culture with DJ Luv and Jas Nasty. That same night, you can get quality, live tech-house with Bruno Pronsato at Academy, or catch him at Piknic Électronik on Sunday.

Don’t forget about the quirky, flowing synth-rock of Battles at Sala Rossa and the Styx/Def Leppard show (you heard right!) at Bell Centre, both on Tuesday. Also, Gravy Train!!! arrives at Sala on Wednesday, replete with screeching fags and funky tunes.

Witness the power of this armed
and fully operational discotheque!
jack.oatmon@gmail.com