The State of Windsor’s Music Scene

 

By Joel Holosko

Windsor Ontario has always had a rich wealth of musical talent.  In the 1960’s and 70’s, CKLW was the most listened to radio station in all of North America, according to the film Radio Revolution: The Rise and Fall of the Big 8.  Throughout the years that have past, Windsor has had great musicians come out of the town, such as Richie Hawtin and the Tea Party.  Even in the past couple of years, Phog nightclub was voted the best live venue in Canada.

Today however it feels like something has changed in Windsor.  Many of the people involved in the music scene, feel like it has become stagnant and empty.  In this piece, we will attempt to examine what has happened to the Windsor music scene.  Over the past few years, many venues have closed up, and permits have been denied to numerous bands looking to travel across and entertain, and hopefully, we can shed some light on why.

Richard Kasoian has been a part of the local music scene since 2003.  He has played in many bands, such as Always a New Day, The Rowley Estate and currently Frontiers.  He believes that the key to having more successful is just having more places to play that are focused on the music, rather than profits.

“The city needs to get involved, I think that’s the only way were going to solve it, is if the city gets involved,” said Kasoian. “I think the only way you can have it, well that’s why the Gino was so good because it was a community center, and it was a place that was going to be around no matter what.  That’s the problem, a venue has to survive on all these things like alcohol sales, I think that if the government was involved, then it couldn’t go away.”

When a show was booked in a community center rather than a bar, it allowed for bands to play all ages shows, without the overhead costs.  Because they were a non- profit organization,  they also were not worried about the alcohol sales for the night.  Chris Mickel is the owner of the Dominion House bar, and he is trying to help the scene, which he grew up with and enjoys.

“I personally really like the music scene in Windsor. I find that the music scene is really diverse. Any night of the week you can go out and catch live act in the city.”

His bar is hoping to become a middle ground for bands.  Currently, they have shows both upstairs where the bar is, for the nineteen plus crowd, and in the basement for all ages to attend.  The bar has been having shows of all types five nights a week for a few months now.

“Just being a fan of live music, is the first reason,” said Mickel. “Wanting to support the local music scene here in Windsor, I know there is a good following, it’s a business decision as well, and there is a decent following so were trying to cater to both, our own personal needs, and also doing some business as well.” Mickel can only take his business far however.

Joel Shacklefort, who has been a Windsor promoter and booker of live music for four years agrees that it has become harder and harder to get bands to come to Windsor, because of a clause put into the contract of many bands contracts by record companies.

“There is this thing called the radius clause with Detroit, so if there is a Windsor show, they won’t book a Detroit show, and if there is a Detroit show, they won’t book a Windsor show,” said Shackelfort “so it makes it kind of competitive. So if I don’t wanna pay the money, they go to Detroit.  It’s 60 miles, the clause.”

In addition to this clause, if a band wants to travel to Canada, they also need to get a work permit from the government.  According to Canadian Customs, a group of performers incurs a fee of $400 to play in Windsor and a solo artist must pay $150.  Despite all of these things, many bands still come to play in Windsor, and with hardworking people who care about the music like Kasoian, Shackelfort and Mickel, there is hope for the scene to once again bring music back to Windsor.