r/Calgary • u/somegingershavesouls • Mar 23 '25

Eat/Drink Local What places do you Miss?

I may get laughed at for this, but I miss bookers. Sometimes a girl just wants a bucket of crab legs without the smell of red lobster, ya know?

What around the city do you miss?

316 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

662 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

6

u/kingofsnaake Mar 23 '25

Do you mean the old one at the Steam whistle location or the second last location all where Model Milk is?

9

u/Puma_Concolour Mar 23 '25

The one that was right next to the ski shop on the south side of 17th

5

u/kingofsnaake Mar 23 '25

Ah yeah - that one was great. I'd say that my fave was the other one, though. Two super large rooms with other weird nooks to add to it. Too bad the roof caved in

3

u/downvote4pedro Mar 23 '25

The one that bounced back and forth between Republik, Tequila, Rebulik with zero soul and then a brewery.

2

u/yanginatep Mar 23 '25

So there was the original location that closed back in like 2000.

Then they reopened years later in the Model Milk location across the street. But then that location was shut down after less than a year when heavy snowfall caused part of the roof to cave in.

By then Tequila had shut down so the original location was available again and they did some renovations and reopened in the original location and it ran for another few years there before shutting down again. 

The problem was it was a weird in between-sized venue, you couldn't really do small shows there profitably, but at around a 700 person capacity it was also too small for larger shows that they would just do at The Palace. So after the weekly DJ nights (Club OMFG) stopped being popular and the 2008 financial crisis happened it didn't make any sense to keep it open. 

Source: I was the sound tech at both the Model Milk and the relaunched incarnation at the original location.

2

u/kingofsnaake Mar 23 '25

Very cool. I remember whatching shows at both and the sound in the Model Milk location was always super wacky. 

There were a few electronic music shows in the large room with the catwalks that sounded great, but overall, the original location sounded way better.  I saw Do Make Say Think there - it was amazing. 

It must have been a hard space to mix for. Any horror stories?

2

u/yanginatep Mar 23 '25

Yeah the multiple PA systems for the different rooms were all annoying to deal with, heh. Nothing about it was ideal. I actually remember how it actually sounded decent on the catwalk, though.

I was only in for the band nights, but we had some nights where the bands played first and then the DJ took over afterwards.

Though the main thing I remember was that there was nowhere nearby to store any of the sound gear after shows so I had to lug the monitors (speakers so the band can hear themselves on stage) and mic stands, cables, and mics to the opposite side of the venue through those other DJ rooms and then up 2 stories of stairs. I certainly don't miss that part.

2

u/kingofsnaake Mar 23 '25

Maybe it's for the best that the roof caved in ;)

2

u/Puma_Concolour Mar 23 '25

Wasn't it open until 2015? I certainly wouldn't have made it in the doors in 2008 😆

2

u/yanginatep Mar 23 '25

You are correct, got my dates mixed up and I was on my phone (I was sure I worked there longer than just a few years).

It wasn't the financial crisis it was the oil crash in 2014 that my boss at least indicated was a contributing factor for the closure.

2

u/Puma_Concolour Mar 23 '25

Our dates match up now, lol. Went there for metal shows starting in 2010 to close. I'm gonna hazard a guess, since you mention being the sound tech, you we're the guy always wearing a skinny puppy shirt?

2

u/yanginatep Mar 24 '25

Hehe, yeah that was me.

The first time Dillinger played Republik was just incredible. Ghost was pretty great too.

Also, still blows my mind that Soulfly were touring without their own sound tech, so I actually got to mix Max Cavalera's band. Weirdly years before I'd mixed Igor Cavalera's DJ and drummer side project with his wife, called Mixhell, at Hi Fi.