For its second anniversary fest — titled Wavelength 100 (Feb. 8-10) — WL moves to a multi-venue format for the first time, starting on Friday at Clinton’s, moving to Rancho Relaxo on Saturday, and wrapping up at their regular Sunday home of Lee’s Palace. But something just feels… off. After the back-to-back closures of Ted’s Wrecking Yard and the El Mocambo, morale in the local music scene is at a low ebb.
After fighting the good fight for six months at Lee’s, Wavelength’s organizers accept that they can’t create the same sense of intimacy they enjoyed at Ted’s in a 500-capacity venue. In May, Wavelength accepts an offer to relocate their series to grimy Tex-Mex bar Sneaky Dee’s, which, thanks to musician/house tech Dwayne Slack, has recently begun booking live bands upstairs again after six years as a dance club. Back at a 200-capacity venue on College Street, Wavelength feels at home again. Within a couple of months, Sunday nights at Sneaky Dee’s are packed. This marks the start of Wavelength’s longest-running weekly venue home, and Toronto’s Pavlovian association with indie bands and towering platters of greasy nachos.
Memorable shows:
- Ottawa indie-rockers Rhume conclude their set with a real, live wrestling match (WL 97, Jan. 20, 2002 @ Lee’s Palace)
- All-woman gothic synth-pop quartet Pony da Look are on the cover of Eye Weekly the week of their WL show and the club is jammed beyond capacity (WL 122, July 14, 2002 @ Sneaky Dee’s)
- ‘70s era Toronto new wave pioneer Nash the Slash makes a historic appearance (WL 143, Dec. 8, 2002 @ SD)
- Broken Social Scene plays Wavelength just weeks after their full-band debut You Forgot It In People breaks the Internet; the venue is so full the group’s family members have to be smuggled into the club (WL 145, Dec. 29, 2002 @ SD)