Tearing It Up at the Crocodile
Like this guy, Seattlest was super pumped to witness honest to God rock at the Crocodile once again. Photo courtesy of crickontour from the Seattlest Flickr Pool
It’s premature to judge the latest incarnation of the famed Second Avenue venue from one loud night there...but we will anyways. Pleasantly, there were less hipster types this time around, but then again Friday night’s sound wasn’t boring indie pop, so the rock may have scared some away.
Rocking and moshing were allowed, unlike in the past where hyper-sensitive emo bouncers swarmed at the first sight of physical exuberance. Friday’s staff seemed laid-back and happy to serve. (Imagine that, rockabilly posers, actually earning your tips in a service industry recession.)
It felt more aggressive than the former timid Croc scene of later years, but then again we're pretty sure Tad was rocking his huge, balding ass off when we walked in. Nothing wrong with that; still 90 percent of the yuppie contingent there had no idea what they were witnessing.
Upstairs secondary bars are always cool, so it was nice to see the new Crocodile took note. The super-drunk generally appreciate the easy refuge of a nice railing and a crowd of people to sleazily scope out from above.
We were a little underwhelmed with the contemporary concert art lining the stairs to the upper bar--it reminded us of the Hard Rock Café in Maui. Seattle band art was strangely underrepresented. The Arctic Monkeys/Lily Allen posters seemed an attempt to pay homage to the indie pop of today, but this is Seattle, and we shouldn't be ashamed to represent our local accomplishments.
Sean Kinney is supposedly a part owner, and we're sure he has some Layne Staley material he could contribute to remind us where we are.
What the Croc lacks in intimacy, it makes up for in sound quality and usefulness. It trades big, open spaces for the loungy backroom feel we liked in the original--we couldn’t tell if there were good places to relax or not, but then again, it’s a music venue so if you're looking for the opium den vibe, try elsewhere.
We do think eventually some kind of weird art piece should be mounted above the stage for character’s sake, but we’ll give management a few more weeks to get on that. It's just that the rotting mini-Space Needle on the corner of Second and Bell looks particularly lonely these days.
