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Remember the hoarding: R.E.M. on Yonge Street

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_XFMCgeI7c[/youtube]

In May of 2001 R.E.M. played a free concert in the rain at Yonge and Dundas. That’s Yonge and Dundas streets, not Yonge and Dundas Square, as it was still behind hoarding, being built. The AMC/Jack Astors/Future Shop/Toronto Life Square/What-cha-ma-call-it was still the languishing “Penequity” project and an empty lot (one Torontonians got to know for many years — which was just fine, it helped us prepare for the long relationship we may have with the empty lot at Yonge and Bloor). It’s quite stunning to see how much this part of Toronto has changed in the last decade.

This concert was just down the street and around the corner from where R.E.M. played their first Toronto show in 1983 at Larry’s Hideaway, the long-gone punk-n-roll bar on Carlton street — now part of Allen Gardens.

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7 comments

  1. What a great way to start the day. A good day for yonge & dundas, a beautiful example of what public spaces can be used for, bringing people together for sublime moments of community and belonging, site specifically. thanks Shawnie!

  2. From Answers.com
    Hoarding n.
    1. A temporary wooden fence around a building or structure under construction or repair.
    2. Chiefly British. A billboard.

    [Obsolete hoard, hourd, from French dialectal hourd, fence, scaffold, hurdle, from Old French, of Germanic origin.]

    Thanks Shawn. I honestly thought this was a typo at first, and now I’ve added a new word to my personal dictionary.

  3. It took me a while to sort out the angle on that picture. Amazing how little the building Hard Rock is in stands out my mental image of the area.

    What I remember more prominently was the free Red Hot Chili Peppers concert outside HMV (which I attended, unlike the REM show). At the time, “Toronto Life Square” was a hole in the ground, and so tons of people watched the show from the parking lot on Victoria St., north of Dundas.

    I agree with Jane that it’s a great example of using public space for something memorable.

  4. That brings back some memories. I was there somewhere down Yonge. My company let us take the afternoon off to go down and see the show. It was one of those magical public moments that happen every now and then.

    As the rain started, REM launched into their then new song, “I’ll Take The Rain”

  5. At the time, as a Ryerson student, I argued to my out-of-town friends that this constituted R.E.M. having come to play a free concert on my campus while they were settling for lesser-known acts. (They didn’t really buy it, but the point was made.)

  7. My friend cut (high school) class for this. I was a huge nerd and didn’t BIG regret.