RTP-area local music and culture

[grady <grady AT ibiblio.org>]

Hepler sed:

> I prefer the idea that the bar be smoking and the
> music room be non smoking.  That way at least you
> don't have 40 people out front smoking while a band is
> playing.  And that way inclement weather won't have an
> effect on smokers.  On one hand, non smokers have no
> reason to care if smokers have to go out in the rain.
> On the other hand, you'd have 20 people huddled under
> the awning in front of your door, making it hazardous
> if there's a need for evacuation, smoky for people
> trying to get in/out of the bar, and generally
> crowded.

Smoke, like water, finds its own level. It's not going to restrict 
itself to the bubble of air around the bar, not unless Glenn installs a 
physical door between the music room and the barroom, which I don't 
think anybody would recommend as a viable option. (The separation does 
seem to work OK at the Cave, but that's a very different space, with an 
8-foot tunnel between the two rooms, and in any case I rarely stray far 
from the front corner of the bar, so it may get smokier back towards the 
bathroom area & I wouldn't know.)

As far as people out front smoking while the band is playing, once 
you're in the front room by the bar, you're not really watching the band 
anyway. And I guess I would suggest that at nonsmoking venues, people 
seem to manage that horrible choice between smoking & watching the band 
they paid to see pretty readily.

And while yes, the "smokers gauntlet" one might have to run at the door 
sounds unsavory, it's far far far preferable to running the same 
gauntlet inside while getting a drink at the bar or going to the 
bathroom, or whatever.

>  Otherwise, I would recommend just
> going with a no smoking policy for a month or two and
> see how it affects things.

I agree, although I'd say that you'd have to be willing to (a) give it 
at least 4 months, and (b) aggressively promote the change in policy. 
Remember how long it took for a lotta people to get over their 
long-ingrained mistrust of Local 506 when Glenn took over? I had so many 
conversations where I'd be talking about how cool it was that Local 506 
was under new management by somebody who really wanted to book the full 
range of local bands, and I'd be met with this "ewwww, Local 506 is 
sketchy, I'm not going there" reaction, as though somehow the physical 
space itself was tainted. Near as I can tell that has abated somewhat 
(although I think it may have been replaced by "well, OK, it's not 
sketchy anymore, but fuck it sure is smoky").

The Local 506 is sort of sitting on the fulcrum point of this issue 
right now. The Cradle and the Cave are over on the nonsmoking side, and 
the Wetlands I guess is on the smoking side, although that Orthrelm show 
was nonsmoking, IIRC, and nobody seemed to mind or even notice. 
Nightlight can get awful when a bunch of kids are in there smoking, but 
half the time the smokers seem to voluntarily take it outside, and much 
like Wetlands I'm not quite sure what the official policy is (I mean, 
the old Skylight policy used to be "thanks for not smoking too much" but 
I think they went nonsmoking during the day a while ago, didn't they?). 
I suppose now that Reservoir is booking shows a few times a month they 
should be factored in, and I can only assume they're heavily on the 
"smoking" side of things.

Can somebody please clarify for/on behalf of those venues, if possible?

But so far as I can tell, neither the Cradle nor the Cave has really 
suffered from their policy changes, and I guess I'm suggesting that if 
Local 506 were to go nonsmoking, they'd tip the balance to the 
nonsmoking end of things, such that it would essentially become the norm 
in Chapel Hill/Carrboro that the majority of rockshows are nonsmoking 
(since those 3 venues host the majority of rockshows in the area). And 
once it became apparent that most shows are nonsmoking, acceptance of 
that fact among smokers would be easier to achieve.

Particularly since, near as I can tell, roughly half of the people 
smoking at rockshows aren't the full-bore daily addicts, but rather that 
particularly pernicious subgroup of amateur/social smokers, who say "oh, 
I only smoke when I'm drinking," or whatever. One would assume that 
they'd be even less resistant to giving up the smokes at the rockshows.

I suppose I'd like to point out briefly that I'm not proposing a blanket 
smoking ban for bars, or whatever. I personally can't get within about 
15 feet of the OCSC due to the dense cloud of smoke therein, but the 
thing about regular bars is that one can pretty easily find another bar 
(like, say, Milltown) that serves alcohol & has a comfortable 
environment for socializing, and is nonsmoking. Rockclubs are fewer & 
further between, and this area isn't so big or densely populated yet as 
to support bands playing 2 shows when they come through, one at the 
nonsmoking venue & one at the smoking venue.

Ross