Jan 102009
I’ve been bowling twice in the last month, which is a lot for me. I usually bowl once every couple of years, usually during a kid’s birthday party. The second time I was bowling I recalled a rock ‘n bowl club and alley that I’d heard of or walked by in some city years ago. Then I recalled an even funnier combo club, Sudsy Malone’s Rock ‘n Roll Laundry & Bar, in Cincinnati. Does anyone remember that place? We once played down the street from Sudsy Malone’s. I regret never playing there. I regret never seeing a show in either a bowling alley or a laundry. Have you? Have you attended or played shows in any other weird combo clubs? I’m thinking a rock ‘n barber shop would be cool. Any other combo clubs that need to be investigated?
i saw a show in a smoke shop in Olde City, Philadelphia in 1994. It was not good. The Smoke shop was called Old Hickory and the place was cool and the music was cool, but the combo did not rock.
a restaurant, movie theater, rock club could be cool if it were curated/booked properly.
I forgot about that smoke shop/rock club! Good one.
What about the show we did in Abe’s Steaks in West Philly.
There is a place called Ethyl’s in Atlanta which is in the Andretti’s Speed Lab (not THAT kinda speed, it’s a race track) and they also have a rock climbing wall , but it’s a reall deal rock club http://www.andrettikarting.com/
In Minneapolis we have a bowling alley that has a little theatre connected to it. It’s called Bryant Lake Bowl. Years ago I was thrilled to see The Orange Peels perform there. They were in Mpls recording and decided to put on a show. The highlight of the show for me was Alan Clapp singing “Day by Day” solo and while he played the drums. Odd as that might sound it was a very cool moment.
The place in New Orleans (Mid-City Lanes) actually trademarked the phrase Rock ‘n’ Bowl:
http://www.rockandbowl.com/trademarkPAGE/trademark2.html
There are some photos there too. I only went there twice, and it’s been maybe ten years, but it was where I heard Beau Jocque play zydeco one night, which I’ve often described as the greatest musical experience I’ve ever had. I can tell you that the acoustics in a bowling alley are horrible, not that it mattered that night.
Rock ‘n’ Library perhaps?
I remember Sudsy’s (never played there but it was across the street from the bigger place we played in Cincinnati) and of course Abe’s Steaks in Philly.
I think we played a bowling alley in Lincoln Nebraska once…can’t remember the name of it but it was on the circuit back then.
I suppose the Quonset hut known as “Sound Seas” in the middle of a pig farm in El Paso counts? One outlet – an extension cord from the nearby farmhouse and one mic. NOFX played with us…good times, good times….