Imagine every garage sale you've ever seen. Imagine all those gaudy lamps and grimy dolls and homemade ashtrays and mismatched plates and busted bowling trophies. Now imagine them all in one place -- a sprawling, multi-level menagerie of accumulated knickknackery. And now imagine that somehow, amid all that eclectic miscellanea, a bunch of cool indie bands cleared a spot to play a concert.
Such is the case of the Family Thrift Store in Guelph, which over the past 16 years has become a haven for musicians and artists and other people who appreciate the shop's profound strangeness. Sadly, today is the shop's very last day in existence, as the City of Guelph has green-lighted the plan to demolish a row of buildings on Wyndham Street to make way for a new library and accompanying green space (read all about it). Thrift store owner Ray Mitchell, an imminently quotable oddball, called it "the biggest issue in the history of Guelph."
While that might be an exaggeration, there are loads of musicians and artsy young people in Guelph who agree that the store's closure is a sad eventuality in the name of progress. So for the past five nights, they've been giving the Family Thrift Store a fitting send-off, playing nightly concerts in the shop. Tonight is the last hurrah -- a bittersweet farewell featuring performances by Wax Mannequin, Scott Nightingale and The Burning Hell, emceed by Guelph's resident carnival freak, The Great Orbax. It will definitely be the coolest show around, and your last chance to purchase some stuffed deer hooves, a sombrero and monogrammed shotglasses from a stranger's stag and doe.
Here's a great little video about the final days of Family Thrift Store.
(photo by Katie Malo, The Ontarian)

