#15 The Art Bar. Where everybody knows your name. Well, not really.
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There are certain songs that bring back a time and a place, a memory (or memories) of an era in my life. Without a doubt, one of those places I recall with much fondness is what used to be my weekly oasis when I lived in Columbia, the Art Bar. I've posted about this place before, but seriously I could post time and time again and it wouldn't be enough. This place was not only my introduction to "clubbing" (although it wasn't a club at all, really), it introduce me to some great music over the years.
It still exists. You can check it out at http://www.artbarsc.com/. But the players that made it such a great time in my life have log since moved on and out. Every week, on Friday and Saturday, I would eventually get in my vehicle and make my way to downtown Columbia. This place was unique. It was more a combination bar and hang out spot that just happened to have a dance floor in it. There was never a cover charge to get in, and once in you had three rooms to choose from. The main bar was always crowded and loud. There were a handful of TVs to watch, but unless there was an important game on we rarely did so.
Off to the side, there was a room full of couches and chairs. A smaller bar lined the back wall, and the room was decorated in mid-80s robot toys. That sounds wierd to say, but there they were, these four-foot tall robots hanging around, watching you with a mild sneer as you tried to pick up some drunk person sitting on the couch next to you. Or was that just my paranoia meshing with my fear of rejection?
In the back was the dance floor. Walls that had been graffitied on time and time again, liquid, moving lights a la Pink Floy 1968 shining on the back. Loud, booming music and haze of smoke (which got better as more ventilation equipment came in). The floor was always full by midnight, and would stay so until closing, which on Fridays was usually around 4:00.
What made this place great, though, was the mix. The people ranged from college frat boys, goth, punks, and metal heads, older people who would dress up for a night on the town (you could usually spot a tux or two throughout the night). Gay, straight, it didn't matter. No one cared. And the music matched the crowd. On any given night you would hear Prodigy, Chemial Brothers, Sousxie and the Banshees, Kool and the Gang, James Brown, Nine Inch Nails, ABBA, Gary Numan, Dee-Lite, Depeche Mode, the Crystal Method, Ru Paul, The Shamen, Dextry's Midnight Runners, etc etc. Really, just about anything. Towards the end of my run there they experimented with bringing in a dj, which didn't go over so well, but other than that it was just two barteners who served drinks quickly, while at the same time switching out the cds.
Every week we went, and along the way a lot of us became a sort of weekend family. We will still talk and stay in touch, to varying degrees. The bartenders knew us, knew what we drank (which, as you know, is always a plus).
So when I got this song the other day I was immediately taken back, and felt like sharing thoughts of my old family with my new one. Anyone out there have a place like this?
Comments (18)
Cannon's, Ninth and Liberty in Allentown. I usually sat at the corner of Sarcasm.
I drank Guinness until money got low then I switched to 'Lord Chet'.
It closed forever on my birthday a few years ago. That was the one missed bar stop I regret the most.
at the corner of Sarcasm . . .
Is that a literal part of the bar? Or a metaphor?
A little of both.
I love how music connects you to memories, thats what makes all your old vinyl so dam valuble, thanks
That music mix sounds like my kind of place. In 82 inHollywood, The Fake Club served exactly the same musical menu, with a bar that prided themselves on mixing drinks that were 90% alcohol and 10% thinking about a mixer. Great times.
Dean, I agree!
Jonh, sadly we did not have quite the same alcohoic mix going on, but it was still flowing fast.
So here I am reading your post about this great watering hole in Columbia and I am envisioning this exotic backwater oasis in South America! I had you pegged as an undercover narcotics investigator looking to subvert the drug cartels. The short bartender with the ponytail and the slight limp was a fellow operative and would water down your drinks. You would then feign intoxication and attempt to ingratiate yourself with the two Medieros brothers in the corner who were in charge of local drug lords fleet of off road vehicles. This would go on for several months until you at last gained their trust and were allowed to go on a "run".
Eventually, you got to know every back woods road, trail and path and could draw a detailed map of the area from memory. This knowledge was both valuable and dangerous and would eventually prove to be your salvation.
So perhaps in future posts, you could fill us in on the rest of the story. I'm anxious to hear how you got out in one piece. I'm sure music had something to do with it!
Before I left Greece, I was steadily haunting my favourite bar in the entire city, called Lucky Luke. It has been operating for 30 years now. It operates (is that the right verb?) after 23:00 till 8 in the morning. It's a small place, decorated with wood, album covers and vinyls. The door to the men's WC has a sketch of Mark Lanegan on it, and the one to the ladies' WC one of Bjork's. It's small and cozy and charmingly decadent and plays the best music in the city. From Joy Division, Smiths, Depeche Mode, Sex Pistols, Ramones and Clash, to the Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand, White Stripes, Klaxons and Interpol. Everybody knows everybody, and the only safe drink you can order is beer. It's one of the things I dearly miss from home.
In my mind it's connected to many songs, but mostly to The Maccabees' First Love:
that is a solid place there. i feel very welcome at a bar that knows my name, and my drink, even better!
in this town, Matt Murphy's is my 2nd home. very tiny bar with large rabbit paintings overlooking the party. free music 7 days a week, never a cover, locals in a college town and plenty of dank beers on tap. ah yes. Sunday's is a reggae and dub night, great to wind up before the week starts. thursday is a jazz night with open mic in the 2nd set to sit in with an instrument and play with the band. it is excellent! C-Money from John Brown's Body, the Slip, and others though I am not up to date on the larger acts that have cut their newborn teeth there, it has a respectable history of musicians.
sounds like a great place
A few, but not for a long time. The last and favoritist was the Columbus Agora, an old, ornate theatre from the 30's right across High Street from OSU. I started going there my first week as a freshman, and by the end of senior year was one of a half dozen "managers". Concerts every weekend, the first computerized bar in the area - that reduced bartending to a rather mindless activity, which of course left more time for socializing. The place embodies my brightest to darkest moments of college memories. that's enough for now...
I found a similar cd like you did a few years back. Was in the dollar bin and decided to give it a spin just because of the price tag. Like you I was happy with my purchase, nothing beats it
It's the finds like that that make it worth the trip for me.
as for this post, depeche mode always has held a special spot in my heart. Not sure what it is about the band but it makes me think back to a time when I had no real responsibilities and life was easy. Not that I would give up my life now, but every time I hear them it makes me smile
Depeche Mode was the band that sort of introduced me to what was then considered "alternative" music. I had never heard it on the radio, but a friend recommended Violator to me, and I realized that there was great music being made RIGHT THEN that I would never hear if I let the radio and music charts dictate what I listened to.
The Pink Cadillac was a wonderful little all-ages club in the artsy neighborhood of Tucson. When I attended the U of A as a freshman, I scrimped and saved (and occasionally donated plasma) in order to save up for the cover charge so I could go and dance myself silly to Depeche Mode, The Smiths, and other late-80's cutting-edge music. It was my introduction to clubbing and industrial music in one.
The only place remotely like that for me was "Mama Mia's" a pizza bar close to the university on University Ave. in Hawaii. The best place for a pitcher of cheap beer and a fat slice of cheese pizza....we really couldn't afford much more. I think the pizza tasted better for it.
great post, Chuck, and i so love the "weekend family" idea. for me it was a place called Bistro 110 in the mid to late '90s. great music, great food, great crowd. some nights, there was a DJ, others, a live gig, still others, just music and talk. eventually we regulars knew each other by face, i knew the DJ and a few of us co-DJ'ed sometimes, and we eventually got to know the crew, some performers, and the owner as well.