Veterans Square church to become performance venue

LACONIA — On Christmas Eve, when rock group Recycled Percussion opened the doors to the former church building in Veterans Square for a massive toy giveaway, people who came inside saw a clue of what the band’s founder plans to do with the building he acquired earlier this year.

Justin Spencer’s acquisition of the building at 12 Veterans Square was announced in May – about eight months after the band opened its Chaos and Kindness store on Union Avenue – but the NH native-turned Las Vegas showman wouldn’t say what his intentions were behind the purchase, recorded with the county as a $360,000 transaction.

Spencer revealed last week that he planned to use the space as a performance venue, titled “The CAKE Theater” – “CAKE” standing for “Chaos and Kindness Experience.”

“My vision’s always to help facilitate things for the community, build the community, at the same time, my personal belief is to do that by being bold,” Spencer said, adding that he planned to bring “Las Vegas” style to downtown. “We’re not (just) building a theater, we’re building an experience.”

The CAKE Theater will offer “world class” production quality, he said, which will rival theaters in Boston.

“I’m going to prove to everybody that you can build a Las Vegas-level venue and show in a town that is not known for that, and people are going to come,” Spencer said, adding that the crowds that come to the theater, capacity around 300, will also look for places to eat, drink and shop nearby.

The CAKE won’t be just for Recycled Percussion. Spencer said he wants to welcome budding talent, who might be playing their first gig outside of a bar. He also intends to draw acts that normally don’t stop in places like Laconia.

“It’s important for people who don’t know our story to understand that we come from a Las Vegas background,” Spencer said. “When it comes to opening a venue, we are opening the best of the best. We are going to make this venue so...cool that people are going to come from everywhere.”

When will The CAKE Theater host its first show? “Ask COVID,” Spencer replied, then said, “We are shooting for a mid-February opening.” Like the block party and fireworks show that announced the opening of the Chaos and Kindness store, Spencer said the first show will be an event outside of the kind typical to central New Hampshire. “We’re going to outdo ourselves with the opening of this venue.”

The CAKE might be the flashiest, but it won’t be the only place to see live performances in the city. Pitman’s Freight Room and the Granite State Music Hall already operate downtown. Tower Hill Tavern and The Big House draw late-night partiers and dancers to Weirs Beach. And, when renovations are complete for the Colonial Theater and Lakeport Opera House, Laconia will have more active stages than anywhere north of Concord.

The CAKE Theater building dates back to 1836, when it was built as a house of worship. It’s most recent holy purpose was as home to Evangelical Baptists, who vacated the property when the congregation moved to Lakeport. Restaurateurs bought the building in 2013, christened it “The Holy Grail of the Lakes Region,” and the eatery met its maker in 2017. The building had been vacant since.