Calgary bar steals ‘Sidetrack’ mojo – Edmontonians irked
much of a knot over someone using a variation of the Sidetrack name in a different city.”
Oliver points out that while the average bar-goer in Calgary might not know or care there was a famous Sidetrack in Edmonton, the bands, booking agents and other industry people on the tour circuit might get confused, and think: The Sidetrack moved to Calgary? WTF? Calgary is a bizarro anti-Edmonton as it is. We have a Jubilee Auditorium, they have a Jubilee Auditorium, they have a cool mayor, we have a cool mayor, we have a hockey team … you get the idea.
And so the Sidetrack name has been salvaged and legally claimed. Do they have the moral right? The Shamrock Hotel bar has run bands continuously since the ‘60s, making it Calgary’s longest running live music venue – much like the Sidetrack Café was in Edmonton. Aside from claiming the Sidetrack Internet domain (up for grabs!) and hiring some lawyer to lean on the owners of the 100-year-old Calgary hotel located in the warehouse district, there’s not much anyone can do about this. It’s in a different city, the name is different, and “Sidetrack Stage and Grill” as a business name has not even been incorporated. It’s just the name they’re putting on the sign. The popular Calgary blues room actually had no name for the longest time save for what the regulars gave it: “The Rock,” or more commonly, the “Shammy.”
Clendenning says the new Sidetrack Stage and Grill has recently broadened its mandate to include more than just blues; in short, much like the Sidetrack Café – and is also literally on the side of the tracks. “From the wall at the back of the stage, we’re 10 feet away from the tracks. Forty trains a day pass by here,” he says. “You can’t hear them when the bands are playing, but you can feel the rumble.”
So there’s that.
This is going to be a thorn in Edmonton’s side – so to speak – for a long time to come.
Strangely, this is not the first time the Shamrock has – accidentally or sort of on purpose – appropriated the mojo of another establishment. After the famous King Eddy Hotel closed, taking its famous blues jam with it, the Saturday afternoon blues jam at the Shamrock became known to regulars as the “King Eddy Jam,” according to Clendenning, with the same host band, the same customers – and even the former owner of the old King Eddy.
Mike Bell, music critic for the Calgary Herald, gets the last word here: “My initial response was boo-fucking-hoo. Can we save the civic hissy fits and slap fights for when our hockey teams are relevant? Say, 10, 20 years from now?
“But that said, I also do understand and appreciate how iconic and important the name Sidetrack is to the Edmonton music scene, and to the Canadian music scene in general. I can’t speak for the Calgary club owners, I don’t even know who they are, so I certainly don’t know if they were intending to capitalize on the storied history of that incredible Edmonton club or merely using a name that fit in with the fact the venue is so close to the railyards and there are train tracks that cut right past the building. I would, however, question why they didn’t just go back to using the Shamrock name, which is also fairly iconic in this province, although probably not in the same way as the Sidetrack. Whatever the case, it’s a live music venue in Alberta. As long as they book local music and/or acts that wouldn’t normally come through town, then, well, God bless ‘em.”
