
{"id":20587,"date":"2011-09-01T12:14:01","date_gmt":"2011-09-01T16:14:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=20587"},"modified":"2011-09-01T12:14:01","modified_gmt":"2011-09-01T16:14:01","slug":"cats-cradle-reopens-with-new-look-free-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2011\/09\/01\/cats-cradle-reopens-with-new-look-free-show\/","title":{"rendered":"Cat&#8217;s Cradle reopens with new look, free show"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/a><strong>By Susan Dickson<br \/>\n<em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>For the last 15 or so years, Carrboro institution Cat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Cradle has looked much the same as hundreds of thousands of visitors and musicians have crossed through the venue\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s doors.<\/p>\n<p>Tonight (Thursday), Cradle visitors will have the opportunity to see a somewhat new-and-improved rock club, with a free show by The Old Ceremony to celebrate those changes.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been a lot of things that over the course of the last 10 years I have picked up just working with other venues that I felt like could be improved on here at the Cradle,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Frank Heath, who co-owns the club with Billy Johnson.<\/p>\n<p>Visitors will first notice a new entrance to the club, along the right side of the building.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The way it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been set up for 15 years is so people walk by the stage when they walk in, which is not ideal,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Heath said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to change the dynamic of how the crowd is able to watch the shows, because there won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be this constant disruption of people walking in.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Heath said he also hopes the club will be able to add 100 people to its capacity by installing sprinklers. The sprinklers are already in, but he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s awaiting final word from the fire marshal before officially changing the capacity, which is about 600. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153In general, we have a good number of shows that sell out here, so a lot of these shows we could probably sell another 100 tickets to,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Heath said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be able to increase our revenues, increase the ability of people to see shows \u00e2\u20ac\u201c everybody would win.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Other renovations include changes that Heath hopes will increase the amount of usable viewing space in the Cradle. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve added 6 inches to the height of the stage so that people can see better from pretty much anywhere, and especially the shorter among us will benefit from that,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153In any club, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sort of a challenge to find the right spot, and that will hopefully help.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>In addition, staff removed a number of risers from the club, increasing the open space and hopefully the free flow of movement. Other changes include some fresh paint and improvements to the floor and sound system. <\/p>\n<p>Heath said the staff will observe over the next few months how the changes affect the flow and viewing experience at the club, then probably make a few more improvements accordingly. <\/p>\n<p>Although the planned 300 East Main project \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which includes the redevelopment of properties extending from the intersection of Main and Boyd streets near Nice Price Books to the present municipal parking lot on the corner of Main and Roberson streets \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is set to begin within a number of weeks, Heath said he wanted to go ahead with the improvements because it is unclear exactly when the part of the project that includes the Cradle will begin. Developers have indicated that phase of the project could begin as early as late 2012 or early 2013. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It seemed like the right time to do it, regardless of timing for the project,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The area is just so vibrant now and I feel like the music scene, the local scene as well as the national scene \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 deserves to have the production setup that they need to put on the best show.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think that [the upfit] will give us a better opportunity to land some of the shows that historically, over the past 10 years, have gone to some of the college auditoriums,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he added. <\/p>\n<p>The Cradle \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which is 41 years old \u00e2\u20ac\u201c has been in its current space for 18 years, and Heath said he wants to stay at 300 East Main, even as the property is redeveloped. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The vibe of Carrboro and the vibe of this two-block area I think is about as welcoming as you can expect from the environs of a rock club. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re pretty happy about the way that things generally unfold for the bands when they show up here,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. <\/p>\n<p>Tonight, Heath hopes community members will come out to the Cradle to check out the improvements and The Old Ceremony \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a warm and fun band with a lot of great local ties,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. <\/p>\n<p>The show starts at 9 p.m.; doors open at 8. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For the last 15 or so years, Carrboro institution Cat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Cradle has looked much the same as hundreds of thousands of visitors and musicians have crossed through the venue\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s doors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20587"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20588,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20587\/revisions\/20588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}