It’s Friday night, and the dancefloor at the Globe Live Studio is packed with youth from across Nanaimo wearing battle jackets decorated with patches of their favorite punk and metal bands.
With 200 kids, and a few parents standing near the back, the pent-up energy pulsing through the crowd is palpable as the second band of the night takes the stage.
“What do you do when someone falls?” shouts the singer of Vancouver’s Chronic Fatigue to a crowd of mostly youth moshing in front of the stage.
The crowd shouts back in unison, “Pick them up!”
“That’s the right answer,” the singer replies as the band launches into a song with people in the front singing along word for word.
Fin Edwards, who plays in the popular pop-punk band Dangerbox and books shows at The Globe Live studio, says the local all-ages music scene is the strongest it’s been in years.
Edwards moved to Nanaimo when he was 12 and started a band with Dangerbox guitarist Cameron Phoenix when they were in their early teens. The COVID-19 pandemic saw them spend a couple of years writing songs and practicing before being able to perform, but then they ran into another problem.
“It was really difficult finding venues that would host punk shows,” he says, noting that the existing venues like The Terminal and The Queen’s are bars and The Vault Cafe is really small.
“We were struggling trying to find venues when we were playing high schools, and then The Globe opened their doors to all ages shows.”
That’s when the all-ages punk scene in Nanaimo started taking off.
“Now, every weekend, there’s kids here at The Globe going crazy,” Edwards says. “There’s a ton of different bands and the kids are starting bands now too.”
Edwards says The Globe’s owner Richard Scott, who can often be seen working the sound board at a show, is the “number one supporter of music in Nanaimo.”
“Even if a band is playing here to 20 people, he’ll be like ‘We’ve got to bring them back and have them playing in front of 150 people!’” Edwards says. “He’s just always so stoked on the music and supporting the younger generation.”
One of the local bands playing that night is Gorilla Flip, whose “excessively angry, political and to be frank, kind of dumb” hardcore punk is a favorite in the scene.
It’s Gorilla Flip’s singer, Nelly’s, birthday and he’s on stage wearing a skirt, nylons and a blouse with a tie loosely draped around his neck.
Before the band starts its set, Nelly says he has something to say and steps down from the stage and crouches on the floor. The audience joins him and a hush falls on the crowd.
Nelly tells them that a friend recently died and asks them to “test their drugs.” Everyone is quiet and for a moment, the chaos, adrenaline and noise of a punk show disappears and the room is filled with a feeling of compassion and care for one another.
He then gets back onto the stage and the band kicks into a set of angry and urgent hardcore punk.
At one point, Nelly jumps off the stage — being held up by the crowd — as he screams “where were you, when I needed someone?” into the microphone.
The scene is “youth-led,” Edwards tells The Discourse. “The kids decide which bands they like and they go crazy for those bands.”
Edwards says the biggest shows in Nanaimo are the ones young people want to see.
“Having a venue where the kids can experience music and get inspired to start a band is the most important thing possible.”
Underage drinking not tolerated as venue applies for liquor license
While most shows at The Globe are all ages, the venue also runs a bar using special events licences for people who are 19 years and older. There are signs at the door that underage drinking is not tolerated and the venue is currently applying for a primary liquor licence.
If approved by the City of Nanaimo and the Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch, the licence will mean that minors under 19 will need to be accompanied by a “responsible adult,” defined in regulations as being the parent, guardian, stepparent, grandparent, spouse or “another adult who could reasonably be expected to act in place of a parent and be responsible for supervision of the minor,” according to the license’s terms and conditions.
“Not your 20-year old friend. Basically, get your friends together and ask the coolest parent or equivalent to come to the show,” The Globe posted on Facebook recently. “They get in free and get free coffee.”
Edwards says kids drinking underage is his “biggest nightmare” and that it’s something they “crack down very hard on, because we want to stay open for a long time.”
While some people have been kicked out of the venue before, Edwards says there haven’t been any major incidents and that “kids know that in order to keep this space alive they need to behave themselves.”
I wanna be a punk rock mom
Sandra Hamel is one of the adults at The Globe on Friday with her daughter, Danika.
“It’s a great place for people of all ages to come listen to great bands,” she says. “It gives a safe place for the youth to come and be able to experience a band in a place where they can hang out with their friends and be off the streets.”
Sandra says she thinks The Globe does a good job preventing underage drinking.
“They’re very strict on showing ID, even at my age,” she says. “I think that’s great. Nanaimo should support them as it’s a great place for kids to be able to come with their parents and with their friends and hang out.”
Danika, whose favorite punk band is the Dead Kennedys, has been going to shows at The Globe with her mom since November when they saw Dead Bob, the solo project of former NoMeansNo drummer John Wright.
“I think that it’s really cool that she can enjoy some of the same music that I did when I was young,” Sandra says. “And she doesn’t need to sneak into a bar like I used to in order to listen to the bands that I wanted to see.”
For the show on Friday, Danika also brought her friend, Katie Kaizer, who was attending her first punk show. Danika says she appreciated her mom going with them to the gig.
“It’s nice to have someone to kind of watch out in case anything happens,” Danika says. “It’s not a problem.”
Kaizer says she thinks it was “really cool to see all the same kinds of people enjoying the same thing in one place.”
“There’s a lot of great people in Nanaimo,” Edwards says. “I think a lot of them have found their way into music as a way to find community.”
A list of upcoming shows is available on The Globe Live Studio’s website. The venue also offers recording sessions and rehearsal space for local artists.
