Coalition TO: Local and Translocal Scene Formations

How does space become crucial to musical community—and what happens when that space disappears? Though only open from 2014-2019, Coalition T.O., a basement bar in Toronto’s Kensington Market neighbourhood, was the city’s home base for underground punk and metal.

This presentation examines the rise and fall of the venue as situated within the history of Toronto’s metal and punk scenes, how it became a hub for related networks, and follows scene dispersals after the landlords refused to resign the lease.