The Cameron Village Subway (no, not the sandwich place)

Once upon a time, there was a...well, not really magical, place, 'cause in a lot of ways it sucked, but it had it's moments...anyway, this semi-magical land was called the Triangle.  What made it even a little magical was that even though the land was filled with politicians, businesses and money-grubbing yuppies, there was some magnificent music being played somewhere in the area almost every night.  There was the old Cat's Cradle (on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill), The Brewery on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh (where Corrosion of Conformity got their start) and others, but the coolest place in the entire area was the Cameron Village Subway.  Originally modeled on Underground Atlanta, it was supposed to consist of shops, restaurants and bars catering to young professionals.  From the beginning, the Subway was a music mecca.  The first place to bring in the crowds was The Frog and Nightgown, a jazz and folk club that opened when the Subway did in the early 70's.  Thelonius Monk played a ten day stand there once.  Dizzy Gillespie also showed up for a gig.  The Frog was the only place between D.C. and Atlanta that booked jazz acts.  After a while, the shops realized there wasn't enough daytime foot traffic to stay open and, one by one, closed.  In their place, clubs and bars like The Pier, The Bear's Den and Cafe Deja Vu opened.  In one of those weird confluences, an budding indie music scene took wing about the same time.  For a few years, you could hear live, original music all over the place.  R.E.M. played The Pier before they hit the big time.  The Connells were hometown boys and pulled in crowds wherever they played.  There were even some album compilations celebrating the scene.  Mondo Montage I and II and Return to Comboland.  Bands like Arrogance, Glass Moon, The Fabulous Knobs (my personal favorite) and others were featured on the records and in the clubs and it was great! 

Now, there's almost nothing left of those happy days.  The Brewery and the Cradle are still around.  Both are still pretty much the same, even if the Cradle did move to larger digs in Carrboro.  The best part about the move is they remodeled the inside of the new space to be just as much a hole as the old one was.  They even tried to make it look as much the same as possible.  The Brewery is going on 30 years old and,with a few minor cosmetic changes, looks the same as it did when I used to hang out there in 1982.  It was a dump then and it's a dump now.  But, looks were never what it was about.  Good music was.  If it wasn't for The Brewery, CoC may not be around these days.  Back when they were just starting out as fledging punk band, a lot of their fans were below drinking age.  The band talked the owners into having some shows during the day on Saturday and Sunday (sans alcohol) so these kids could see them.  It snowballed from there and now CoC is a nationally known heavy metal band.  But, aside from these two icons, there's not much left.  Maybe some bars that have bands on the weekend, but they're cover bands, with a few exceptions like Terry Anderson's OAKteam (remnants of the Woods and the Knobs).  It's kind of sad, really.  But, for a little while, it was rockin'.