The Day The Music Died

I was in downtown Ottawa today watching the beginning of the end for the Capital Music Hall. When I left about one third of the building was demolished, the rest will be gone by the end of the day tomorrow. Though I made lots of jokes about the place and there were some moments I’d rather not remember, overall it was a pretty decent place to work. We had some great shows, amazing bands and a good space to work in, something that’s all too rare in the club world. In the end I feel I come out of it in a better position than when I went in. I opened lots of doors, met lots of people, worked with bands that have gone on to win Grammy’s and other high profile awards, got some touring gigs and started making more money.

 

That being said, there will be a New Capital Music Hall, but it will never be the same. Everything that was good about the place is gone with the old building. It’ll be a lot smaller and the workspace will be very cramped; my world will be so small that my head will touch the ceiling. Some of the bullshit we had to deal with will still be there. There will never be a semi and two busses behind the venue. We’re not going to have anymore high profile shows like Mot√∂rhead or Black Eyed Peas. We used to do shows where my eyes would shoot out of my head when I saw the listings. It was pretty exciting looking forward to the Thursday morning updates. That’s not going to happen anymore and it’s probably what I’ll miss most about the old place. It was an opportunity to be a part of something bigger that you usually don’t get in club settings. Guess we’ll see where it goes…

 

On another note, I did notice one thing about the demolition that put a couple things in perspective. I could not believe the horrible sounds coming out of the building as the walls were torn apart. Concrete getting crushed, steel beams twisting, glass breaking… This is just a small scale, very controlled demolition. I couldn’t help but think of how powerful the sounds must have been in NYC on Sept. 11^th.

 

Now, I’m not one of the people that was completely torn apart and affected by that tragedy; I never spoke of it beyond sharing headlines with friends. I in no way mean to lessen the impact of it nor do I mean to disrespect those who were affected by it on a personal level. It’s just not something I could comprehend at the time; I had never been to the city and I had not yet had any experiences with the death of a family member. Since then, I’ve been to the city a couple times, I’ve seen Ground Zero and I was able to understand a bit more, and I saw people grieve at the site. That experience definitely put a more personal touch on it. However, it’s not until I heard those sounds today that it really hit me. I saw something of not even 1% of the size of Ground Zero get demolished and the sounds sent a chill down my spine. It is absolutely impossible, under any circumstance, to be able to comprehend what the people of NYC went though that morning. I can’t even imagine what today would have sounded like had it been 10 times bigger, not to mention 500 times (and I honestly don’t think that’s an exaggeration, the number is probably even higher than that), and if it were an uncontrolled explosion! ¬†It’s amazing anyone survived at all. I’ll definitely have a new perspective on things the next time I’m in New York.