[swingdjted]

See, even a band that really sucks occasionally sneaks into one of their lineups there, and the show is still somehow awesome, just because of where you are, who else is there, the fact that it's live, the fact that the performers are pouring themselves out onto the crowd, and the fact that you can still enjoy coming up with really odd and creative ways of saying the band sucks.

The ability to walk (or stagger as the case may be) to and from the University campus is important, and being near but slightly off the downtown "strip" of other businesses and clubs really helped. It was one of those things where you could tell someone, "hey, I know this place a little off the strip", and suddenly you've just introduced someone to a really amazing place that they'll never forget and never stop visiting.

There's something about local live music that even trumps the major concerts I've attended. Sometimes a weekend band will come up with some pretty unique shit. They'll find out a dude ran out of beer money so they auction off their old guitar strings to re-lace the highest bidder's shoes to raise the necessary money to keep the guy going. Then you get a guy that wears guitar string shoelaces that has a great story to tell. Other times they trade a t-shirt and a CD for a bra from one of the female fans, and fill tone hole in the clear bass drum head with the collected bras. Still other times a band will do a huge transformation of a song when covering it in a totally different but awe-inspiring cover. As a fan you can shout really off-the-wall comments/outbursts that generally get some pretty good reactions from everyone else in there. It's hard to explain. It's just a damn good time.

There's absolutely no way a "high-end burger" joint will come anywhere near what this place is. What a fucking disgrace.

I'll travel to wherever the place goes, yes, and so will those that also look back on decades of the legacy, but it's also important that it finds a place where it's equally discoverable and unique to the young that keep things new and ongoing there. I really wish it luck.