Live Music plus a Small Venue Equals Success

A historical building brought back from a dilapidated, run-down (and vacant) community presence in 2006, the Danforth Music Hall has proved to be, nearly three years later, a music venue worth showing up to for intimate and quality performances.

Danforth Music Hall

The Music Hall has been making a difference in Toronto‘s Danforth community, bringing numbers of around 50,000 into the area each year. Bringing a steady new influx of visitors to the community, and reviving the intimate concert experience, the Music Hall has accomplished a lot in almost three years, with steady direction by entrepreneur Glyn Laverick.

The Live Music

Huge arenas and amphitheatres have been crowding out the smaller, more atmospheric venues over the years, but what smaller venues, like the Music Hall, have to offer is a great experience. Some of the big artist names they’ve pulled in since they re-opened in 2006 are Noel Gallagher and Gem Archer of Oasis, Sam Roberts, Sergio Mendez, Jully Black, Sarah Slean, 54-40, and more—all successful shows.

The acoustic show by members of Oasis in November 2006, a means of publicising their best of album, was sold out, and a very high profile event for the Music Hall, and according to one concert goer, who has attended every Oasis event in TO in the past four years (ACC, V-Fest), it was “the best show out of all of them…the sound was better, I had a better seat, and it was nice and relaxed—really chill actually.”

So, since that high profile show a little over two years ago, it could be said that exclusivity is a big selling point; being guaranteed a good view, good acoustics, and a manageable crowd (compared to the mosh pit many battled trying to see Oasis this year at V-Fest), the Music Hall has only gained momentum—a sign of good things to come. They’ve certainly not attained enough notoriety to bring in consistent acts of this calibre, but they’re certainly in the game. Listed with a 4/5 star rating on yelp.ca’s Toronto Music Venues, shows like Buck-65, Neverending White Lights, and City and Colour in the past two years have only raised their competitiveness as a popular live music venue.

Venue’s History & Architecture

This historic building has withstood pressures of time and circumstance that have felled many older theatres. Previously, it has been both Allen’s Theatre, for Vaudeville and theatrical shows, and The Century as a second-run movie house; it now calls itself The Music Hall.

Fires and modernisation have been responsible for the loss of as many as 20 of the 52 theatres built between 1720 and 1920, and The Music Hall is one of the few remaining that still runs as an entertainment venue. Built in 1919, the hall—fully renovated in 2004, and re-opened in 2006—is an example of Georgian Revival architecture. Of the many captivating architectural details the theatre has, rosettes, vaulted corridors, crown mouldings, and gilt, the signature red velvet curtains and plush theatre seating hold a certain cosmic power over the visitor. The Music Hall offers an intimate and atmospheric stage for concerts that you fail to get from a stadium or large amphitheatre.

For 2009

Right now the event listings for The Music Hall is a bit limited for live music– the celebrated show ‘Da Kink in my Hair’ is slotted for a run of performances in the fall, as well as an appearance by comedian Lisa Lampanelli April 18. What can we expect to see from this music venue this year? What would you like to see? An increase in performances would drum up awareness of the theatre certainly, but it would also be a fantastic way of reminding us, as we head toward the spring and summer months, what a fantastic community lies just a little bit northeast of the city’s centre.

The Business of 2.0

I’ve been learning about Web 2.0 in bits and pieces the last few weeks (i’m relatively new to the shared, widgeted, and RRS fed pages), and while it originally appeared quite daunting and overly accessorized (for me), I think it really is all that it’s made out to be. Through the use of some of these tools I’ve found that the volume of information you can access daily, either sent to you (google reader), or that you and others can bookmark for shared use (del.icio.us, for example), is fantastic.

Companies are utilizing this wave of progression to improve their business; I read about  Enterprise 2.0 recently in an online Irish newspaper, a company that facilitates and advocates the integration of Web 2.0 into regular business operations. It is meant to help productivity, time management, and problem solving (and a great many other things). Online magazines (and newspapers) should be making sure they are taking full advantage of Web 2.0 tools. Companies like Enterprise 2.0 would be a fantastic resource for online magazines struggling with the necessity of  a strong web presence by maximizing the benefits to be taken from the Web 2.0 movement.

Web 2.0 Magazine Analysis

This is my Web 2.0 analysis for my online magazines course. I’ve chosen three magazines to review.

Podcasting your novel?

So I recently ran across an article at Time.com about self-publishing online, by way of podcasting. Interesting. Online publishing seems to be realizing itself in new ways every day, but is this a positive or negative move? I think maybe both. The possibility that the internet will become one huge slush pile of free, independently released digital/audio books is daunting and unpleasant, however, having the ability to take charge and get your work out there seems like a positive move for aspiring writers (especially now with the economy causing publishers to downsize and scale back their lists).

J.C. Hutchins, a writer who couldn’t get his book published, is interviewed in this article. His point is that his work meant something, and that he felt he should be able to share it despite his inability to get it published. Cue podiobooks.com, where serialized audiobooks are released for free. Can’t hurt, can it?  Technology is changing the industry, ready or not, so people who are ahead of the game are making their own opportunities.  I think it’s great–these methods of publishing are challenging not only the medium for reading, but how publishers choose books– this link brings another Time article in to support my point. The writer who put her own book out on the iuniverse, after failing with agents and publishers, received an offer a year later for the same book from Simon & Schuster.

I think a lot of the criticisms rise from the supposed rapidity of change occurring in the industry … I am certainly more appreciative of regular books over e-books, or audio books, but this intrigues me. The potential for increasing both the quantity and the variety of books available are staggering.