Venue Stories - The Centre St-Ambroise

Next to the McAuslan Brewery, about a twelve minute walk from St Henri Metro here in Montreal, sat an odd lovely old house. Out of place in a block of small tenement buildings, large factories and expansive grey fields, parking lots, and a pervasive hint of hops, the house stands alone and looks rather staunch and formidable but a bit floaty as well. When you arrive you feel you’re coming in from a long journey into a place a little out of time.

Before I go on to describe the room inside and discussing how it seems to work as a venue, I should say, full-disclosure styles, that McAuslan is an Indyish event sponsor. Grains of salt if need be, alright?

We did the Indyish Monthly Montreal Mess 9 there, Nov 2007, right before the space became an official venue and, frankly I’d like to give myself credit for the whole thing =P. Kidding - Dave Cool suggested I meet Scott Mcleod, the artist and community activist who leads the group of painters and musicians who rent the second (top) floor of the Centre St-Ambroise - they called it the Maxwell Haus then. Scott is great, inspiring and great, and I learned in my meets that he and Dave had proposed a detailed scheme for turning the Haus into a successful cultural centre, that Dave had effectively been offered a job as venue manager, and that the situation was hanging suspended thus when I walked in and starting banging pots and bringing 8 event planner friends over for schemings.

When we agreed to do an event there together, there was no decision made yet on the future of the place, no sound system, no stage area, no lights, just a square room on the ground floor with a bar, projector and screen, and some great art on the walls; but lit and laid out like a corporate conference room. We planned on doing a few acts in this room, then moving the whole show upstairs to the beautiful lofty arty second floor.

But in the week and a half before the show, the whole thing came together. Dave Cool officially accepted the job with McAuslan, and McAuslan officially bent their energies toward making the room a venue. A nice PA, lovely lights, mics, stands; the whole thing just blossomed quickly in the days before our show, and right afterwards the official announcement went out that the Centre St-Ambroise was open for business (Scott’s preferred name, the Maxwell Haus, seems to have been set aside, probably to make the association with the street and beer easier).

Check out photos from our show at the McAuslan Centre St-Ambroise by Tristan Brand.

These days, the sweet little venue is kicking along. Dave Cool is booking emerging acts with some bigger names, and the general feeling I think is that the trip down is worth it for the feeling of being tucked safe and away together once you’re there. The lovely old wood room has nice warm resonance and the sound is a balm to sore souls.

Financially I’m not totally sure how it works, except I’m pretty sure McAuslan keeps the bar and the acts keep the door, and the acts can buy beer for 2$ (prob after 1 or 2 free). I think they deliberated charging the artists a rental for the room but Dave Cool quashed that notion, thank heavens.

Personally, I thought it was exciting for a brewer that’s into supporting indie arts (which Peter McAuslan legitimately is, by all reports) to have a venue, because I imagined them doing unconventional things like sharing the bar, or giving groups a cheap rental rate that allows them to keep the bar - which they may in fact be doing actually, for some, but my impression is not. Which put us in an odd spot, where we’re sponsored by them with some free beer that we can’t actually use at their own venue. Nevertheless, I understand the desire to make a return on their investment into the renovations undertaken to create the space. We’ll figure out other ways to collaborate.

The room is ideal for singer songwriters. 2 performers in a night could fill the room easily (it fits about 40 seated, up to 100 standing squished, as we discovered when we did our Mess there and some folk came all the way down to find out they couldn’t get in! A bummer, but not a bad problem, really, in the realm of problems.) And because most singer-songwriters have easy tech needs and are used to running the board for others at pub shows, etc, they could easily perform here without costs and make a little money, if they can communicate well between them and look out for each other.

(Which not all do, of course, recent bad story which shall remain nameless: artist (1) was booked to play there with another artist (2) he didn’t know personally, 1 emailed the other performer early on and told him he’d tech him, he’d done it countless times before. When the day came, artist 1 brought a good little paying crowd, artist 2 brought no crowd at all, but did bring a sound tech and then asked artist 1 to pay for half the tech’s bill! Just cautionary gossip about playing shows with other acts you don’t know. Watchout!)

With artists and venues, there is no one law of the land, it’s a perpetual negotiation and balancing act, trying to find good systems between unique individuals and circumstances. Spaces and artists that remember to not get stuck in one way, and look out for each other, will always make out ok I think.

But anyway, back to the McAuslan Centre St-Ambroise - a bubble of soft light and good shows down in the Centre-Sud, fully worth checking out… especially next Friday April 25!

The room books about 3 months in advance, from what I understand, and the gent to contact is
the dear Mr Dave Cool: dcool@mcauslan.com