STARLITE, STAR BRIGHT: 94-Year-Old Building the Place to Be for Underground Music in Edmonton – 30 years later
In my first year as the woefully unqualified music critic for The Edmonton Sun, circa 1992, I visited the Starlite Room for the first time.
It was called “The Bronx” in those days. It had a scary reputation, one of these dark dingy downtown “underground” bars we’d heard rumours about. Nirvana played there. There were more people at the recent Nirvana tribute band than they were for the actual Nirvana (19 people showed up in March 1991). At the time I was in the middle of a crash course on the Edmonton indie rock scene, and decided to check out a local metal band called The Disciples of Power. Cool name.
The entrance to the Bronx was in a sketchy area through a narrow passage into a deep concrete canyon, with barbed wire on the roof, I guess to repel gargoyles. Bravely through the battered door I barged, past scary-looking punks with long hair, piercings and tattoos. Some of them were smoking drugs! There was a big line-up at the bar inside. These punks were getting wasted.
Once the band fired up – not at all like the relatively sedate heavy metal of my youth; this was something new called “death metal” – it was also the first time I’d seen a “mosh pit.” It’s a crush of youthful hormones colliding violently in a counter-clockwise rotation of flesh, elbows flying, heads butting, legs akimbo, with the occasional “crowd-surfers” plopping up to flail about while groping hands held them up. Loose shoes flew here and there. Beers in plastic cups were flung. The band was deafening, ridiculous, wonderful.
I kept a safe distance, grinning my face off – when one of the punks trod upon my foot. Ouch!
“Oh, excuse me, I’m sorry,” the guy said, and threw himself back into the pit.
I realized right then and there that this was the place to be: A safe, inclusive, interesting environment where anyone is welcome – and when it comes to live original music, anything goes.
This Saturday they’re celebrating the 30th year of the venue hosting live bands (having previously been the home of the Citadel Theatre, and before that, a steakhouse, and before that, the headquarters for the Salvation Army; long story). On stage will be an eclectic line-up of familiar bands, both from Edmonton and Calgary: Shout Out Out Out Out (right), the Mad Bomber Society, Voice Industrie, Chixdiggit, L.A.M.S, and Paul James Coutts & The Cowls.
I’ve seen many shows in the 94-year-old building since 1992, through its various names (The Rev, Lush, and finally the Starlite Room), through business woes and complicated renovations. It currently has the strangest dance floor you’ve ever seen: Sloped upwards from back to front, as if you’re standing in the Riddler’s hideout in the old Batman TV show. Start a circle pit in this space and the whole audience would tumble out the door.
The Starlite Room in its current form, more or less, was founded by a consortium of local music wheels that included the late Gary McGowan – a veteran radio-man who made his local fame as the program director of the original K-97 station, at one time the new and almost only alternative to the commercial pop played by 630 CHED. He also helped found the U of A’s mighty CJSR 88.5 FM, then and now the true alternative. Gary, who was also famous for his amazing hair, got into all sorts of local music industry pursuits after his radio career, and was much beloved – and widely mourned after he died of brain cancer in 2008.
Gary had a vision for the Starlite Room, and was determined to make it happen through all the trials and tribulations.
Alhad Devji, one of the current owners, knew him well: “He was the visionary behind the entire operation. He brought all the heads together. We had quite a few setbacks at that time, but he was determined. He was so passionate about music.”
Nowadays the Starlite is a welcoming place, with a nice bar and restaurant accessible through friendly main doors, and original bands – both touring and local – playing every week in two different rooms. No barbed wire. It’s a place you wouldn’t be afraid to take your kids to.
I miss the old Bronx.
On Gary’s legacy, Devji says, “I wish he were still here to see what we’re doing.”
Shout Out Out Out Out photo, above, middle, by John Rubuliak
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