In Vancouver, we have this great concert venue called the Commodore Ballroom.

The place has hardly changed over the years,

It’s renowned for having great acoustics, because it was designed for the big band era,

and the dance floor is legendary for its bounce.

Rumours are that it has springs or tires underneath it, which give it both durability and bounce, which seems to entice the crowd to greater antics.

It’s over 85 years old, holds about a thousand people, and has hosted many, many acts. One of my fraternity brothers, in fact, wrote the definitive book on the place.

He talks about how many bands have played there over the years, and I’m going to defer to him when he says January 1979 was the greatest month in the Ballroom’s history in terms of who played:

While it’s difficult to single out any one period as the Commodore’s most notable or remarkable, the month of Jan. 1979 might earn that distinction. It began on Jan. 2 when Blondie appeared to a packed house. The Ramones returned a few days later on Jan. 6, and this time Vancouver was ready when 1,000 pogo’ing punk rock fans hit the dance floor. Yet the Ramones might have looked quaint compared to Devo, which took the stage on Jan. 12 and played both an 8 p.m. and midnight show. While Devo may be regarded today as a kitschy ’80s group, the band struck audiences as controversial in its early years. Rolling Stone magazine notoriously found their sound, imagery and disdainfully “devolutionary” worldview threatening enough to call them fascists.

BB King and Tower of Power also performed that month, but it was the Clash making its North American debut at the Commodore on Jan. 31 where Vancouverites could see for themselves that despite the bombast — the Clash were called “The Only Band That Matters” — they were at their root a terrific live band.

I’ve been attending shows there since I was 19, because of their liquor licence. In fact, they were closed for three years at one point because they lost the licence when the owner retired and the Liquor Board wouldn’t transfer the old licence to the new owners, meaning they’d have to get a new one which didn’t have the same freedoms as the old one.

While I wasn’t there for the famous U2 show that only had 300 people in attendance,

or the Nirvana show in 1991 just before they blew up,

I was there for the first Chili Peppers show in Vancouver, the last Ramones show in Vancouver, and the famous Megadeth show on 9/12, when Mustaine said there were “gonna play ’til midnight, because we can’t fucking leave town”.

Thanks to my friend who owned Scrape Records, I also got to work backstage for bands like GWAR, Cradle of Filth and Fozzy.

Anyway, I thought I’d talk tonight about venues that influenced my love of music. We all have them; I just had the floor.

Tonight’s sports:

• AAF:
  • Memphis at Orlando – 8:00PM | NFL Network

• NHL:
  • Leafs at Habs – 7:00PM | CBC
  • Stadium Series: Penguins at Flyers – 8:00PM | NBC / Sportsnet1
  • Ducks at Oilers – 10:00PM | CBC
  • Islanders at Canucks – 10:00PM | Sportsnet

• NBA:
  • Rockets at Warriors – 8:30PM | ABC / TSN2

• NCAA:
  • Duke at Syracuse – 6:00PM | ESPN / TSN5
    • No Zion
  • South Florida at Houston – 6:00PM | ESPN2
  • Vanderbilt at Alabama – 6:00PM | ESPNU
  • Kansas at Texas Tech – 8:00PM | ESPN
  • Memphis at Wichita State – 8:00PM | ESPN2
  • Seton Hall at St. John’s – 8:00PM | FS1
  • BYU at Gonzaga – 10:00PM | ESPN
  • Oregon at UCLA – 10:00PM | ESPN2
  • San Diego State at UNLV – 10:00PM | ESPNU

• NHRA Drag Racing:
  • Saturday Nitro Phoenix – 7:00PM | FS1

The Oscars are tomorrow night, so MakeItSnow will be guest-hosting the Open Thread, and I encourage everyone to join along as we liveblog watching famous people blow each other (metaphorically) on live TV. AT LEAST THE AVN AWARDS ARE HONEST ABOUT IT!