Playing a new game

For several years, if you followed a scantily clad girl or a boy with a popped collar, chances are you would end up at Players. Operations manager Nick Stroud is aiming to change that perception — at least partially.

Players, the East Franklin dance club that’s been a staple among UNC students for years, changed ownership this summer, and under the new guidance of Stroud, the club will host live music. With a lineup of shows that includes Jupiter One, Warpaint and Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson, the Players that gained notoriety for its line of patrons stretching down the street might soon be receiving  attention for something entirely different.

Players reopened in July with its first live concert in 19 years after changing ownership.  Hammer No More The Fingers played there for The Club is Open Festival, the first band since Hootie & the Blowfish to do so. Since then, the club has had about one show a week. And though bands are becoming an important part of Players, Stroud is quick to point out that the club will also retain its dance elements.

“That’s still our bread and butter,” he said. “Shows are always from 8 to 12, and the bands are done at 12, and we’re a dance club again.”

Stroud, who took over operations of the venue this summer, has already seen the benefits of the timed system.

“That’s worked out really well, because you get that cross-traffic. There were people at first who were like, ‘Live music, what’s up with that?’ And now they come in and they catch an act and they’re like ‘That was awesome!’ And they dance and come back,” he said.

The Club is Open Festival allowed musicians such as Betsy Shane of Pink Flag to test out the venue.

“It turned into a booty-dance club again after we were all done packing up,” she said, adding that she still sees potential in Players.

“Having a kind of crossover place like that could be really good, because it could get people exposed to something they’re not used to seeing,” she said. “They’re going to be able to coast off the fact that it used to be the club to go to for pretty much anybody who goes to UNC-Chapel Hill.”

Though Players has hosted several successful shows, its financial viability in an area saturated with music venues could be cause for concern. With clubs such as Local 506 and Cat’s Cradle a few blocks away, Players will have to compete to attract audiences.

Glenn Boothe, owner of Local 506, explained that operating a venue in Chapel Hill’s music scene comes with a unique set challenges and rewards. “It’s a smaller town, but the quantity of music that we have rivals some of the bigger towns,” he said. “Really that becomes an issue in the sense that there are so many options for a person going out that it does become the venues competing when they’re booking similar bands.”

In the face of this problem, Boothe advised booking genres that are largely ignored at other clubs. “I think the venue has to be distinct from the other venues in town. There are definitely some niches that are overlooked. Another venue that’s going to book local bands and more in the indie rock vein — it’ll be tougher on everybody.”

Though Players’ presence has caused concern in the local music scene, Stroud is striving to differentiate the club from other venues.

“I don’t want to lose the novelty,” he said. “I don’t want to book bands that are at other venues. The local bands, I have to book them, and I want to book them to open up for these bands that are on good indie labels.

“It’s not my goal to unhealthily compete with those venues. I mean, they were here before we started doing live music. It’s just another angle.”

And Players, an East Franklin bar that doesn’t subsist solely on music, comes with a different set of difficulties based on its location and size. “You definitely have to think more about crowd appeal. You can’t really book a band because you like the way they sound,” he said. “This isn’t a place that survives on live music six nights a week.”

For now, Stroud, who put in the club’s sound system himself, is attempting to learn the ins and outs of managing a club that offers both a club and concert atmosphere.

“I’ve been doing the sound. I’ve been behind the board or running around doing lights or whatever needs to be done, so I’ve yet to enjoy a live performance,” he said. “But I definitely look over there and see them dancing and see them singing, and that’s all that matters.”

And though bringing live music to the East Franklin environment will be difficult, it’s a challenge that Stroud embraces. “I know that it’s hard and I know that it’s different crowds, but juggling is something that I’m good at,” he said. “The street’s just so homogenized. It’s the same drink specials. It’s the same deals, and everyone plays rap music, and everybody has beer pong. I wish that every bar had something special about it, some kind of niche.

“I want Players to be the place where you can get a little bit of everything. I want to expose kids to some culture besides what they’re used to.”



Contact the Diversions Editor at dive@unc.edu.