St-Henri punk rock dance party

The bi-monthly Bar de Courcelle DJ night is St-Henri’s best-kept secret. Located in the heart of a neighbourhood rarely associated with Montreal nightlife, the C&W-style dive is taken over by house DJs Sam Gyetvay, Jesse Rosenberg and James Watts every second Thursday, playing host to the borough’s best rock ’n’ roll dance party.


Sam, Jesse, James

The bi-monthly Bar de Courcelle DJ night is St-Henri’s best-kept secret. Located in the heart of a neighbourhood rarely associated with Montreal nightlife, the C&W-style dive is taken over by house DJs Sam Gyetvay, Jesse Rosenberg and James Watts every second Thursday, playing host to the borough’s best rock ’n’ roll dance party.

Launched by Gyetvay and Rosenberg last winter, BDC nights take off where the now-defunct Time’s Up! weekly shindigs left off. Unlike that Pirates of the Lachine Canal-run DJ night, the goal of Gyetvay, Rosenberg and Watts’s event is to make even the most stoic of hepcats dance, as opposed to the Times Up! agenda of showcasing vinyl rarities and exhibiting superior taste. With the help of different guest DJs at each installment, the BDC crew’s boundless energy and passion for a no-holds-barred, sloppy dance party keeps kids from the Hen (and beyond) coming back for more every other week.

Although the night is billed as a punk/rock ’n’ roll affair, there’s a little something for everyone. While there’s no shortage of punk, glam rock, new wave and disco, by the wee hours of the morning, patrons devolve into pop-hungry savages, unabashedly requesting their tween favourites, as well as current Top 40 guilty pleasures. The DJs are happy to oblige, relishing the notion that on Friday afternoon, a slew of alternative types will wake up blindly hungover, groaning, “Fuck, was I grinding to Justin Bieber last night?” ■

This week’s Bar de Courcelle punk rock dance party features resident DJs Jesse, Sam & James with guest DJs Ashly and Lisa (of Dead Wife), 4685 Notre-Dame W., 10 p.m., free

Leave a Reply