One of the city's most legendary music venues closed their doors last Sunday. The Crocodile Cafe was one of the clubs that helped put Seattle in the rock music map.  There have been news pieces that followed it's recent troubles from both The Seattle Weekly and The Stranger.  It wasn't too shocking for me to find out that this happened.  I just didn't think that it would happen this soon.

I've seen quite a lot of great shows there in the past.  Some of those shows have been written about in this blog.  Here are some great memories from one of my favorite haunts that I could recall:

Snow Patrol performing in Seattle for the first time and being thankful to the locals for being some of the first fans to make Final Straw a breakout album in the US.

Seeing both Stellastarr* before releasing their debut record and The Killers performing way before their careers really took off.  I think The Killers were opening for Franz Ferdinand too (who weren't household names in the US at the time either).

The weird performance art that accompanied the music of British Sea Power.  There was lots of foliage involved.  Their drummer also went around the venue banging his portable tom.

Celebrating my 30th birthday by seeing +/- and Versus.  This was one of the best birthdays I celebrated.  I've been a Versus fan for so many years prior to seeing them for the first time that evening.

Headbanging at that size venue to bask in the awesome prog of Porcupine Tree during the first leg of the Deadwing tour.

Pete Yorn's sweaty and short set at his vanity record label's showcase.

My favorite Croc incident was standing behind Pete Doherty on the beer line at The Croc's bar after The Libertines played their set, touring for Up The Bracket.  I big-upped the guy for a great job onstage.  This was clearly before he dated supermodels and thought he was better than the rest of the band.

Don't Look Back Into The Sun - The Libertines

I had so many other memories like seeing Rogue Wave, The Lashes, Longwave, and many other groups play there for the first time.  This was when they had great bookers putting shows together for the place.  I didn't even realize that I stopped going there for over a couple of years.  Competition from Neumos and The Showbox seemed to grab my wallet's attention for live acts slowly but surely.

I'm really gutted that this had to happen and only because the venue was poorly managed.  I hope the condo developers don't get their grubby hands on that place and that it will continue to be a live venue for people to chill out to.  If this isn't the case, I'd really like to thank The Croc for all the great times either alone or with friends to see a show, the great brew, and even the great staff for making it worthwhile to visit the place.  You will be missed.