Thunder Bay Concerts: Live Music, Venues and History From Crocks and a Handful of Other Rooms
Concerts in Thunder Bay ran through a downtown club on Cumberland Street and, from October 2018, a bigger room on Red River Road; this is the way in.
Cancer Bats opened a tour in Sault Ste. Marie on Thursday 12 September 2019 and reached Thunder Bay the next evening, which is how many concerts in Thunder Bay happened: one night on a long road, one room, and a bill that was gone by morning. This page is the front door to a written record of those nights.
The record is not a calendar of upcoming shows. Nothing here is on sale, and no date on these pages lies ahead. What it offers is an answer to the question a reader typing Thunder Bay concerts into a search box usually has: who played, where, and when. Most of the answers point to one club, and a decade.
Finding Thunder Bay concerts by date or by name
Two doors lead in. If a reader remembers a band, the shows page lists every night in date order, with the room and the price beside each one. If the memory is a season or a year, the same page groups the nights that way.
Each entry opens to its own page with doors, ticket tiers, age rule and the bill. Date order suits the Thunder Bay live music of these years, because the bills changed from one season to the next.
A third door is the overview of the whole collection, which reads the numbers as a set: which genres dominated, how prices moved, which months were busiest and how the club's history split into two addresses. This page does none of that. It is a map of the rest, with a few stops picked because something about the night was odd.
Coverage is uneven, which is worth knowing before searching. The shows cluster in 2013 to 2015 and in 2018 and 2019. The years 2011 and 2017 hold almost nothing, and 2016 only one date. A missing year is a hole in the paperwork, not proof of an empty room: a November 2011 post lists a run of upcoming concerts.
Thunder Bay live music across ten years
Rock carried the largest share. Metal and hardcore came next in weight, close to hip-hop and dancehall, with electronic nights, folk and country, punk and a handful of spoken-word or tribute evenings filling the rest. Thunder Bay live music of this period was never one scene. The same week could hold a hardcore band on Sunday and a rapper on Tuesday.
The mix followed the road as much as local taste. A promoter in a city of about 108,000 people books what is passing through, and what passes through depends on what a tour needs between two bigger cities. Concerts in Thunder Bay were shaped by that arithmetic more than by any local charts.
Amon Amarth, Sabaton and Skeletonwitch arrived on 7 October 2014 as a three-band metal package, priced at $25 in advance.
Two months later the same room hosted Machine Gun Kelly on 1 December and The Trews on the fifth. Rap on Monday and Canadian rock on Friday sat four days apart. That kind of spread is the norm here, and it explains why a single genre label never describes the room.
Data table
| Label | shows |
|---|---|
| 2010 | 2 |
| 2012 | 5 |
| 2013 | 13 |
| 2014 | 13 |
| 2015 | 14 |
| 2016 | 1 |
| 2018 | 13 |
| 2019 | 15 |
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Thunder Bay shows peaked in the second half of the 2010s. The year 2015 alone holds a Tuesday pop night with Akon, a turntablist evening with DJ Qbert, a Tech N9ne night in October, and a folk night with Great Lake Swimmers. Few cities of that size held so many separate audiences at once.
The club nights ran on their own rhythm, and they explain why so many pages carry a $10 price. Sick Individuals headed a frosh-weekend bash on Friday 13 September 2013, and Mysto and Pizzi followed two weeks later on the 27th. MAKJ came on 18 October. Three DJ acts in six weeks, each at $10, set the autumn pattern.
The venues: Crocks, its successor and the side rooms
Most Thunder Bay shows here took place at Crocks, a licensed club at 16 Cumberland Street South, in the north end downtown that used to be the separate city of Port Arthur. The street sits close to the lakefront, so the club could plan a party around the waterfront fireworks on Canada Day.
Around that core sit the side rooms. Soo Blaster in Sault Ste. Marie shows up three times, twice on tours that also stopped in Thunder Bay. The Coulson in Sudbury appears once, for a country singer who reached the lake two nights later. Urban Abbey, a community space on Red River Road, hosted a poet in April 2019.
Data table
| Label | shows |
|---|---|
| Crocks | 55 |
| Crocks at NV | 13 |
| Soo Blaster | 3 |
| Not stated | 2 |
| Grand Portage Lodge & Casino | 1 |
| Urban Abbey | 1 |
| The Coulson | 1 |
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The odd one out is Grand Portage Lodge & Casino, on the Minnesota shore of Lake Superior, where a two-day classic-rock weekend in June 2012 put a disco band, a Kiss tribute, a Led Zeppelin tribute and Smash Mouth on a tent stage. The Retro Rock Revue is the only Thunder Bay-area show in the collection across an international border.
A few entries name no room at all. A Shambhala pre-party in July 2019 and a DJ night in 2014 carry only the city, so they are filed as Thunder Bay and nothing more. Beyond those, the venues section gives each room its own page, with the dates that fell there and the ticket prices attached to them.
A short history of two Crocks addresses
The history of the club splits at a single week. The last night on Cumberland Street South was Saturday 29 September 2018, when Dear Rouge played. Eliott Brood had been there nine days earlier, and Great Lake Swimmers two nights before Dear Rouge. Those three sit at the end of the old address in this collection.
From 5 October 2018, every event under the Crocks name moved to the NV Nightclub building at 228 Red River Road. CBC News and NetNewsLedger both reported the change in September. The new room was slightly bigger and could be set up for a large crowd or a small one, which suited a club that booked brass bands and metal packages alike.
The first dates listed there are McNasty Brass Band on 12 October and 13 October, a ten-piece from Minneapolis and Saint Paul that had played the old room in June, when ceiling tiles came out so the sousaphone could stand upright. Tickets for each night were C$13. The new ceiling was higher, and the format stayed the same.
Thunder Bay concerts of the later years also changed in price and currency. Tickets before the move were quoted in plain dollars; by 2019 most pages show C$ and a service fee added on top. A pop headliner asked $45 in 2015, and a rapper's general ticket cost C$20 in 2019, with packages at C$100 and C$300 above it.
How the touring routes ran into Thunder Bay
Thunder Bay sits on the Trans-Canada corridor at the top of Lake Superior, with Winnipeg to the west and Sault Ste. Marie to the east, and it is the long stretch of empty highway between them that shapes a Canadian tour. Scott Weiland played the Pyramid Cabaret in Winnipeg on 11 July 2014 and Crocks the following night.
Thunder Bay concerts by touring acts often came as half of a pair. Eastbound tours could do the reverse.
In 2019 three tours stopped in Ontario's north just before the lake city. Monster Truck played the Soo on 28 June and the lake city on 29 June. Cancer Bats did the same on 12 and 13 September. Colter Wall went from Sudbury on 9 July to Thunder Bay on 11 July.
The same logic shows in the punk tour that brought Stiff Little Fingers through on 19 November 2018. Ottawa fell three days earlier and Winnipeg two days later. A band formed in Belfast in 1977 went through northwestern Ontario on a route between two big cities, and that is a reading of the calendar, not a stated plan.
Weiland's night has a sadder thread. He died on 3 December 2015, seventeen months after the Crocks show, in Bloomington, Minnesota, while touring with his band. The Saturday in July 2014 now reads as a small piece of a much larger story.
Nights worth opening first
Every show page ends up connected to others, and following those links is the quickest way to get a feel for the place. Pages for the same act link to each other, so a reader can compare two visits by Matthew Good, the first in 2013 and the second in November 2015, when Scott Helman opened at $35 plus a $5 online fee.
September 8, 2015
Akon
With Karl Wolf, BAE, Peter Jackson
- Venue
- Crocks
- Doors
- 9 p.m.
- Age
- 19+, photo ID
- Ticket
- General admission $45 plus a $5 online fee
October 12, 2018
McNasty Brass Band
With Milton Shushack and The Absolute Pleasures
- Venue
- Crocks at NV
- Ticket
- C$13
June 29, 2019
Monster Truck
With Cobra vs Mongoose
- Venue
- Crocks at NV
- Doors
- 7:30 p.m.
- Ticket
- General admission C$40; all levels C$45 plus a $5 service fee
July 11, 2019
Colter Wall
- Venue
- Crocks at NV
- Doors
- 7:30 p.m.
- Age
- 19+, photo ID required
- Ticket
- $25 advance plus service fee
August 20, 2013
Tech N9ne
With Krizz Kaliko, Liqz, Driveby, Beatfarm
- Venue
- Crocks
- Tour
- Something Else Canadian Tour 2013
A reader with no name in mind can start with a few nights that stand out for their facts more than their fame. Henry Rollins spoke at Crocks on 9 June 2012 in a room set out theatre style, with numbered seats on the limited advance tickets, thirteen days after floods put the city under a state of emergency.
Raekwon played a Tuesday in February 2012 with eight guest acts named on the bill and advance tickets sold in seven places around town. Matthew Good capped a reserved tier at a hundred seats in November 2013, priced at $40 against $35 for the floor.
Not every standout is a headliner. On 1 July 2015 the Canada Day party charged $5 and opened its doors at ten, after the fireworks over the marina. Sabrina Benaim, a slam poet, asked an audience at Urban Abbey to bring blankets. Neither night has a famous name attached, and both are worth a look.
For a bill that shows how far one club reached, the September 2010 date pairing Tokyo Police Club and Arkells is the earliest with a full write-up. Tokyo Police Club were touring Champ, released that June, and Arkells had just won a Juno as best new group. Arkells came back in 2015 as headliners with Dear Rouge in support.
Hip-hop, dancehall and a spring of odd bookings
Hip-hop had its own steady line through the room. Ill Bill and Vinnie Paz played on 11 February 2013, and Tech N9ne followed on 20 August with four support acts. He returned on 8 October 2015 on the Special Effects tour, with $30 advance tickets and VIP packages.
Between those came Swollen Members on 4 May 2014 for $25, and Mobb Deep on 4 November. Dancehall arrived in April 2014 when Beenie Man played for $30 in advance, a week after a burlesque troupe, SuicideGirls, took the same stage.
That spring of 2014 reads like a sampler. After The Glorious Sons on 30 March, at $8 online, the room hosted a burlesque troupe, a dancehall king and, on 20 May, Evan Dando, the Lemonheads singer, touring solo for $18. Few venues of any size book a week that wide.
The earliest pages, from 2010 and 2012, are thinner. A farewell-tour date on 12 August 2010, and a Southern-rock double bill with Nashville Pussy on 20 April 2012 at $10 advance, show a room already committed to loud music.
The metal summer of 2018
The last stretch on Cumberland Street South was unusually heavy. Sebastian Bach played on Monday 25 June 2018 for $40. The Faceless followed six days earlier on a Tuesday, then Rivers of Nihil on 7 July and The Acacia Strain on 28 July.
Set against those four, the late summer turned quieter and more melodic. Future Islands, a synth-pop band from Baltimore, played on 31 August at C$31. Then came the September run that closed the old address: Eliott Brood on the 20th, Great Lake Swimmers on the 27th and Dear Rouge on the 29th. It reads as a club ending on its softer side.
A run of that density also shows how a venue lives on tickets sold one Tuesday at a time. One reading is that weekday slots went to bands with a dedicated following, while weekend dates went to acts able to fill a floor without help. That is a reading of the calendar, and no reason was ever printed.
The last season on Red River Road
The 2019 dates show what the bigger room was used for. Tribute nights filled the quiet weeks: Ozbourne on 13 March at C$18, then Dizzy Mystics on 26 April at C$10, playing Soundgarden and Tool. A punk veteran, Teenage Head, came from Hamilton on 10 May.
Summer brought the larger names. Half Moon Run played on 12 July at C$32, one night after Colter Wall, so the room hosted two very different audiences on consecutive nights. The Motorleague followed on 30 July at $12 in advance, a reminder that a small local price sat alongside the big tickets.
The 2019 list is also the last in the collection. Cancer Bats on 13 September is the final show page, and it followed a Bobaflex date at Soo Blaster three days earlier on the same road.
Prices, doors and the 19+ rule
Prices are printed as they were listed then, in the currency shown. Advance tickets in 2012 ranged from $10 for southern rock to $25 for Raekwon and Rollins. By 2018 the range was C$25 for Eliott Brood, C$30 for Sloan and C$31 for Future Islands. Ordinary 2019 tickets ran from C$10 to C$45.
The age line stayed steady across Thunder Bay shows of every genre. Most nights were 19+ with photo ID required, which follows from Ontario's legal drinking age of 19 and the licence of a bar room. Doors mostly opened at eight, with early shows at seven for the bigger touring bills and ten for the club nights, where the headliner was often a DJ.
Ticketing changed with the years. In 2012 seven outlets around the city sold a rap show, from a pita shop to a music store. Later listings shifted to the promoter's own online shop, with service fees quoted next to the price. A photo tier, a meet and greet or an all-access pass sat above the base ticket on several nights.
The 2010s also had a long memory for certain names. Elliott Brood played an early event in September 2013 with doors at seven, came back in February 2015 with The Wilderness of Manitoba, and returned to the new-address era in 2018. Three visits in five years is a habit, and the alternative-country band from Toronto never sold a ticket above $25.
Monster Truck tells the same story in another key. A Hamilton hard-rock band that played Crocks for $15 in advance in December 2013 came back in June 2019 with the top ticket of the year at C$45. Six years and a change of room separate the two dates, and the headline price tripled.
Who writes these pages and how they are made
Three writers share the work, each with a beat. Tessa Lindqvist takes the heavier end: punk, metal and hard rock. Owen Bellamy covers hip-hop, dancehall, DJs and electronic nights. Naomi Petrakis follows indie, folk, roots and Canadian rock. Their names sit on every show page, and the hub pages, like this one, carry none.
Each show page follows the same discipline. Doors, ticket tiers, age rule and presenters come from what was published for that date. Background on the act, such as an album cycle or a tour leg, is checked against public sources before it goes in. Set lists, crowd sizes, weather and quotes are never supplied, because nobody can vouch for them now.
Where a page has to pick between a fact and a guess, it takes the fact or leaves the gap. When a calendar suggests a reason, such as two nights running for a ten-piece band, the page calls it a reading of the dates. The promoter, Loffredo & Associates, is named only as the presenter of the nights it put on.
One loose thread runs through the whole collection: the two Cancer Bats nights, one in Sault Ste. Marie and one in Thunder Bay, were sold with the same support acts except for the last slot. Single Mothers and Sharptooth toured both. The Soo had Redundant on the bill. Thunder Bay had Carver.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I find concerts in Thunder Bay?
Nothing on this site is on sale. It is a written record of concerts in Thunder Bay from 2010 to 2019, mostly at Crocks. The shows page lists them year by year, and each night has its own page with doors, prices and the bill.
Is this a calendar of upcoming shows?
No. Every night described here has already happened, and no tickets are sold through these pages. The site reads as a reference for people who want to know who played Thunder Bay, in which room, on which date and at what price.
What is Thunder Bay live music like across these years?
Rock and metal carried most of it, followed by hip-hop, then electronic nights, with folk, country and roots, punk, spoken word and tribute bands in between. A single week could hold a hardcore band, a rapper and a DJ.
Which venues appear in the record?
Crocks on Cumberland Street South and Crocks at NV on Red River Road hold nearly all of it. Soo Blaster in Sault Ste. Marie, The Coulson in Sudbury, Urban Abbey and Grand Portage Lodge & Casino each appear once or a few times.
Where was Crocks in Thunder Bay?
Crocks stood at 16 Cumberland Street South in the old Port Arthur downtown until 29 September 2018. From 5 October 2018 its events moved to the NV Nightclub building at 228 Red River Road, listed here as Crocks at NV.
Why does the site say Crocks at NV?
It is the name used for shows after the move. The Crocks name stayed on the events, but the room was the NV Nightclub building on Red River Road, a slightly bigger space that could be set up for large or small shows.
Which years are covered?
The shows run from 2010 to 2019, with most dates falling in 2013 to 2015 and again in 2018 and 2019. Years such as 2011 and 2017 hold little or nothing, which reflects what survives on paper and proves nothing about the room.
What was the most expensive ticket?
Among ordinary tickets, the top price was C$45 plus a service fee for Monster Truck in June 2019. Packages went higher: a C$300 all-access pass for Chris Webby in May 2019, and a $95 photo tier for Akon in 2015.
What was the cheapest night?
The Canada Day party on 1 July 2015 cost $5 at the door, with doors at 10 p.m. after the fireworks at the marina. Two Crocks dates in 2014 were priced at $8 online.
Do these pages say who was in the audience or what was played?
They stay with what was printed then: the bill, doors, ticket tiers, the age rule and the calendar around the date. Set lists, crowd sizes and quotes are left out, since nobody wrote them down in a form worth trusting.
How did touring bands reach Thunder Bay?
Mostly along the Trans-Canada corridor between Winnipeg and Sault Ste. Marie. Several tours paired a Soo Blaster date with a Thunder Bay date a day or two apart, including Cancer Bats and Monster Truck in 2019.
What were the age rules at Thunder Bay shows?
Most nights at Crocks were 19+ with photo ID required, because the room was a licensed bar and Ontario's legal drinking age is 19. Spoken-word and community rooms such as Urban Abbey worked differently.
Which artists played Thunder Bay more than once?
Elliott Brood, Matthew Good, Monster Truck, Great Lake Swimmers, Tech N9ne, DJ BL3ND and Arkells each appear on more than one date, sometimes years apart, and each visit has its own page.
How big is Thunder Bay?
The 2021 census counted 108,843 people. The city sits on Lake Superior and is the largest in Northwestern Ontario, a long day's drive from the next big stops on a Canadian tour.
Who writes the pages?
Three writers share the pages, each with a beat: Tessa Lindqvist on punk, metal and hard rock, Owen Bellamy on hip-hop and electronic nights, and Naomi Petrakis on indie, folk, roots and Canadian rock.
Are the figures on these pages reliable?
Prices are given as they were listed then, in the currency shown, with service fees noted. Dates were checked against tour routes and the calendar. Anything that could not be confirmed is left out instead of guessed.