Would The Cobalt be experiencing the same change, if it were still The Cobalt? Could be. They're still kids, looking for a place to be, and it's great that they'd rather be at a Thrasherbalt's metal show than watching UFC somewhere, but surveying them, it was really, really hard to feel like they were "my" people they belonged to some other Vancouver, which is slowly being drawn over the one I used to live in. The kids who were there looked, more than anything else, like they had more money to spend than the old stripe. Not sure where those people got to - maybe some of them have just gotten older and/or changed their fashion to match the march of progress (trampling over the bones of punk, or at least "growing out of it"). Come to think of it, I didn't see a single Crass patch the whole goddamn night. That's not necessarily a bad thing when you're talking about girls - because there were lots of fetching ones about - but (not counting the girls serving the beer) very few had dyed hair or ripped fishnets or combat boots or such, which used to be visible everywhere in the Cobalt. They can't hold their liquor, they lack any of the tribal accountrements of punk or metal, they mosh like like thugs, and some don't even seem that interested in the music - because several seemed to spend the whole show sitting in the front area of the club, socializing They're altogether too cute for me to feel at home amongst them, too. The crowd there now reflects the gentrification ongoing in the city, are more representative of the people that our Olympics-loving city fathers would LIKE entertainment in this city to be for for every punk or headbanger transplanted from the Cobalt to here, or every crusty DTES local come to check out the music (or just get sauced), there are three or four reasonably presentable, drunken twentysomethings, none too different from what you might see whoopin' it up along the corridors of the Granville Atrocity Exhibition. For all the familiar faces - wendy, the sound guy, sometimes Chi - there are no doubt a lot of Cobalt regulars who haven't made the transition - including Fem and myself it was only my second night there since wendy started booking it, and Femke's first. Surveying the place the other night, it seemed to me that what really was decisive was the people. It took me awhile to put my finger on it: is it that the walls - relatively bare, painted a deep red, with vintage burlesque images all around - aren't plastered with wendy's art and a billion gig posters? Is it that the metal-to-punk gig ratio is now two-to-one in favour of metal? Is it that the area in front of the stage is actually smaller than the 'balt's, or that the stage and the layout of the pit aren't quite as cool? Is it the weird wooden barrier at the front of the stage - a new addition since my last trip there a few months ago - that protects the monitors and likely impedes stage diving? Is it that you can inhale deeply through your nose without fear? Of course, "damage" is a relative thing: wendy's booking Funky Winkerbeans (AKA Punky Thrasherbalts) now, is there most nights (though on the wrong side of the bar, with a different jacket on but by her hair you shall know her!) But things really aren't the same - they can't be, and not just because you can't step in the same piece of water twice. The Cobalt still functions as a venue, but I'm not sure who goes there since wendythirteen got the boot, I have no interest in it - not sure the people who took it over or the landlords who nudged wendy out understand or care what's been damaged. Pardon the cliche, but - you really can't go home again. It was a great place, even if it smelled pretty rank, and though I was still somewhat more of an outside observer than an actual participant on the scene, it felt more like home than any other bar I've been to. I enjoyed going to the Cobalt enough to transform my experiences into a comic strip ( part one, part two), about the night a drunk punkette enthusiastically recommended I check out the Golers (whom I still haven't seen perform, but whose CDs I greatly enjoy). We met there for the first time during a Eugene Chadbourne show with Robots on Fire we attended several Fake Jazz Wednesdays, checked out the Rebel Spell, the Furies, Chi's version of SNFU, the Subhumans, the Sorrow and the Pity, and others. The Skinny was functional, I lived in Vancouver, and it felt like we were doing something meaningful to support the scene by going there and documenting whatever interested us. Not to be used without permission! Thanks, Femke - I owe it all to you!įemke and I used to attend the Cobalt regularly, at one point. All photos by Femke van Delft (except Titan's Eve album art and promo shot!).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |