Damian’s blog: How Sneaky Dee’s revitalized Toronto music

April 20th, 2011

As some of you may or may not know, I have another job. I sing in a band called F**ked Up. Part of being in a band (actually probably my least favourite part of being in a band) is touring. One of the fortunate side effects of all the touring I’ve done is that I have gotten the opportunity to play a lot of venues that served as an important place in the pantheon of music. Venues like New York’s CBGBs, LA’s The Smell and Berkeley’s Gilman Street Project have gone on to become almost as famous as the legendary bands that have graced their stages. Most of the time these venues were established out of a lack of options for young or experimental bands to play. If there was to be such a venue for Toronto’s indie explosion it would be Sneaky Dee’s.

Starting back in 2001, when the upstairs was reopened, it has became a centre point for the new Toronto music scene that provided many bands a place to play early on. The live room above the Tex-Mex restaurant has seen its fair share of impressive bands grace its stage in the last few years (many by way of the amazing Wavelength series, which spent a several years using Dee’s as it’s home base. I’m sure I will talk more about them in the future because I think they have played a huge role in the Canadian music landscape… but I digress.) The Arcade Fire even thanked Sneaky Dee’s in their Juno speech, making it, I would think, the only Tex-Mex restaurant to get a Juno shout out. I’ve played there at least a dozen times in F**ked Up and really credit them (and the former booking staff who now run the equally awesome Garrison in Toronto) for giving us somewhere to play when few other places would and for unbanning me from my two bannings.

We’ll be at Sneaky Dee’s for The Wedge this week, checking out a show by the awesome Doomriders and Toronto’s own hardcore heroes, Burning Love. We’ll also be playing some cool new vids from the likes of Superchunk and Low… and the rest of the videos will be from bands of a younger vintage… except for the last one which is by a band that’s been going off and on for 31 years now. But they are still pretty awesome. Tune in to The Wedge Wednesday night at 10:00 p.m. EST to see who I’m talking about.

@leftfordamian

Tags: Damian Abraham, Garrison, Sneaky Dee's, The Wedge