At its peak Cocodrie averaged 35 bands a week; thousands of bands played there from new high school bands to Incubus on their SCIENCE tour. The owners, staff, layout/feel, 200 legal capacity, all ages capability, location, late '90s era, and AMAZING BANDS all combined to create a unique nightclub that is still missed. I booked my first show in May 1995 and eventually became the inhouse talent buye
r in October of 1996. During 1997 I learned what worked in Cocodrie. Because there were few "regulars", and because we were a half block off Broadway, I needed to book four bands a night to make sure there were enough customers. But besides being a necessity, I also enjoyed giving bands a chance to play as well as putting people & music together. And the owners ultimately gave me the freedom to do this, including booking all ages matinees for high school kids, adding touring bands to shows at the last minute (I became a safety net for touring bands), and booking any and all styles of music. By 1998 I started to work closely with outside promoters. I welcomed them as they brought in bands that were bigger or different ones than I had access to, and they took a night off my hands. So I tried to make it easy and inexpenive for them to use the room. The three outside promoters who made the biggest impact were Glamco (George & AJ), Liftoff! (Alan), and First Round Promotions (Dave & Jim). Find more info on them in the pictures section. In 1999 we started battling the new landlords regarding our lease. They wanted a new tenant (such as a strip club or dot com) that would pay higher rent. This battle was draining emotionally and especially financially, and rather than go to court, by the summer of 2000 the Cocodrie owners agreed to be bought out and leave. As the buyer, the small consolation was my ability to plan the the club's last weeks; the final band Agent Orange took the stage well after midnight on July 30, 2000.
--Scott
Farewell Cocodrie
North Beach club shutting down
(Joel Selvin's 7/16/00 SF Chronicle Pink Section column; we closed 7/30/00)
The local music scene takes a big hit at the end of the month when the tiny Cocodrie closes its North Beach doors, another victim of rising rents and raging gentrification. With fewer and fewer places where rock bands can play under any circumstances in the city, the 300-seat upstairs nightclub was the last venue that regularly admitted patrons younger than 21. While small clubs like C&W Saloon, the Boomerang and the Paradise still book young bands, the clubs are strictly 21 and older, while much of the audience for little- known rock bands, especially punk rock, is made up of young people under the drinking age. Cocodrie started in 1994, taking over the space from a defunct club called Morty's. The room has been a nightclub several times in its life -- Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show used to play the room when it was the North Beach Revival -- but the building was bought by investors two years ago and they have steadfastly refused to renew the club's lease. Club owners have spent plenty talking to lawyers about the situation. Cocodrie routinely presented 35 bands a week. From high school bands to touring acts with independent albums, they all found a place to play at Cocodrie. ....I always try to be optimistic,'' said Scott Rootenberg, who has booked the club the past four years, ....but some of these bands will not have a place to play now.''
His competition echoed the sentiment. ....It's a big blow,'' said Bottom of the Hill co-owner Ramona Downey. On Sundays, Rootenberg started shows in the afternoon, often presenting as many as eight bands in a day. Although punk rock was the club's main bill of fare, Rootenberg had successfully expanded the club's musical boundaries over the years -- ....everything from bluegrass to death metal,'' he said. The building owners want to double the rent. They inherited the club's lease with their purchase and, understandably, want more revenue from their investment. Still, it's not hard to imagine what kind of business will end up in the room, given the way North Beach is these days. ....But you can only have so many strip clubs and fancy restaurants in the neighborhood,'' Rootenberg said. The whole neighborhood has gone to hell as far as nightlife goes anyway. North Beach used to be one of the nightlife capitals of the world, right up there with Greenwich Village in New York and the Soho district in London. Lenny Bruce used to work Cocodrie when it was called the Off Broadway, while around the corner at the Jazz Workshop Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk played. Ike and Tina Turner recorded a live album at Basin Street West, and the hungry i was known throughout the world because of the live album recorded there by the Kingston Trio. It was a happy melting pot of Chinese and Italian restaurants, topless bars and jazz clubs, beatniks and bohos, socialites and debutantes.
Not long ago club-hoppers could walk across the street from the Stone, where everybody from Muddy Waters to Metallica played, and catch a late show at the Mabuhay Gardens, S.F.'s premiere punk emporium, which hosted a subculture all its own. There were smaller clubs along every block featuring everything from punk, folk, jazz, blues and drunken poets any night of the week. The restaurants and bars in between were filled with the bohemian glitterati. The whole neighborhood was an arts and entertainment ghetto. Now it's hard to find a decent plate of pasta. Cocodrie videos I found on a few years ago on Youtube (but haven't watched yet):
Bomb:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qac9CINgQMU
Caradura:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRYfWYBqANs
Deli Creeps/Buckethead:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdlbQvkKRFA
Drunken Anti Christ:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SC5QtyIM3NE
Floater:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq7StWrzrfM
Jon Hammond & Bernard Purdie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oSk9gXkF2c
MIRV:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WW5NIJcis6o
One King Down + Stretch Armstrong:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjQ0McqQDhA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gEL_uRF4ZE
Upyraz:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCVKSfSlQfY
Youth Gone Wild:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFL4L8IFtkA
Some (not all) of the more well-known signed bands and artists that played Cocodrie:
Ataris
Stroke 9
Oleander
Royal Trux
Phantom Planet
Ozomatli
Yonder Mountain String Band
Papa Roach
Incubus
Dropkick Murphys
Flogging Molly
Dave Davies (Kinks)
Frosted (Jane from Go-Gos)
Colin Hay (Men at Work)
Hugh Cornwell (Stranglers)
Wayne Kramer (MC5)
Keller Williams
Mojo Nixon
Big Brother & the Holding Co. English Beat
Zigaboo Modeliste (Meters)
John Easdale (Dramarama)
Queers
Fifteen
Dillinger Four
Gilby Clarke (Guns N' Roses)
Eve 6
Pastilla
Static X
Superjesus
Fu Manchu
Young Dubliners
Six Feet Under
Immolation
Lizzy Borden
Anvil
Mustard Plug
Machine Head
Dwarves
U.S. Bombs
Bouncing Souls
Pulley
Unwritten Law
Possum Dixon
Guttermouth
Sloppy Seconds
Hatebreed
Lagwagon
Good Riddance
Today is the Day
Soilent Green
Ignite
Elliott
Real Kids
7 Seconds
SNFU
Mike Keneally
Backyard Babies
Supersuckers
Chelsea
Enuff Z'Nuff
Agent Orange
Fear
Untouchables
Ruins
MIRV
Chokebore
Caustic Resin
D.O.A. Dee Dee Ramone (Ramones)
Gary Hoey
Discount
J Church
Hoods
Goatsnake
Wesley Willis
Rico Bell (Mekons)
Dillinger Escape Plan
Pollen
Ziggens
D.R.I. Special Goodness (Patrick from Weezer)
Tea Leaf Green
Juliana Theory
Distillers
