Talk:Commodore Ballroom

The New Floor

After $3.5 million in renovations (including a new hardwood dancefloor) it reopened under the House of Blues banner on November 12, 1999.

This sounds like it's dragged straight from the Ballroom's own page, because I doesn't mention the controversy over the new floor, or the old hardwood dance floor, which was a LOT "dancier" and "bouncier" than the "new hardwood dancefloor" the recent renovations caused. The old horsehair-and-tires combination floor, which I swear could bounce you ten feet in the air during a heavy gig, was taken out by the new folks to "improve" it for more sedate forms of dancing, i.e. line dancing, as the new ownership (despite the Blues name) was country-oriented and not concerned with the ballroom-meets-punk flavour of the place. I'll have to try and dig up some cites, or bug Alex Varty or another music critic of the day, for some cites about this; but I do know that the "new" floor is a shadow of its former self. If they just wanted it to look nice they could have just replaced the hardwood; but they ripped out the suspension system and, thereby, the famous "bounce" - this was one of the last dance floors of its kind in North America by the way, until the new bunch from Alberta decided it was just a little too difficult for country-music dancing....I've been on it since and while it does have a "pulse" it doesn't have a "wave".Skookum1 20:03, 3 October 2006 (UTC)

And as in my edit comments there's a whole rich history of famous gigs played in the Commodore from '29 onwards; I know "modern" people are only concerned with bands of their own generation, but more's the pity: the Commodore's richest history was before the pop-culture era; I also think there's probably some menus to be had at the City Archives, which would be kind of interesting (i.e. this was dine-and-dance, not just drink-and-dance). And as for it being the "most famous" of Vancouver's historic live-music venues, nope, that honour belongs to The Cave (nightclub) which, by the way, still needs an article, and in Jack Wasserman's era Isy's (later The Metro, now a parking lot next door to the Christian Science church at Georgia & Bute) was right up there, as well.Skookum1 20:03, 3 October 2006 (UTC)

The Clash in '79?

I'm pretty sure that the Clash played at the PNE Gardens in '79, not the Commodore. (DPU 18:35, 25 November 2006 (UTC))

I saw them at the Commodore Jan 31,1979 but they also played at pne on Oct 16, 1979 2806:102E:18:A3E4:C560:935E:9448:B6C3 (talk) 19:50, 6 March 2024 (UTC)

Copyvio

Wholesale replacement of teh page with text taken from http://www.livenation.com/event/getEvent/eventId/255408/ has been reverted. -- Whpq 23:36, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

Photo request

Flickr has a bunch of CC images of bands playing at the commodore, but none that really show what the venue looks like inside. Can anyone help? - TheMightyQuill (talk) 18:20, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

I should be there soon again. I'll bring a camera, but the lights are usually down low once doors open for a show. I'll see what I can do. Sancho 09:04, 28 April 2008 (UTC)

The playbill

Is this all that's mentioned in the way of who's played there? -

Over the years the venue has hosted such notable performances from U2, The Police, Kiss, The Beastie Boys, Nirvana, Kid Rock, Hedley, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, and Franz Ferdinand.

What's with the metal/grunge/hiphop tilt of that, the black leather feel to it. Seems pretty one-dimensional given the range of great artists and styles taht have played that room; here's what/who I've seen, in no particular order:

• James Brown
• Toots & the Maytals
• Buddy Guy
• Shriekback
• XTC (opened for by The Young Canadians)
• King Sunny Ade

Others will come to mind, I wasn't a regular concert-goer and I bailed on hearing the B-52s there and lots of others that were known to be wild shows. Is that list of U2/Hedley/Kiss etc - shesh I'm surprised Nickelback's not on it, or Bryan Adams for that matter. The Commodore was on the circuit of rooms of bands that were just on the edge of getting big, or had booked the tour before they did, and it wasn't just a metal and U2/Police-type pop/rock place either. Jazz, swing, blues, reggae, it was all in there too. "Who's Franz Ferdinand again?" I t hink it's more interesting that Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee played there, adn Tina Turner, back when and on the return journey, and any number of other great artists. Or Glenn Miler, though I'm not certain that's where he and his band lpayed; let's not even get startged on the room's actual golden days, which were long before rock'n'roll....Skookum1 (talk) 03:30, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

"List of artists and bands who have played the Commodore Ballroom" is an extreme case of where listing "who played where" stuff;....even if you limited it to List of artists and bands who are famous now who once played the Commodore Ballroom. yeah, well, them and every other similar-sized bar on the North American circuit, for each band in question....the long relationship with Perryscope shoudl get some coverage if it's not arleady in teh article.Skookum1 (talk) 03:36, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Yeah there are many many more notable artists that have played at this venue. I just added a few from a single source. I'm sure if someone wanted to take the time to create a more complete list they could. I was just hoping to update the article a little bit as it was quite minimal before. Mkdw^talk 19:26, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Ijust got tired of the modern-only scope of the list so added other things; I htink Glenn Miller played here, not sure; Mark Kenney did for sure ,but the list would be VERY long; possibly sourceable in the Vancouver Book or another volume, maybe a history of entertainment in Vancouver as t here's a couple out there; Wasserman's memoirs are out there, now out-of-print; andthere's a bio article on Hugh .... Hugh? - Hugh Pickett, used to be the Orpheum MC, and also an MC here; also Arthur Sullivan, not that Arthur Sullivan, whose mother had been the methodist preacher in Gastown and grew up being the main MC in town for years, at the Commodore and elsewhere.....AS with the article on the Cave, a sublist article may eventually be necessary.....Skookum1 (talk) 18:38, 5 May 2009 (UTC)

Content - better refs needed

As far as the bands I'd listed which Mkdw just took out, I know I'm not a reliable source but I was at all those gigs, and I could give a s**t if Lady Ga-Ga performed there or not; it's become a mainstream touring venue and at some point nearly everybody has played there; relying on available web sources will mostly bias things towards younger-generation performers and doesn't address the older-era "glory days" of the Commodore, plus sundry local events such as the Robbie Burns dinner in 1939 (see ref following). Po-mo myopia combined with the making of a directory of bands known to the current generation is a really limiting scope; it's not like old copies of the Georgia Straight don't have the playbills for the gigs I'd mewntioned....do I have to go dig up the dates of those gigs and find the page numbers in the Straight for them? It's not as if the Metro/Isy's didn't exist, either; the Commodore is just the only survivor of the era of the old show clubs....anyway I searched for "Commodore" at Chuck Davis' site and got this list of 23 citations, though some of htem only concern Commodore Lanes (downstairs) and at least on is a bout a ship named the Commodore. Sammy Davis Jr is in there, so he can be cited....the heyday of this place was in the 30s-50s, then again the '60s-'80s. Only having bands from the 1990s and 2000s looks 'really odd and very temporally myopic. I know I saw Queen Ida and the Bon Temps Zydeco there on Halooween, 1985; the easy-enough citation would be the Georgia Straight concert listings for that week, but no doubt you'd want the page number and then would diss that she didn't win a Juno....Totts and t he Maytals were in the same season, as was Shriekback (oh, not a Juno winner, who cares about the Junos? How Canadian....). Ditto Buddy Guy adn Junior Wells and James Brown, also that fall, and King Sunny Ade..... The XTC gig was January of 2000, I think, with opening act the Young Canadians/K-Tels, so again the Straight concert listings could just be cited (if I was sure of the date). Ultimately, though "Wikipedia is not a directory" and only a representative sample of interesting and famous acts should be incluced; Lady Ga-Ga is a flash in the pan.....my main bitch is that this is all Generation-Zip bands with no sense of history; the whole point of this article is that the Commodre has history, but there's little to be found, otehr than a listing of latter-day pop icons.....Skookum1 (talk) 14:30, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

Parryscope

should probably post this on WP:Vancouver too....just occurred to me while looking over this, and that question about the Clash in '79, who probably booked them, that they're definitely Vancouver's most prominent modern-era booking agency/promoter. Definitely worth an article.Skookum1 (talk) 11:56, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

oh, the title is necessarily longer; I remember them as Parryscope Entertainment but Parryscope Concerts is their new DBA name.Skookum1 (talk) 12:10, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

KISS

The logo and branding for KISS has always been in capitals as verified by it's official website: http://www.kissonline.com/history. Please seek consensus and provide an reliable reference as to why the band's name should be presented other than as indicated on their logo and website. Thanks, Mkdw^talk 14:22, 28 May 2014 (UTC)