The Underground has become Yellowknife’s ‘art bar’

Many venues in downtown Yellowknife host live shows, but none so often as The Underground.

On any given night in the 50 Avenue establishment you may find a live band or solo act on the stage, comics telling jokes, or a burlesque or drag show.

The venue, owned by a group of Yellowknifers, recently celebrated its one-year anniversary. Artists say it has become an invaluable part of the city’s performing arts scene.

While preparing to open The Underground last year, one of the owners, Layne Rybchinksi – who is also the drummer for the band Gnarwhal – told Cabin Radio he wanted to bring the community together.

“I want to show the arts community that you can have a solidified place and you don’t have to go trying to scramble for a place,” he said.

Yellowknife musician Brenden MacIntosh recently told Cabin Radio The Underground has since “really become the art bar of Yellowknife.”

“I’m really happy for the owners to have been able to pull this off,” he said.

“It’s really cool to see them be so successful and have so many awesome artistic events constantly happening. I’m really happy for them and I think they’re a really important thing for our community right now.”

MacIntosh’s band played a show at The Underground with fellow Yellowknife band Upper Mall Rats in November. He said he’s been to the bar to watch other artists and it has the kind of atmosphere where “you feel like you’re going to find a new friend.”

“Yellowknife is so isolated, so it’s hard to be able to get these kind of opportunities,” he said.

“Now we have these opportunities at a constant pace. … It’s an excellent ground to have to help build our arts community.”

‘I’m really grateful’

Cat McGurk has performed at The Underground multiple times as both a solo act and lead singer of HYFY.

“It’s a great venue. The owners really care,” they said, adding the owners have cultivated “a very open and welcoming and collaborative space” where there’s little barrier to entry for artists.

“I’m really grateful to have a space like that in town because sometimes it can feel like playing in certain spaces is inaccessible,” McGurk added, explaining it can be hard to compete with regular nights at some venues as performers can’t always guarantee a full crowd or good bar sales.

Taylor Shephard, owner of music management and events production company Funny Farm Music, organized a September show at The Underground featuring HYFY, Toronto act Slash Need and burlesque and drag performer Slickeur.

Shephard is also a co-founder of the Still Dark music festival, which relies on The Underground among other downtown venues.

“It’s just a real pleasure to work with them because they get what a lot of presenters in town are trying do,” he said, “and are really, really open to working and helping achieve those goals.”

Shephard said The Underground is one of the few venues in Yellowknife that offers a drum kit, amps, an in-house PA system and staff that can help with sound checks.

“It all really helps promoters and artists in town reduce their costs when they’re trying to organize their own events and grow their own audiences local.”

Shephard added the bar “always feels really intimate and cozy when you have a good ticketed event there.”

“I think people really enjoy the vibe they’ve created in that space, so it just feels like a really nice environment to throw shows in,” he said.

Soprano Diana Rockwell performed opera at the venue last month as part of the Northern Spark Series, a collaboration between The Underground and the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre focused on emerging performance artists.

Kacie Hall, artistic director at NACC, said The Underground is an accessible space for emerging artists as they can get performance experience without the pressure of having to sell out a 300-seat theatre.

“We’ve been really grateful that we’re able to collaborate with The Underground to use this space as a stepping stone for those artists that maybe aren’t ready to perform in a venue as big as NACC yet,” she said, “but still need the experience and still want the experience of putting on professional performances.”

Future performances in the series are planned for February and April.

‘Life-changing’ drag residency

Thunder Normz, also known as Em Raby out of drag, has been The Underground’s drag artist in residence for the past year.

Normz has organized drag shows every other month, the latest of which had a Weird Al theme.

While there were previous opportunities to perform in drag in Yellowknife, Normz said it was not a regular occurrence. A year full of shows has been “life-changing.”

“Having the first ever year-round drag show, having it hosted by a king, all of this stuff is historical,” Normz said.

“It’s new and it was a proof of concept that we had to see work. And turns out, we sold out almost every one of our shows.”

Normz added a safe space where people can try new things can take the pressure off and help to expand the community.

Talking with the owners of The Underground, Normz said the bar has “a really mixed group” of patrons from blue-collar and shift workers to musicians. They said it has also become the “pseudo gay bar” in Yellowknife.

At this moment in time, they said, the presence of gender-neutral washrooms and the feeling of safety “is pretty special.”

Normz’s last official show as drag artist in residence, a Holigay Spectacular, takes place on Saturday night. A successor is expected to be announced that evening.

In months when there are no drag shows, The Underground hosts Glamour Alley, a recurring burlesque event whose name is a nod to Yellowknife’s historic red-light district. All six shows so far have sold out.

The bimonthly shows are produced by Tease Van Gams, an amalgamation of the names of burlesque artists Uhura Tease, Lee Van Cleevage and Stella Gams.

While structured burlesque shows such as Boolesque are organized annually in Yellowknife, those artists say Glamour Alley adds something different.

“Glamour Alley is an alternative way to get into burlesque,” Van Cleevage said.

Some people like to start with a controlled and managed show like Boolesque Van Cleevage explained, describing the show as “a burlesque bootcamp” involving mentorship from veteran performers.

Other first-time performers, she said, may find that scale of show intimidating.

“Glamour Alley offers a way in that’s a lot more casual, less commitment, lets you have lower stakes, a taste of the stage and performing for an audience before you decide you really go for it,” she said, adding that Glamour Alley does not offer the same mentoring and support and both kinds of show are needed.

Tease said regular shows create opportunity for creativity.

“Really what we’re doing is creating space for people to try things,” she said. “It, in my mind, is as close as you can take a burlesque show and put it into the drop-in music jam session format.”

“You can experiment with any weird ideas that you want,” Gams added.

“The best way to refine your act and get audience feedback is to continue to perform it.”

Gams said Glamour Alley has given the trio the opportunity to take on different roles including MCing, which she described as “exciting, chaotic, wild, fun, weird and scary.”

Glamour Alley is currently accepting performer applications for 2026.

Planned shows for the new year include a Gothic Alley in January and a Nerdlesque in partnership with Ptarmicon in May.