Beginning March 14, the Capital Complex will rebrand as The Cap. Situated on Queen Street, the location’s bar and stages have been staples of the Fredericton music scene for more than 20 years.
Owner Zach Atkinson said the Fredericton establishment is built on supporting the local music and creative scene. He wanted to expand the ways people could interact with the live music venue.
Highlighted in the change is the inclusion of a mobile record shop. Multiple record shelves double as bar countertops, ready to be quickly wheeled out. Atkinson said he hopes the record shop will allow the space to be used more often.
He believes that having copies of the albums for sale will be good exposure for local bands, and help promote other musicians stopping through Fredericton.
“90 per cent of our business is the live music sector, so we are trying to think of a way where we can continue to support the local music, and the whole Canadian sector really.”
The shop will sell new and used records. During the day, the space will be a calm setting for people to listen, hang out and buy records and concert tickets.
“We’ve built everything to move … Nothing really leaves the space, it just gets re-purposed. We can turn the room around in ten minutes,” said Atkinson.
Paired with the re-branding of the space, The Cap will also be launching its own brand of small-batch craft beer, only sold on-site.
Brewed in collaboration with Graystone Brewing, the Collaborate & Listen Citra Pale Ale launched March 6.
With several local sit-in shops closing their doors in Fredericton, Atkinson is confident the changes will be well received, and that they could bring in new customers as well.
“The big thing is we’ve always been a nighttime business, the kind that opens at 4 p.m. in the summer and later in the winter. We wanted to give an opportunity to use our space more often, and something that reflected what our business was.”
