la toscadura new Montreal music venue

Meet la Toscadura, a new Montreal music venue from the Casa del Popolo / la Sala Rossa family

Located in the Spanish Social Club building on St-Laurent, the new venue (which briefly operated as El Salon back in the day) is a 300-capacity space welcoming a variety of live music and parties.

There’s a spacious room covered in black curtains, a few safety ladders, a freshly painted black stage, and cases of electrical equipment scattered about. This newly opened space at 4388 St-Laurent Boulevard is called la Toscadura, a new addition to the Sala Rossa/Casa del Popolo/la Sotterenea venue family.

As a sporadic stage light blasts colours of blue and purple on the stage, Chris Vargas, la Toscadura’s programmer, lets out a reserved sigh. “There’s still so much to do,” they say. “It’s kind of chaotic and last minute, but we get it done. We had to hang curtains all around because the paint job in here was a very Harry Potter palette, and that is not what I want.”

The Sala/Casa/Sott family has been busy in the last few months, taking over the venue formerly known as Ursa from the Montreal musician-poet Martha Wainwright, and revamping it into P’tit Ours — which Vargas also manages — as well as opening la Toscadura. 

The new spot is the same room as the bygone venue El Salon, which hosted bands like the Brian Jonestown Massacre, Against Me! and Of Montreal 20 years ago. The difference now is that Vargas, who has huge connections to the local punk/electronic music scene, will run la Toscadura’s programming. Vargas has been a show booker for la Sala Rossa in the past, so when venue co-owners Mauro Pezzente (of post-rock titans Godspeed You! Black Emperor) and Sam Thifault asked them if they wanted to run the booking, they jumped at the opportunity.

“I really feel strongly about this space,” Vargas says. “Considering, in the area too, there’s not a lot of venues this size in terms of capacity.”

People have been comparing la Toscadura to la Vitrola, another of Pezzente’s past venues that had to shut its doors during the pandemic.  

“That venue was great, but Toscadura is on the ground floor, so it’s super accessible and it has the same square footage as Sala Rossa, which is 300 capacity,” Vargas says. “This building is also the Spanish Social Club, so there’s a Spanish restaurant upstairs open to anyone and people can order their food upstairs and bring it down here.”

There’s also the popular Latino grocery store, Sabor Latino, across the street. “They have the best Chicharrón in the city, and I don’t care who fights me on that,” Vargas says matter-of-factly. 

They also aim to keep booking costs on the cheaper end to make it more accessible for promoters and other communities. “There are fewer DIY spaces now, and there is such a need for more venues in Montreal. I’m also not above doing a friend deal for an organizer or something because we need to help each other out.” 

On top of the band programming — including the upcoming hardcore punk SHAME tape release event hosted by the local band DUREX, on Feb. 21 — Vargas wants to host other events like fundraisers and quinceañeras, as well as a monthly Noche de Cumbia dance night called Parranda en la Toscadura, with their Colombian musician friend, Jashim. 

“I want those dance nights to be a safe space, but also curated by people who actually grew up with that kind of music. Jashim is also Colombian, and I’ve been to dance nights around town with that genre and it’s like two white guys, and that irks me so much. So we’re going for real culture and quality here.”

In the last few years, the live music venue scene in Montreal has been turbulent, to say the least. We’ve lost Divan Orange, la Tulipe and the Diving Bell due to noise complaints, and even though the City of Montreal has now changed the noise bylaw to have music venues be exempt, Vargas says Casa del Popolo still gets noise complaints from surrounding neighbours. 

“That’s why Casa has a curfew,” Vargas says. “Toscadura won’t have a curfew, except at 3 a.m., like a bar. It’s always risky to open a new venue, but Mauro loves opening these spaces and taking risks.” 

And with risk, eventually comes reward. There will most likely always be a fight for venues to stay alive in Montreal, but with la Toscadura’s opening, the announcement of the new TBA venue taking the mantle from the Diving Bell, la Biu replacing Traxide and Turbo Haüs’ Sergio Da Silva now running programming for Blue Dog, perhaps we can finally get out of the post-pandemic blues and closer to the glory days of live music in Montreal.

“There’s always new promoters and I love getting to know them,” Vargas says. “I’m into it, and I think we’re getting back into the swing. But we always need more spaces for live music.” ■

Meet la Toscadura, a new Montreal music venue from the Casa del Popolo / la Sala Rossa family

For more on la Toscadura, please visit their website.


For more Montreal music coverage, please visit the Music section.