Location: 135 Cashel Street, Central Christchurch
Current Status: Demolished post-earthquake, replaced by commerical buildings
Active as a live music venue: 2005 – 2011
Capacity: 250
All-Ages: Yes
The Penthouse (sometimes just referred to as ‘Level 5’) was a venue name given to the 5th floor of Unlimited Paenga Tawhiti School in Central Christchurch, above the old Hallensteins building in Cashel Plaza.
The school was originally used as a venue for All-Age shows promoted by Unlimited Paenga student Jeremy Barribeau, and was quickly established as a suitable spot for shows for AA community group Red Panda, plus several others associated the school such as Will Edmonds‘ Out of Kilter and a series of Raves organized by teacher and DJ Brent Silby.
We started with a couple gigs called Citizen Jam. The Glasson family owned it and leased it to the school – so getting permission for an alternate usage was not the easiest. Lots of planning with the fire department and security/risk analysis plans – Rose Jenson Banner helped a lot with that stuff.
– Jeremy Barribeau
Funding initially came from the city counsel and school board in the form of seed capital to start a radio station (Metropolis Radio) with the intent of fostering a local all ages community. (Early headliner) The Shocking Pinks charged what we all thought at the time was an exorbitant NZ$1000 to play haha!
– Jeremy Barribeau
I organized several alcohol-free raves up there under the Audiodreams brand. We called the venue “Level 5” for our raves.
Audiodreams was a company started by myself with some students. White Elephant helped with supervision and marketing of the raves.
– Brent Silby
Every show had a strictly no-alcohol policy and security was provided at the ground floor.
The floor was a large, open plan space, and Red Panda shows utilized a decent PA (provided by the White Elephant parent group), plus the schools facilities such as a film projection screen.
Red Panda had connections to A Low Hum and as such a handful of A Low Hum’s touring parties put on AA shows at the venue – the highlights including So So Modern‘s show in September 2006 with Australian act Alps, popular Christchurch electro-pop duo Frase+Bri and youthful indie-pop trio Black Market Art.
Another fun event put on by the group was the Red Panda Prom, held at the Penthouse in both 2008 and 2009. I had the pleasure of playing in a couple bands (including a ‘super-group’ made up just for the event) and dressing up for the occasion.
Last AA show we did was the weekend before the quakes with Parking Lot Experiments in the basement of Unlimited (under the Crossing). I remember it vividly – was 48 hours before the Feb shake. Last normal weekend in old Chch. It was a WE show I think as RP was officially wound up into WE and I was working at WE. A local AA band supported (Die Robotor).
– Netta Egoz (Red Panda / White Elephant)
The venue was in heavy use right up until the 2011 Earthquake – in fact AudioDreams had a rave planned for March 2011 that was cancelled due to the February Quakes:
However the Earthquakes unfortunately brought a particularly active period in Christchurch All-Age shows to a close, with the Hallensteins building eventually demolished and the school moved.
History
- 2005: Students from Unlimited Paenga Tawhiti move into the Northern Tower – i.e. the Hallensteins building, after 2 years in the smaller Southern Star Building. In June the first Citizen Jam gig is held.
- 2010: Building is damaged in September earthquakes, however it remains open until February 2011 Earthquakes.
- 2011: US group Parking Lot Experiments are the last headline act to play with a show in the basement, an AudioDreams rave planned for March is cancelled after the Canterbury Earthquakes of 2011 close the venue for good.
Links
- Wikipedia Entry on the school itself
Current Status: Running!
Active as a live music venue: 2001 –
Bookings: Email Fuse
Website: Fuse Website
Capacity: Around 80?
Fuse Youth Cafe is Christian-focused Youth Centre in Sumner that regularly hosts events for teens and even pre-teen kids. As one of a dwindling supply of all-age friendly venues in Christchurch, over the years it has hosted a number of general admission events with a broad appeal – without any Christian focus.
Events I’ve seen at Fuse include early shows by Black Market Art, Jimmy Zoom and the Beytown Grifters, The Tiger Tones, Bang! Bang! Eche!, and Not So Experimental, plus US duo The Evens – i.e. the current group of Fugazi-frontman Ian McKaye.
History
The Fuse Youth Centre was started in 2001 by the Shoreline Youth Trust and has developed into a vibrant, multi-faceted space that exists to work with local youth to provide programmes, events and services for the young people of our community.
-Fuse Website
Contact Details
Links
- Fuse Website
- Fuse Facebook
- Photos from Fuse Youth Cafe by Chris Andrews [Flickr]
I need help!
Disasteradio! performing at A Low HumBios, Discogs, Album and Gig reviews; photos, you name it. The new setup should make it fairly easy to post or at least comment on the material on the site, and Im really keen for user involvement, Ive even been considering converting it into a wiki-style content driven by the masses type setup; but Im kinda wary of spam comments and the like.
Oh and talking of RealGroove; their CD comp this month is choice; ChCh-town is represented by Frase+Bri, Not So Experimental, the Tiger Tones, Pig Out Its basically a homage to the fabbo Camp A Low Hum due to the mighty Stevie Kaye and Chris Cudby (aka Dancing Stevie and Super-Force / Half of Golden-Axe) who are prevalent writers for that lot now. Yah for the return of relevant indie music journalism in New Zealand!