In Search of Lost Venues

Thank you so much to everyone who listened and participated. There will be a new conversation in the next few months, and the occasional bonus episode. I always saw this as a finite project; there are way more stories to tell but I don't want to get repetitive in my own angle into this topic.

Luke Meat was the music director at CiTR radio during the 2000s. From 1998-2000 he was the DJ at the Brickyard under the name Audio Where. Luke was a member of the bands Damn Fine Sandwich, Storc, Value Village People, and Zero Percent Interest and currently in Bat Leather.
This conversation was recorded on January 15 2026.
The Brickyard was at 315 Carroll Street. In the late 1990s and early 2000s it was one of the main venues for local bands and out of town bands looking to play smaller venues. The building still exists and has been renovated into a  bakery, vintage shop and coffee shop.
Other venues visited: Selectors Records, Blim.
Other venues discussed. Columbia, The Old American, Smilin' Buddha, Hoko's, Web Cafe, Starfish Room, Richards on Richards.
Bands discussed: Chixdiggit, Fluff, Sunn O))), Boris, Groovy Ghoulies, Smugglers, Maow, And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, At the Drive-in, Matmos, Modest Mouse, Close Caption Radio, Wide Mouth Mason, Kinski, Industry & Agriculture, Unclean Wiener, Destroyer, Jerk with a Bomb, Jennifer Gentle, Sleater Kinney, The Evaporators, Seam, GOB, d.b.s.
 
This episode features the following music:
Kinski: Point That Thing Somewhere Else from Semaphore EP (2002).

d.b.s.: Galleon's Lap from If Life Were A Result We'd All Be Dead (Originally released on Crap records, 2014)
Bat Leather: Pageantry (2025)

Dennis Mills has been playing with bands in Vancouver for over four decades. He was in AKA and Rhythm Mission, and still plays with the Judys and the Jazzmanian Devils.

This conversation was recorded on November 28th 2025.

Venues visited:  Tamara Restaurant (311 W Hastings), site of the first Jazzmanian Devils show in 1983. Warehouse show location (152 West Hastings). Helen Pitt Gallery (163 W Pender), The Lotus, In Concert, the Lamplighter, the Town Pump, John Barley's, the Savoy, Gambados, Lanalou's, City Space.
Other venues mentioned: the Railway Club, the Commodore, PUMPS, Smilin' Buddha, the Plaza, Cinderella Ballroom, Glass Slipper, Cambrian Hall.
Musicians mentioned: Captain Beefheart, UJ3RK5, Zealots, I Braineater, the Psychic Healers, 54-40, Los Popularos, David Thomas, Tragically Hip, Red Herring, Death Sentence, the Odds, The Rheostatics, the Clash, the Dishrags, Bo Diddley, Los Lobos, the Frights, the Moral Lepers, the K-Tels, Subhumans, DOA, the Pointed Sticks, Work Party, Emily Faryna, Tin Twist, the Dils, Rank and File.
This episode features the following music:
AKA: CIA from Dead Therapy
Rhythm Mission: Shudderdown
Tin Twist: Sitting Here, Waiting Here (Mo-Da-Mu 1980)

Ziggy (Yuriko Iga) opened Blim in 2003, after graduating from the Alberta College of Art and Design and starting a venue called Kisaten in Calgary. Blim was a music venue performance space, art gallery and much more. Blim hasn't had music events for about 14 years but is still a shop/retail art installation.

Blim began as a venue  in 2003 in the penthouse at 23 W Pender St in the old BC Electric Building. It moved to 197 E 17th for 2005-2010 and then to its current location at 115 E Pender.  This coversation was recorded on November 26, 2025.
Venues visited: 3 locations of Blim
Venues mentioned: Unit/Pitt, the Sugar Refinery, the Binding Light!, Kisaten, Squib.
Bands mentioned: p:ano, Nicholas Krgovich, Tygh Runyan, Crys Cole, Tunnel Canary, Joshua Stevenson, The Hidden Cameras, Dandi Wind, Josh Rose, Brady Cranfield, Loscil, Fieldhead, Lee Hutzalak, Cartoon Express, connect_icut, Prophecy Sun, Jeffrey Allport, Johnny Wakeham, Standard Grey, Pink Mountaintops.
This episode features the following music:
p:ano: Trouble Ahead from Ghost Pirates Without Heads (Mint Records, 2005)
Kellarissa: Harlean from Superstar EP (2008)
Fieldhead: he'd found the sea from they shook hands for hours (2009)

Kristjanne Vosper's current project is KMVP. She has played in  Smearlord, Bash Brothers, Repukes, and OK Vancouver OK. She lives in Nanaimo.

Venues visited:The Black Lab ( E Hastings) was a "DIY, collectively run, volunteer-based punk space"  on Hastings Street , just east of Main, in the Downtown Eastside, from about 2014-2024.
Other venues visited: Pat's Pub, The Secret Location, Red Gate, Iron Road Studio, Fingers Crossed, Bullet Farm.
Other venues discussed: Jam space at Main and Powell, Crace mountain
Bands mentioned : Time Cops, Flat Bed, Shearing Pinx, Wameki, OK Vancouver OK, Red Circle, Screaming Queens, Bad Sister, Hag Face, Jo Passed, buddies, Felonious Parker, Freak Dream, Garbage Dream, Bereaved, Mansion Music, Imaginary Pants.
This episode features the following music:
KMVP: Anarchist Superstar from NUCLEAR FREE NANAIMO VOL III ( 2023)
Bash Brothers: Party Hat from BASH (2014)
KMVP: Swimming //without frogs from KMVP "goes Ribit" WITHOUT FROGS ( 2024)