When the pandemic halted the live music industry in 2020, beloved Seattle music venue The Crocodile hatched an ambitious plan aimed at long-term survival and growth. With an expiration date on their original Belltown location, Crocodile brass moved into the former El Gaucho space a few blocks away, converting it into a full-on entertainment complex beneath an 18-room hotel.
The relocation meant sizing up The Crocodile’s main showroom, adding the 300-capacity basement venue Madame Lou’s and converting an old movie theater into what’s primarily been used as a 96-capacty comedy club called Here-After.
Not everything has gone according to plan.
The Crocodile is effectively closing its two smaller venues in mid-December, citing many of the challenges clubs across the country have faced since lockdown restrictions eased. Attendance — particularly for up-and-coming touring acts and local bands — hasn’t returned to prepandemic levels, while operating costs (labor, insurance, etc.) have gone up. Coupled with steadily declining alcohol sales — a critical revenue stream for music venues — Madame Lou’s and Here-After were no longer sustainable, said Hunter Motto, The Crocodile’s creative director and general partner.
“We built a venue of the future,” Motto said, “and the future didn’t land in 2025.”
The Crocodile’s 750-capacity main room, which had financially carried the two downstairs venues since opening in late 2021, “will continue operations uninterrupted,” Motto said. “We’re going to keep putting on lots of events and helping make Belltown a vibrant place.”
The Hotel Crocodile and street-level bar, The Society, also remain open. Despite downsizing the operation within its own Belltown building, The Crocodile expanded its reach this summer with a highly anticipated new waterfront concert series on Pier 62.
While “regular operations are ceasing,” as Motto carefully phrased it, in Madame Lou’s and Here-After following events on Dec. 13 and Dec. 20 respectively, there could be some flexibility on the dates. The rooms could also be activated for special events like New Year’s Eve, Motto said, but The Crocodile will no longer book them as consistent venues.
More painful than the loss of programming between the rooms is the accompanying layoffs. The Crocodile is eliminating roughly 100 jobs — half of its workforce — between its small, full-time marketing and booking team and part-time bartenders, security staff, sound and lighting techs and other employees. Word of the closures quickly spread after an Oct. 21 meeting that staff described as contentious at times, during which they were informed of the decision.
“It’s terrible,” Motto said. “This is the worst two weeks I’ve had working at The Crocodile. I’ve been here for 13 years. It’s really tough.”
Last year, Madame Lou’s hosted more than 300 events, everything from local bands’ album release shows and School of Rock matinees to dance nights and touring artists — many of the shows all ages, which require additional staffing and see fewer bar sales, Motto said. “We really did a ton of programming in the room and it was this incredible space for breaking artists and local musicians to start their careers here in Seattle,” he said. “We’re really proud of that.”
Even with “a ton of sellout events” between Madame Lou’s and Here-After, Motto acknowledges “both of those spaces needed more to be successful.” The staff cuts will put the venue in line with “the old Crocodile model,” he said of the grunge-era haunt that opened in 1991.
“We really built a small venue that was meant to be operated and managed like a bigger venue,” Motto said. “We had really professional and high-level operations in the space and it has been challenging to deal with revenue on the bar side going down over the years and expenses going up.”
As for The Crocodile’s main room, that continues to be financially successful, Motto said. Revenue from The Crocodile and the hotel — “the lion’s share of our business” — kept Madame Lou’s and Here-After afloat the last four years while they tried to make it work.
What exactly happens with the two smaller venues remains to be seen. Motto is hopeful that they can find new operators to take over the downstairs spaces.
When The Crocodile moved into the Second Avenue building, their new landlord gave the club a 20-year lease and signed on as one of its many investors, which include Susan Silver (longtime manager of Alice in Chains and formerly Soundgarden), Alice in Chains drummer Sean Kinney and Eric Howk of Portugal. The Man. A number of details would need to be worked out — including whether a new partner would sublease the rooms from The Crocodile or negotiate a new deal with the landlord — but Motto said they’ve already had “great conversations with a couple community partners.”
“We’re working with our stakeholders at The Crocodile to find new partners to potentially operate the spaces downstairs, both Madame Lou’s and Here-After,” Motto said. “We do hope that they will have a future. Both of those spaces, they’re vibrant, awesome rooms that we invested a lot of time, energy, love and resources to make incredible.”
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