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* "He said, 'I met you at the Crocodile'..."

In my very first blog-entry on this website, I mentioned the above lyric, which is from the Kevn Kinney song "Trail Of Seasons". It wasn't the original lyric -- initially Kinney had written it as, "...at the Uptown" (after a favorite haunt in his Athens, Georgia, stomping-grounds) -- but he eventually changed it as a nod to the impression that playing a great many shows at Seattle's Crocodile Cafe had left on him.

The Crocodile left a similar imprint on me, and on countless others, judging from the posts I've read tonight on various blog-pages in the wake of Monday's news that the legendary venue had closed after 16 years in operation (that's gotta be well over 100 in human years).

Its time had probably come -- Seattle's nightclub landscape has a lot more options, with a lot more variety, in 2007 than it did when the Croc opened in 1991 -- but that doesn't diminish the historical relevance of what the club did in its remarkably extended heyday. In the process of outlasting a slew of shorter-lived grungetown '90s hotspots (RKCNDY, Off Ramp, OK Hotel, Moe's, Sit & Spin, Colourbox, Weathered Wall, etc.), the Crocodile had a pretty long run as arguably the best nightclub in America.

Co-founder and owner-for-the-duration Stephanie Dorgan came along at the right time, and created a terrific space, staffed generally by top-notch folks. At its zenith, the club was booked by none other than Scott McCaughey, longtime Young Fresh Fellows/Minus 5 leader and R.E.M. sideman. And you could search far and wide and never find a soundman as good as the Crocodile's Jim Anderson.

Some of the best shows I ever saw took place there. If you really wanna go into detail, there's a list of every single one I attended from 1991-2000 posted here...

http://www.threeimaginarygirls.com/blogentry/2007dec/favoritecrocodilememories?page=1

...but just to pull a handful of quick highlights:

* Nirvana and Mudhoney, Sunday, October 4, 1992. An unannounced hometown show during a break between touring and recording. Pretty much as completely insane as you'd have expected it to be.

* Guided By Voices with Mary Lou Lord, Friday, April 14, 1995. Pollard and pals at the peak of their game, plus Mary Lou just as she was on the cusp of becoming an intimate indie-busking sensation.

* Backsliders, Tuesday, July 15, 1997. One of alt-country's little-bands-that-could, and they did, if only for a short time. This tour was right in the midst of the best of it, with frontman Chip Robinson sporting wildman curls like the Fremont Troll and twin-engine guitarists Brad Rice and Steve Howell delivering a spectacular clash-course in rocky-tonk.

* Silos (with Scott McCaughey & Peter Buck opening), Tuesday, November 9, 1993. One of America's best bands at that time, plus a local-ringer of an opener, with McCaughey & Buck also joining the Silos onstage near the end of the night. Sadly, it was the last show that Silos guitarist Manny Verzosa ever played; he died in a van crash in Wyoming on the way to the next gig.

* T Bone Burnett, Tuesday, August 18, 1992. I still frequently cite this one as the best club show I've ever seen when people ask me that question. It's somewhat difficult to explain exactly why it was that good, but everything about the experience was just...perfect.

Competition from quality venues such as the Showbox, the Tractor and the Triple Door, as well as from a litany of indie-come-lately dives, made things harder on the Croc in the new millennium, and it would seem in retrospect that its days were numbered when Dorgan and Peter Buck divorced earlier this year. For those in Seattle who were still faithful patrons of the club, its absence will no doubt leave a gap. For me, it's more a matter of remembering another place and another time. But, man, what a time it was. There will be no forgetting what went down inside those glass walls at Second and Blanchard.

after a while, crocodile....
peter

Posted by peter on December 18, 2007 12:06 AM | Permalink