Music

The El Mocambo's new owners look to the past to revive one of Toronto's iconic venues, but will it work?

by Tyler Munro

It says a lot about the El Mocambo’s recent history that its new owners are looking first to improve things like outdoor signage and indoor lighting before putting in motion a plan to restore the iconic Toronto venue to its thirty-years past heyday.

As it stands, the El Mo is a dungeon, sweltering in the summer and shivering in the fall. Upstairs is where the magic used to happen—where the Rolling Stones famously took the stage and where Stevie Ray Vaughn cemented himself an icon on the guitar. But for the past few years, it’s been second fiddle to the main floor’s shaky-stage and shoddy sightlines.

Sam Grosso, best known as the owner of the Cadillac Lounge, and Marco Petrucci, who owns 99 Sudbury, are looking to change that. Aside from fixing the signage and adding ATMs, they want to clean the venue up and bring it back to life. But the sale isn’t without its controversies.

“When I think about the El Mo I think about the Rolling Stones, I think about Stevie Rae [sic] Vaughan, Elvis Costello, Muddy Waters – all these great bands that played here,” he tells NOW Magazine. “I don’t think hip hop was ever born at the El Mocambo.”

Grosso says he won’t book hip-hop shows at the venue, which fits the narrative that maybe he’s too fixated on reviving the past. He all but admits it, too. “Probably someone was saying the same thing I’m saying 60 years ago about rock’n’roll,” he says.

And that’s what’s concerning about all of the proposed changes. The El Mo was exciting in its prime because its acts were. The Rolling Stones, Elvis Costello… these aren’t the old crones we now know them as. They pushed boundaries and pissed off parents. They were what was new and exciting, and while it’s not fair to compare Toronto’s hip-hop scene to some of the most iconic artists of our time, it’s just as unfair to deny them the same stage.

Moreover, Grosso and Petrucci plan to keep working with Yvonne Matsell, who’s been booking shows at the venue for the past ten years. She tells Billboard that she’s excited to work with new owners, adding that “Music lovers have taken over, people who really have a good knowledge of running venues.”

Maybe so. But where does nostalgia leave the El Mo? Certainly it gives them the chance to joke about the Rolling Stones coming back for their 50th anniversary, but they’ve also already shut out a big part of Toronto’s music scene. Shouldn’t they be looking to the future?

The El Mocambo deserves to succeed, and we’re hoping it does. But for that to happen, we think it’s going to take more than a dinner menu, neon lights and stories buried under forty years of dust.