#019: Adrift 20 +++

One of many, many stories on a skate shop that was bigger than a skate shop.

May 28, 2024

Let’s give doing this regularly a try. New playlist below. Play & Enjoy.

It’s funny how time works with it’s perpetual marching on. If you’ve set foot on a skateboard in Toronto, you are likely aware of the fact that Adrift is a skate shop on Spadina.

20 years ago, Adrift was a skate shop on Augusta in Kensington Market. And while I have been well aware that this is a thing that was going to happen, only it’s public unveiling made me realize what it represents and how inextricably connected Adrift is to NDY.

Adrift’s doors opened in 2004. A skate shop, with a warehouse type space in the back with a mini-ramp and a box and a rail. It was run by a 20-something woman named Lyndsey who was a friend of a friend. At the time, I couldn’t much give a fuck about skating but boy, did I give a shit about hardcore shows.

Cool thing about that warehouse space was that Lyndsey was more than happy to rent it out for a gig. Cheap rent for the person putting on the show. Beers sold out of a closet. All ages because that’s how it should be or maybe none of us knew better. ed note. If you’re in your 20s or younger and you book a show, it has to be all ages. It’s a rule.

I saw countless shows there. Cold World. Iron Age. Say Goodbye. Rampage. BBQ. Career Suicide. Fucked Up. Rammer. It wasn’t the only space in Toronto at the time willing to risk it for a punk show - there was Ania’s, the Rockit and more than one place I’ve surely forgotten - but it was maybe the only one run by insane 20 yr olds.

I helped book a show or two around then. A couple Blacklisted ones, I think. My friend Rick did the heavy lifting. But it was Lyndsey at Adrift who was the first person who let me book a show on my own. I walked in and asked if they’d let me rent the space for a gig. The First Step had responded to a Myspace DM. I needed a spot. It cost a nominal fee - maybe $100? Lyndsey said sure.

I had officially booked a show.

I rented a PA, bought a case of water, put some cash together for a float and that was it. I am near certain that I forgot to take the float out, or pay myself back for the PA and the gave TFS all the cash. You learn as you go.

Lyndsey saying yes opened a door. I already knew a bunch of bands, knew people that went to shows, knew other people booking the shows. Now I felt like I could do something. I think that was the only show I ever did at the Augusta location, but it was a year or so later that I started going for it. I was motivated to keep trying. I had the courage to walk into a space and ask. A lot of the time it worked.

A year or so after I started booking shows regularly, the Augusta shop was closing. There’d be a new spot on Spadina, with no room to skate. In what became a standard for our relationship to this day, Lyndsey had a crazy idea and wanted some help. So, the Clubhouse began in a warehouse down an alley at King & Bathurst.

It lasted six months, maybe less. Trapped Under Ice played there. Have Heart’s first ever Toronto show was supposed to be there, but the space got shut down and it was moved. There was a legendary Career Suicide, Urban Blight, Bad Choice show there on a snowy January night that I missed (I’ll tell you the story in person). I drew a really awful flyer for an Inepsy / Brutal Knights gig there, because we thought bad flyers were cool.

It was a warehouse. Bands played. None of us were afraid of anything.

It never gets easier than it was. But it also never gets harder than it was. A lot of cool shit happens just because someone has an idea and a friend validates it. A lot of cool shit happens because someone asks. A lot of cool shit happens because someone doesn’t care to ask. Cool shit happens when people try.

So, while I appreciate you saying thanks to me for booking a gig, you should really say thanks to Lyndsey for saying yes to me all those years ago. For having insane ideas and never hesitating to try and bring them to life. For influencing countless people in this city to take a chance at doing their thing. There’s a pretty strong connection from the nascent Adrift space to a lot of Toronto, if you look closely. This is just one story.

See you on June 15th on the stoop.

If you made it this far… Here’s what’s coming up. Tickets for everything at ndygigs.info!

June 1 - Brain Tourniquet, Black Iron Prison, Stagnance, Shingen at 1978