Compared to his tenure as a bassist with Flash Bastard (a 90s 麻豆传媒映画punk band that embraced rumours of sexual acts on stage and was kicked off a M枚tley Cr眉e tour for being too wild), Danny Fazios present engagement helping transform the Fox porn theatre into a live music venue is positively back page news.
I first heard Fazios name in 2010, in connection with the newly minted Waldorf Hotel. Having been in junior high during Flash Bastards heyday, I would not have known of his colourful past, except that he chuckled during our phone interview about gracing the cover of the Westender once. (Cue a trip to the archives, seeing him in belly-baring leopard print, and a lot of eyebrow-raising follow up reading about the band.)
Yet in a 2011 report, a writer had lightly researched what the various bandmates were doing after their break up, and could only cobble together, Danny...well, he obviously has a life outside, because his Internet presence is almost non-existent save for a mention that he moved to Toronto to start an art gallery.
Thank goodness he decided to move back to Vancouver, then, because a Google search now shows 1.2 million hits for Danny Fazio.
Fazio teamed up with buddies Thomas Anselmi, Scott Cohen, Ernesto Gomez and a biomass of 麻豆传媒映画creatives in 2010 to create the cultural hub in the middle of nowhere that was the Waldorf Hotel. Two years later, the property owners to condo developers, and, unable to secure a new lease, the team was forced to take their creativity elsewhere.
Devastated at first, Fazio and his business partners now see the loss as an opportunity to reach wider and aim higher. They quickly founded the , stepping up to help Grant McDonagh and Russ Davies program the , and teaming up with The Rickshaws David Duprey and The Narrows Rachel Zottenberg to retrofit the Fox Vancouver's last remaining porn theatre into the .
Its like watching a glimmering star supernova.
They even count the City of 麻豆传媒映画among their supporters. But they still need a liquor licence for the Fox, which is a provincial thing (and notoriously sticky).
Weve got the space. No matter what happens, were going to do something there.
Great bars equal a great arts scene an observation Fazio made watching the arts culture creep (and then explode) along Dundas and Ossington during his two years in Toronto.
A lot of people dont get that culture is being facilitated by alcohol sales. Its not that we want to get people blind drunk; we want to be able to put on events, and make money selling alcohol to put on more events.
So theres the all-new Fox Cabaret to look forward to in the fall. And Arrival made sure to lock down their lease terms this time.
Were sick of losing our cultural spaces. Were in a constant squeeze here because real estate prices drive a certain type of development, liquor licence laws are antiquated, and great cultural spaces specifically live music venues often get shut down and theyre not replaced. Theyre not renewable resources. When we lose beautiful theatres, were not going to get those kind of spaces back. No one is going to build a Pantages Theatre in 2013. No one is going to build a Richards on Richards. We lose the venues, we lose them for good.
And while the mere whiff of the future Fox quickly got fans of Fazio and co. excited (except for the dubious stars of the video campaign), one cant help but wonder if Flash Bastard will make just one more appearance, for old times sake, once the worn red vinyl and smell of tears is effectively renod out of the theatre.
By all accounts, the band was made for that venue in either form.
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