Hamilton’s live music venues struggle to stay alive amid pandemic
The past year has been devastating for Hamilton's independent live music venues and 2021 doesn't look much better.
Venues like The Casbah, The Corktown, Mills Hardware, Club Absinthe and This Ain't Hollywood have been vital in the creation of the city's vibrant music scene, providing early staging grounds for nationally and internationally recognized acts like the Arkells, the Dirty Nil, Terra Lightfoot and Monster Truck.
This Ain't Hollywood closed its doors for good in August, while other clubs are desperately struggling to find creative ways to pay the bills while under lockdown. They've sold merchandise, staged virtual online concerts, expanded patio space, offered curbside takeout menus and taken advantage of the limited government assistance available.
But without the ability to put on shows, their future remains uncertain.
Both The Casbah and Club Absinthe have launched online GoFundMe campaigns to help pay the rent. The Casbah has so far raised more than $16,000 of its $20,000 goal, while Club Absinthe has reached more than $9,000 of its $25,000 target.
Brodie Schwendiman has been booking rock concerts in Hamilton for more than 20 years. He's the owner of The Casbah, at Queen and King West, and a member of the Hamilton Music Industry Working Committee, a lobby group working to advance the city's music scene.
Except for a handful of limited capacities shows in the fall, Schwendiman hasn't hosted a concert inside his club since early March. Yet, like other businesses, he's still had to pay rent, utilities and license fees. He's even watched his insurance rates rise more than 80 per cent during the lockdowns. It seems insurance companies consider empty buildings more of a risk than full ones.
The inoperation of my business actually caused my insurance rate to increase," Schwendiman says. The lack of operation within your space is actually considered to be more of a liability than operating a live music venue where alcohol is being consumed inside."
Like other small business owners, Schwendiman has experimented with new ways of bringing in revenue during the lockdowns. But he feels live music venues have been particularly challenged as opposed to restaurants and pubs.
When you're known strictly as a live music venue, it's quite difficult to pivot and try doing different things that typically a live music venue wouldn't do, like a takeout menu," Schwendiman says. Why would people come to a business not known to do that sort of thing when there are well-known restaurants that are also doing that thing?"
Relaxed municipal regulations allowed Schwendiman to expand his patio operations during the summer, letting The Casbah to keep its head above water during the summer months. The club even staged a successful outdoor concert, featuring local solo acts B.A. Johnson and Lee Reed, in the building's parking lot with safe-distance seating. By mid-September, however, patio business dried up.
Sales of merchandise, featuring the club logo, have been a surprise success.
Merchandise - hoodies, T-shirts and tote bags - is the one campaign I've been happy with," he says. We've had nice consistent sales coming from that. We got a nice healthy spike during the Christmas season with people buying gifts. People buy them off the website and I've been driving around the city doing drop offs."
Schwendiman has also invested in professional quality video equipment with the hope of streaming some live concerts from The Casbah stage. He hopes to launch a series over the next month.
Our intention is to put something together that is so good that people will be happy to pay for access to it," he says.
One major uncertainty for live music venues is whether cautious music fans will ever want return to live events, even after the pandemic is over. Schwendiman is encouraged by the handful of limited capacity shows he was able to stage inside The Casbah during October and November. The club went to great lengths to restrict mobility and maintain safe distancing for both patrons and performers. One show, by local funk band the Altobeelays, sold out its 50 tickets within minutes.
You've got to do more than what the government protocols require, go beyond what's expected to make people comfortable," Schwendiman says. That will go a long way to getting people back."
Schwendiman thinks The Casbah can survive if health regulations relax with the return of warm weather. If the lockdowns continue throughout the year, however, his club's future is uncertain.
If we're still in this lockdown state 10, 12, 15 months from now, I can't answer that question confidently," he says when asked about the club's future. I'm looking forward to when the weather gets better again. I'm optimistic that if we can do more outdoor things in the parking lot, have a patio and continue to sell merchandise that we will be able to sustain ourselves.
Running live independent music as your primary revenue source is a difficult thing to do in Canada," he adds. It's hard for the artists and it's hard for the venues. Nobody is getting rich doing it."