"Ottawa Ontario Canada has a venue called Barrymore's which hosts all ages shows and has a capacity of around 500-700. This venue has been the only venue for all ages punk shows in Ottawa with such a large capacity. Punk bands such as the Misfits, AFI, Millencolin, The Vandals, MxPx and Jimmy Eat World have all played here.
Now I am displeased to announce that because of Goldfinger's antics at their show on July 3, the venue is from now on disallowing all ages shows. The venue has doing all ages shows for the longest time and even some of the most wildest bands have had the common decency to respect the rules. Goldfinger did not and as a result, the Ottawa punk scene is suffering greatly. Here's what happened."
Click READ MORE for the full story.
UPDATE: Angele Lalonde, a reader of Punknews.org, has emailed me the following: "I'm sorry but all of that dudes facts are not straight. My roommate is a bouncer there and I was just talking to him and the owner of Barrymoore's on Friday about this very topic. I've been going to shows there for over 5yrs. now and let me tell you Goldfinger did no more damage by crowd surfing or getting fans on stage to this bar than any other band has in the past. The real reason why they are stopping all ages shows is cause of all the kids who don't understand that if they are not 19, they can't drink… The owner told me after the Goldfinger show she had over 5 parents call her with threats of law suits saying their kids came home drunk after that concert. This venue did kids a big favor by having shows there, they made no money cause no one bought drinks and they did it basically for the fans, but all these kids took advantage of this situation, and they ruined it for themselves. To blame this whole mess on Goldfinger [isn't fair], no one mentioned when the Dropkick Murphy's played at Barrymoore's and spilled beer ruining the 10 thousand [dollar] speakers, not to mention they also refused to pay for them. So here's the truth about the situation I heard straight from the owners mouth. It's cause of all the under age drinking… And what got stolen, only one thing, was a projector."
There's always two sides to a story… Look for a review of this concert up this Tuesday.
- Because there is no security pit, stagediving and crowdsurfing is not allowed for reasons of safety and it is clearly marked in various parts of the club. The band however chose not to respect this when the singer repeatedly dove into the audience.
- Very few venues enjoy having spectators get on stage. During their final song, Goldfinger managed to coax a ridiculous amount of kids onto the stage and completely piss of Barrymore's staff.
- When the show was over, quite a bit of the venue's equipment went missing. No word on who the culprit was, but it had to have been a backstage job, seeing as though that is where most of the equipment is located.
All in all, this show left a very sour taste in the mouths of Barrymore's staff and now Ottawa has no all ages venue with a capacity over 300. There were supposed to be a bunch of good shows coming to Barrymore's but now they all have to be cancelled. And all it took was one obnoxious band who couldn't follow the rules.