Blackout at Black Dot

Over the past three or so years, an obscene number of art galleries, loft spaces and other indie venues that feature live music have been forced to pack it in due to pressures from bureaucratic red tape and gentrification. These shutdowns ultimately suppress culture and kill what makes Montreal so fucking great. I have unfortunately written about this far too often in this little column but sadly, things just keep getting worse. [Ed.’s note: See Jack Oatmon’s Disco Volante column this week for more on this as well.]

Another installment in the city’s steps to turn Montreal into a travesty like downtown Vancouver is the loss of DIY all-ages venue the Black Dot, which was located on the lower Main. The Black Dot definitely filled a much-needed niche in the Montreal music scene, providing a small-capacity room perfect for up-and-coming bands, and one of the only ways for kids under the legal drinking age to see shows.

The Black Dot is only the latest example of the city’s recent cracking down on live music venues (which are, oddly, usually a stone’s throw away from recent condo builds). Others include the Main Hall, still languishing in limbo, and the late lab.synthèse, as well as recent hassles for Casa del Popolo and an increased police presence at co-op venue Katacombes enforcing strict capacity restraints.

Despite the Black Dot providing a stage for bands without any incidents since it opened in mid-October of last year, the club was suddenly given warnings of noise complaints in early April, following a Cursed show, and despite some surrounding neighbours not even realizing there even was a concert space on their block, this small incident invited regular visits from authorities.

“We tried to apply for the proper permits,” says promoter/co-owner Daniel (no last name given), “but inspectors let us know that we would have to change the fire exit and widen the stairwell by 10 centimetres, which would’ve meant taking down the brick wall and putting in a new staircase, which financially would’ve been impossible for us to do. They said unless we did that, they would be on our ass and shutting down every show we do.

“This city has always had great bands, artists and designers that stem directly from the DIY ethic, and once that’s gone, the city will just become stale and it’ll take a long time to repair it.”

All is not lost, as Daniel and the other Black Dot volunteers state they may be down right now but are definitely not out. Plans have already begun to find a new, similar space, and their ideals and intentions in opening the Black Dot in the first place still hold firm.

“I just want to thank all of the people who had supported the Black Dot,” Daniel continues. “We really never expected that the space would mean so much to people. We’ve been getting a lot of e-mail this week from people saying how their favourite show they saw or played at was at our space. That really means a lot to us, and it’s really helped motivate us to find a new place while not changing how we ran the original venue. We want to just have a DIY space, have fun and bring in as many small bands as we can.”

KEEP VANCOUVER OUT OF MONTREAL…JONATHAN.CUMMINS@GMAIL.COM