THE INDIE-LIST DIGEST #31, 5/15/93
By PAUL R. CARDILLO
As someone wrote in last week's issue, the Cat's Cradle is indeed closing down on May 19th. Frank Heath, the owner of the Cradle will be trying to relocate somewhere in town, and there are several rumors floating around about possible locations, but as it looks now, Chapel Hill will be Cradle-less through most of the rest of the year. The situation is this, four years ago, the Cradle moved into its current location from a smaller location two blocks down the street. The Cradle, in its twenty four (or five?) year history has occupied five different locations. Its current incarnation has done much to spawn the (Chapel Hill music scene’s) current media attention.
The Cradle was graciously allowed to temporarily locate in the building on West Franklin Street (an old bank building) while the building's owners looked for a buyer. Well, four years later, and a buyer/developer has emerged. One rumor is that the space will be used as a parking lot. Well, in most towns, the closing of a local club would be cause for celebration among local politicos and life-long residents. Not so in Chapel Hill. The Town Council is actually helping Frank scout new locations for the Cradle. It will be very interesting to see what this does to the local music scene, and to see how the whole situation resolves itself.
Well, with the cradle closed, the only place in town left to see indie/alternative music (as opposed to blues cover bands and frat-rock crap) is Local 506. I'll reserve my opinion of the new club because I work there, although there are some good shows coming up (Steel Pole Bathtub, Railroad Jerk). Local 506, however, is much smaller than the Cradle (250 capacity vs. 750/800 at the Cradle) and won't be able to accommodate a lot of the larger nationally touring acts that came through town. The Cave also books some of the cooler local bands on Sunday nights, but is also way too small to book some of the larger drawing acts in town.
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