Former live music venue in Bastion Square hosted a wild and eclectic array of artists in its heyday.
Where:Upstairs Cabaret, 15 Bastion Square, VictoriaWhen:Friday and Saturday, 7:30 p.m. (doors at 6:30 p.m.)Tickets: $37.90 fromsimpli.events/e/BlackMountainHarpos50th
Harpo’s Cabaret has not been operational since 1995, having been replaced long ago by what is now Upstairs Cabaret.
But the former live music venue in Bastion Square is living its best life online, where it remains a popular conversation piece among those who frequented the wood-panelled room during its heyday.
“People will forget the name of the doctor who birthed their child, but they will remember the third opening band from a Doughboys show at Harpo’s in 1988,” Marcus Pollard, the venue’s longtime booking manager said with a laugh. “It’s just weird.”
Pollard is staging two anniversary concerts at Upstairs Cabaret this weekend, the first in a year-long series honouring the 50th birthday of Harpo’s. Other events include a picnic for former staff and exhibit of memorabilia — including T-shirts, posters, booking contracts and photos — at the Phillips Tasting Room in September during Rifflandia.
“There is going to be some cool stuff in there,” Pollard said of the September showcase. “Bits of memorabilia and stuff that people have probably never seen.”
The anniversary concerts at Upstairs on Friday and Saturday are headlined by Black Mountain, the Los Angeles-based psych rock group led by former Victoria resident Stephen McBean, which is fitting. McBean played Harpo’s several times during the 1980s and ’90s as a member of Victoria bands Jerk Ward, Red Tide, Mission of Christ, Gus and Onionhouse.
The club, which was founded in 1975, was a haven for young musicians like McBean, who were given regular opportunities to perform — even though their music existed on the fringes of mainstream culture. The script was eventually flipped, however, and bands who were toiling in the underground eventually became superstars. Several of the biggest acts in the world — Pearl Jam, No Doubt, Green Day, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Alice in Chains — are, in fact, alumni of the club, having played the room at some point during its 20-year run.
Its place in the annals of alternative music is not insignificant, either. Last year, during a performance at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder tipped his hat to Harpo’s and its founder and former co-owner, Gary Van Buskirk, from the stage. Vedder and his bandmates played Harpo’s twice in 1991 — once when they were newbies known as Mookie Blaylock, and a second time as headliners when they had become Pearl Jam.
The latter show is somewhat infamous — around here, at least — for being mentioned in a Pearl Jam profile by Oscar-nominated director Cameron Crowe, whose 1993 cover story forRolling Stonemagazine opened with an account of the lightly attended Harpo’s gig.
Pollard recently asked members of his popular Facebook group, dedicated to local live music clubs during the years 1975-1998, to list their favourite concert at Harpo’s. Nearly 1,500 votes were cast for 171 different shows — including ones by Pearl Jam. But the beauty of Harpo’s was reflected in the sheer variety of entries in the online poll, from Blind Melon and Goo Goo Dolls to John Lee Hooker and The Stray Cats.
“It’s endless,” Pollard said, who has been promoting events in Victoria in some fashion for 45 years.
The 200-seat venue benefited from the presence of Pollard and Van Buskirk, the astute bookings and promotions team during the club’s peak years. They followed different corners of the music world, which resulted in concerts from a wild and eclectic array of artists, ranging from ’70s pop (The Bay City Rollers, David Cassidy) ground floor blues (Bo Diddley, Albert Collins) and mainstream rock (Melissa Etheridge, The Tragically Hip) to jazz (Bill Evans, Art Pepper), death metal (Napalm Death) and reggae (Toots and the Maytals, The Wailers).
“Because our market was so small, bands that were playing [Vancouver venues] had to play Harpo’s,” Pollard said. “It became this nexus point for all of the bands that were coming through the area.”
Pollard said he is making the year of Harpo’s anniversary events his final kick at the concert-promotion can. The Black Mountain concerts at Upstairs Cabaret on Friday and Saturday will be adorned with posters from the era, and includes giveaways with memorabilia from bands that played the room. “I wanted to give people a chance to hang around, and have fun. So I’ve been calling it a party.”
He said all former staff, from doormen to bartenders, have been given spots on the guestlist. “We had a 20-person staff, and they were all interesting and fun. It was like family.
“It was special. But it was also just a bar. There would be nights that were transcendent, but there were also nights that were empty.”
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