Duncan MacDonell, known as 'Doc Pickles' in Toronto indie music circles, is pictured near the RBC Amphitheatre in Toronto on May 7.Laura Proctor/The Globe and Mail
Duncan MacDonell, a middle-aged, laid-off systems analyst, needed a job. Unemployment benefits are not indefinite, and he had rent and child support to pay. The personable Torontonian spent all of 2025 looking for work in his field that matched his experience, but he had yet to hear the words “you’re hired” directed at him.
“You just have to keep at it and keep a good attitude,” MacDonell says over the phone. “When you have kids, there are no other options.”
After months of no luck, MacDonell changed gears. He began applying for jobs he wanted to do rather than the ones he was expected to pursue as a man of his age – he’s 52 – and professional pedigree.
Then opportunity knocked. Actually, it rocked.
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This summer, MacDonell will work as a guest-services representative at the RBC Amphitheatre, the 16,000-capacity venue owned by Live Nation Canada that will host 79 concerts this season. He will earn $17.50 an hour as an usher during concerts by such artists as Paul Simon, Shaboozey, Lorde, the Arkells, Carlos Santana, Hilary Duff and Wu-Tang Clan.
“My 16-year-old self is really psyched right now,” he says.
MacDonell is a member of the HITS Team, which stands for “How is the show,” essentially his scripted question for the night as he moves about the venue as a goodwill ambassador during the show.
“I want to connect with people and in my own small way ensure that they have the best time they’ve ever had,” he says.
He will don a white polo shirt with the gold-and-blue RBC Amphitheatre logo for the first time when he suits up for the season-opening concert by Imagine Dragons, the U.S. pop rockers whose hits include 2017’s Believer: “I get a unicorn out of a zebra/I wear my uniform like a tuxedo.”
Though his last job was with CPP Investments, MacDonell has a rich history in the music industry. He’s one of the co-founders of Wavelength Music, a grassroots non-profit arts platform that has presented indie music concerts and festivals in Toronto since 2000. MacDonell, in his “Doc Pickles” persona, often emceed the Wavelength shows.
It was that résumé nugget that led to his hiring by Live Nation. Acting on a tip, he had showed up unannounced, hours early, at the concert promoter’s head office on a Sunday morning for a job fair. Told the fair was invite-only and that he wouldn’t be able to apply, he stuck around anyway and chatted up the hirers.
When they mentioned the summer’s big concert by Metric and Broken Social Scene, MacDonell said he had booked the very first Broken Social Scene show in Toronto, at Ted’s Wrecking Yard on Dec. 17, 2000.
“Their eyes lit up like pie saucers,” MacDonell recalls. “They were so excited.”
Excited enough to hire him. On Aug. 7, he’ll be on the venue’s staff when Broken Social Scene plays the RBC Amphitheatre, more than 25 years after the band’s Wavelength concert debut.
“I feel like I’ve come full circle.”
MacDonell is a west-ender. He had an opportunity to work at Live Nation’s Rogers Stadium at the top of the city, but it wasn’t for him. He prefers to walk or bike to work and has no interest in a long commute.
“It’s about quality of life,” he says. “I don’t want to be a slave to a transit schedule. When I walk to work, I want to be familiar with the feeling of the sidewalks under my feet.”
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In 2003, he was living on Beaconsfield Avenue, off Queen Street West. Standing outside the Drake Hotel one winter day while it was being renovated, MacDonell struck up a conversation with an assistant to the hotel’s owner, Jeff Stober. That chance chat led to him programming live music at the Drake Underground for two years.
Around the same time, he was hired by Sony Music Canada as a temp. He ended up working there for six years as a data-control analyst as the industry transitioned to digital sales, and during that time he had his share of celebrity interactions.
“I got Dave Grohl set up with WiFi,” MacDonell says, referring to the Foo Fighters rocker. “Another time, ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic was asleep on the couch in our tech room. I had to ask him to leave so we could lock up.
“It was cool to be in the middle of that.”
He’ll be in the middle of it again this summer. The season ends with a concert by Foster the People on Oct. 3. After that, he hopes to get hired full-time by Live Nation, the country’s biggest concert promoter by far. If he happens to find a “grown-up” position elsewhere this summer, he has no plans to leave his rock ‘n’ roll occupation – ever.
“Even if I land a day job, my evenings and weekends for the rest of my life will be spent ushering at live music shows.”