Fucking in the Streets

Warming Up at the Crocodile

Last week, a familiar but lately uncommon scene was unfolding in
Belltown. A van was pulled up outside the iconic Crocodile
Cafe, and a band were loading their gear into the club.

The Crocodile, of course, abruptly closed in late 2007. Not long
after, a cryptic website was launched for the club, which featured
nothing more than a dictionary definition of “elitism.” In September
’08, the club’s new ownership officially announced plans to reopen in
January or February ’09, with Eli Anderson as talent buyer and Roy
Atizado as director of live entertainment.

The band loading in last week were Ships, and they were at
the still-under-
construction Crocodile to film a performance amid
the rubble and renovation as part of a series that will appear on the
Croc’s forthcoming website, kind of like a reverse Burn to
Shine, where afterward the building gets raised rather than
razed.

While Ships were setting up and sound-checking in a gravel pit
under the wooden skeleton of a stairway, Anderson and Atizado gave
a tour of the site.

Where the old bar used to be, Via Tribunali is building a
stand-alone restaurant that will also serve food in the Crocodile.
Atizado says he expects the wall of multi-colored stained-glass windows
as well as a couple of chandeliers will survive the transition in some
form. The side door in the hallway, where Ships loaded in, will be the
front door of the new Crocodile, with an adjoining box office. The old
front door will lead out to a smoking area.

Up some steep stairs are the offices where Atizado and Anderson have
been working amid the cold and construction since October, a space
heater glowing orange on the floor, breath fogging up indoors.

Most exciting is the club’s main room, which comprises both the old
show room and the cafe area. A new, larger stage stands at the north
end of the room, flanked by a small mezzanine area with its own bar
(featuring the taps and fridge from the old bar); along the room’s
south wall, a long bar (that will accommodate up to four bartenders)
runs facing the stage. The ceiling is three feet higher and exposed to
make room for the club’s intensive and soon-to-be legally mandated new
sprinkler system; polished wood slats from the old ceiling now line the
upper walls of the room. Felled at the foot of the new stage is the
infamous, dreaded Pole, which used to stand in the very middle of
the old Croc’s show room, both occupying what should have been prime
mosh-pit space and casting a no-sightline shadow all the way to the
back of the room. Atizado says he expects the Pole to be incorporated
into the new club as a relic of some kind, though he can’t say exactly
how.

Anderson can’t confirm any bookings, but some tour dates for the
Crocodile are beginning to show up on bands’ itineraries (e.g., the
Ting Tings’ MySpace page shows them playing there on April 12); he also
can’t confirm a date yet, but says that the grand opening will be
sometime in March (or, hedging, “Smarch”).