Mauro Pezzente looks around the venue he has called a home for the last 25 years. “Casa del Popolo is my heart and soul,” he says.
The doors to ‘Casa’ as it’s colloquially referred to by locals first opened in the summer of the new millennium to a quiet, pre-gentrified Mile End; one with much fewer restaurants, cheaper rents, and quieter streets.
As the founding bassist of the post-hardcore rock collective Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Mauro also belonged to another collective: a tight-knit community of Montreal musicians. When news travelled that Artishow, an underground venue that’d illegally sell alcohol in teacups had shut down, Mauro quickly sprang to the idea of running a new venue without hesitation. Despite not having any prior experience, it was an endeavour he felt fully confident to execute, fuelled by his passion for a burgeoning music scene.
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