The Shaw Brothers built a cinema on East Hastings in 1971. Decades later, the same address would host Napalm Death, Sharon Van Etten and Japandroids. The Rickshaw reopened the former Shaw Theatre for concerts in 2009.
The original Shaw Theatre belonged to the Hong Kong film empire of Run Run Shaw and Runme Shaw. The Rickshaw’s own history identifies the Vancouver building as a North American distribution hub as well as a cinema. It closed in the 1980s; David Duprey repurposed it for live music in 2009, and Mo Tarmohamed took over operations in summer 2011.
The concert archive puts D.O.A., The Pack A.D. and Japandroids alongside touring acts including IDLES, Sharon Van Etten and Napalm Death. The programme gives local bands and very different touring acts an address without requiring one genre to define the programme.
The venue documents sound and lighting upgrades alongside continuing maintenance. Those practical changes are easy to overlook in a history beginning with the Shaw Brothers, but they explain how a former cinema remains available for the next concert. Preserving the building was one decision. Keeping the stage usable is work that has to continue after the reopening.