Type Music venue Renovated 2009 | Opened 1991 Expanded | |
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Location Belltown, Seattle, Washington, United States | ||
The Crocodile (formerly The Crocodile Cafe, and sometimes called the Croc) is a music club at 2200 2nd Avenue at Blanchard Street in the neighborhood of Belltown in Seattle, Washington, United States. Opened as the "Crocodile Cafe" on April 30, 1991 by Stephanie Dorgan, it quickly became a fixture on the local music scene. It closed on December 15, 2007, and reopened on March 18, 2009.
History
The venue's first show featured The Posies and Love Battery; the last, Robin Pecknold, J. Tillman, and David Bazan. During its initial 16-year run, the Croc hosted numerous well-known acts including Mudhoney, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Mad Season, Joanna Newsom, Cheap Trick, Indigo Girls, Robyn Hitchcock, Porcupine Tree, Glenn Tilbrook, Rhonda Vincent, Death Cab for Cutie, Yoko Ono, Ann Wilson, Sleater-Kinney, R.E.M., Soft Boys, Built to Spill, Neutral Milk Hotel, Dinosaur Jr., Beastie Boys, Corinne Bailey Rae, Rachael Yamagata, Kevn Kinney of Drivin N Cryin, Ventures, Chris Knox, The Presidents of the United States of America, and Harvey Danger (who chose the Cafe for their final performance).
Scenes from the 1995 Jennifer Jason Leigh film Georgia were shot at the venue.
After opening the Crocodile Cafe, owner Stephanie Dorgan later married R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck, who became a partner in the Crocodile. Buck often played there with his other band, The Minus 5. Dorgan and Buck divorced in 2006 and the Croc closed unexpectedly in December 2007.
The closing of the Crocodile Cafe, a fixture of the local music scene, caused widespread speculation in regard to the future of the establishment. After months of speculation, a group of business people and musicians including Alice in Chains' Sean Kinney and Capitol Hill Block Party co-founder Marcus Charles purchased the establishment. The new owners renamed it "The Crocodile" and reopened it in March 2009 after much-needed renovation. On October 9, 2013, R&B singer JoJo performed "Smells Like Teen Spirit" during the final stop of her West Coast promotional tour. It was a little more than 21 years since Nirvana last performed at the club on October 4, 1992 billed as a "secret opening act" though they actually did not play "Teen Spirit" despite getting requests to do so, making this one of the few performances of the song at the Crocodile.