by Ben Rayner
From small-time passionate punks to the Rolling Stones, decades of musicians have made magic happen at fabled Queen St. W. venue, which turns 70 on Dec. 5.
Beloved local live-music spot the Horseshoe Tavern turns 70 years old on Dec. 5, a rather remarkable achievement in a city known of late for shedding concert venues at an alarming rate.
In honour of the club’s impending anniversary, the Star took it upon itself to solicit 70 Canadian musicians, music journalists and industry folk for their favourite ever show at the Queen St. W. venue. The response was insane — so insane, we can’t do justice to it all in print. Here are some of our favourites. Mine was a Neutral Milk Hotel gig in July of 1998, which is covered off below.
34. Dan Burke, concert promoter: “In August 2002, Sweden’s Soundtrack Of Our Lives was touring with Oasis and playing Molson Amphitheatre on Saturday. Elliott Lefko recruited me to be promoter of a late show for them at the ’Shoe. It was incredible. And after they played, the party continued. The Gallagher brothers were there, Sloan, everybody. It went until 5 a.m. Craziest night I’ve ever seen at the Shoe.”
41. Ian Gormely, music journalist: “When I moved to Toronto in May of 2008 and was immediately overwhelmed by the sheer volume of live music options. That June’s North By Northeast seemed like as good a place to start as any, so I headed down to the Horseshoe Tavern, a place I’d read about and seen on TV many times, to check out Thomas D’arcy’s band Small Sins (they had a guy whose main job was to clap, ‘the Clapper,’ beating Noel Gallagher’s scissors player by a decade). After their set I was walking from the back down the stairs to the front part of the bar and looked over to the pool table. Leaning against the wall, holding pool cues were Sloan’s Chris Murphy and Blue Rodeo’s Jim Cuddy, chatting away. It remains the most Toronto, and probably Canadian, moment I’ve ever had.”
--taken from: Toronto Star (read more here)
