Sunday January 13th was the busiest day we ever had at the Rock Garden – so thanks to all the bands that were in yesterday as well as everyone who supported us last year.

Pretty soon we will be celebrating our third anniversary – which is pretty crazy to think I have been in this basement for 3 years now!!!!!!!!! [Of course you know it is all good].

For the New Year though we had to implement a number of new rules [not all new, they're just all posted now!], if you use the space most of them have been noted below – please take a minute to look them over.

Even if you don’t use the space we can still use your help.
One of the better received rules [at least from bands not playing the song] – was our banning Neil Young’s “Keep On Rockin’ in the Free World”

The rule as it currently stands:

5) Play Neil Young’s Keep on Rockin in the Free World. We dare you. We bet you $5 if you play it we will [seriously] charge you $5 [so if you take us up on this dare you’ll actually owe us $10. Not really worth it when you think about it is it]. Stop playing that song. We will gladly suggest other Neil Young songs if necessary.

So – what is your Neil Young suggestion to spare some poor band $10?

More rules

NOT READING THIS WILL LIKELY GET YOU AND YOUR BAND BANNED FROM THE ROCK GARDEN – SERIOUSLY* – PLEASE READ

If you do not follow these rules we reserve the right to ask you to leave and ban any individual or band members from future use of the space. And we will be*. Thanks – Rob & Joi

1) You will be charged for however much time you book. Drummer doesn’t show up – we don’t care. Just not working and you regret booking that 8 hour jam – sorry – you’re paying for it.

2) Report broken gear. We will be cracking down on the abuse of gear. If you see something is broke, tell us. Do not continue using it. If the next band comes and tells us it is broke we will assume it was you [this is likely leading up to the signing out of amps]. DO NOT use our amps as stands for other amps. Do NOT use bass amps for guitar and DO NOT use guitar amps for bass.

3) DO NOT – Continue playing when someone comes to tell you your time is up. You’re cutting into another band’s time, disrespecting whoever is working by ignoring them, and you’re being an ass. Stop.

4) You have 5 minutes to load out of the room, if you are in there for 10 minutes past your booking we will charge you an extra ½ hour. This is not fair to the bands coming in after you, nor is it fair to us at midnight when we have to wait ½ hour for bands to leave. If you need to bring all your own gear and it will take you 15 minutes to tear down do not start doing so when your time booked is up. Bands in the rooms past quarter past midnight [12:15] will be charged an additional hour.

5) Play Neil Young’s Keep on Rockin in the Free World. We dare you. We bet you $5 if you play it we will [seriously] charge you $5 [so if you take us up on this dare you’ll actually owe us $10. Not really worth it when you think about it is it]. Stop playing that song.
We will gladly suggest other Neil Young songs if necessary.

6) DO THIS – Sign out [and return] everything you rent or borrow from us.

7) We only aim to provide TWO [2] guitar amps per room. If you need 3 or 4 amps you are responsible for any extras. If we can help you we will – but don’t expect or count on it.
Garbage/cigarette butts/outside – there is a box of sand inside the front door for cigarette butts and a garbage can for everything else. Please use them.

9) No smoking – anything – inside.

10) You will be charged for the use of drum gear[kick pedals, cymbals, snares etc.].

11) Close both doors when jamming [or making any noise], the cut down on noise is incredible and allows us to do business without yelling and losing our hearing.

* PLEASE NOTE: We have already permanently banned 2 bands recently for not following the above rules. And it felt awesome each time. But we thought we would at least warn the rest of you.

Please note, regarding cancellations we now require 6 hours notice – thanks.