Ezra Bucur

Creative Writing Editor

Image via Le Canal Auditif

As long as the alternative scene is alive and thriving, the experiment of The Traxide and what it represented will keep on existing, hopefully with each iteration improving on its safety and community-oriented attitude.

Summertime in Montreal brings forth a wave of different activities, from outdoor booths to conventions and, most importantly, music festivals. However, for the Montreal alternative scene, shows go year-round, often featuring local bands in small bars and venues. However, one particular venue stood out amongst all the others, one that is only known through word of mouth from punk to punk. This venue is none other than The Traxide, a community-owned space which rings a bell to the ears of every alternative person in Montreal, even if they have never attended a show there.

Death House, which was one of the many buildings making up The Traxide, was an underground music venue that operated for about thirty years in Montreal. It was a place where otherwise lesser known punk bands would perform, and where many people involved in the scene would gather to attend these shows. Its exact address was undisclosed to the general public, meaning one would have had to be involved with the community to be able to attend. The venue was indoors, and ran year round, meaning there would always be an active space for the local punk venue in Montreal.

However, due to its less-than-legal status as a business, many illegal and unfortunate incidents have been alleged to have occurred there. Individuals who have attended shows at Death House claimed to have witnessed sexual misconduct, harsh drug use, and the foundations of the building itself were deemed to be unsafe. Additionally, carding was not a common practice until a change in management in 2021, meaning minors would often attend shows meant for adult crowds, and commit illicit acts in Death House.

On July 26^th, 2024, The Traxide team announced on Instagram that they were no longer associated with the current manager, citing misconduct and abuse. They were committed to rebuild Death House as a community-based space, that would no longer involve the current manager. A few days later, the team created a Gofundme page in order to raise the funds necessary in order to keep Death House going. The main purpose of this fundraising endeavour was to pay the rent for the month of August, as every show that month had been cancelled. Unfortunately, whilst the Death House team had amassed the funds required for the monthly rent payment, their efforts were in vain. A few weeks later, the team announced that the project to restart Death House would no longer be in effect. According to the statement they released on Instagram, the former owner had ransacked the building, looting and damaging it beyond repair. For this reason, Death House was never going to return, and all the money made from donations was to be refunded.

The Plant has interviewed a member of a Montreal punk band which has performed at The Traxide in Fall 2023. They cite the importance of the community in this space, mentioning that crowds would vary depending on who would perform at Death House that evening. In its earlier days, it was a space that could have been described as being for “old white men metalheads,” but that, later on, the audience became comprised of queer people, women, and people of colour as well. Additionally, carding helped in dissuading minors from attending these shows or abusing substances, which helped with the safety of the space. As for their experience performing there, they said that, whilst the sound quality was decent, the indoor smoking made the vocal performance difficult. They describe the energy at The Traxide to be unlike any other in Montreal, and that, whilst other bars and venues might have had better quality sound or more restrictions on smoking, the freedom was what set The Traxide apart from other places to perform in Montreal.

Despite the countless allegations of abuse and misconduct in the crowd, as well as its lack of safety precautions, Death House was a staple of the punk community. It represented a true experiment of grassroots community building. This meant that, whilst many people came for the music and to put themselves in the local scene, there were many unfortunate cases of predators taking advantage of this freedom to harm others, thus making it an unsafe space for many young people, especially young women. The cooperative running The Traxide put their community-oriented values above all else: when a manager would reveal themselves to be problematic, they would be expelled from the Montreal scene. Additionally, due to their anti-police sentiment, they did not reach out to law enforcement in order to prosecute those who had looted and vandalised Death House. The Traxide and all its inner moving parts reflect the ups and downs of community-oriented endeavours, even if it was mainly constituted of the Montreal alternative scene. While this freedom meant that many people would finally find their place and purpose, it also came at the cost of predatory people taking advantage of the situation in order to harm others. However, whilst there are currently no other places quite like The Traxide in Montreal, it does not mean that there won’t be in the future. As long as the alternative scene is alive and thriving, the experiment of The Traxide and what it represented will keep on existing, hopefully with each iteration improving on its safety and community-oriented attitude. While it is impossible to ignore all the flaws of Death House, there is also always a way forward, and its core tenets must live on.