June 9, 2005

We arrived last week to find the doors to the Lucky Lounge closed--a dismaying sight. We made do with the Cedar Street Courtyard, an open-air, below-street-level bar in between Saba and Malaga, the same dimensions as those long, narrow buildings--and like the Lucky Lounge, too--but with no roof and a few trees growing from the floor.
As it turned out, the Bump Band was taking a night off. We left a song or two early on our anniversary, so maybe we missed the announcement. At any rate, they were back last night, and we were there.
Don was late getting home, so we didn't even leave the house until 6, arriving soon after 6:30. The place wasn't overly full so we got a good spot half-way down the high side of the bar. We were fortunate to hear several songs before they took their break.
As we were in between smokers at the bar, we decided to step away during the break. Don had noticed the stairs at the back, which appeared to connect to some sort of balcony, so we explored.
To our surprise we found almost more level space than they have downstairs, all furnished with many chairs, several couches, and some tables. There was even a small, free-standing, fake fireplace with a red light under some fake firewood. Possibly this is the "lounge" of Lucky Lounge.
One other person sat up there. It's not possible to see the stage from any of the chairs, but one could see standing at the front railing. We didn't stay up there for the second set, though, but just sat out the break. While we were there, the one person there left, and two others came up and looked, then left--one of them Mark Andes.
A nice find, the balcony.
During the second set, they did what Mac said was a Jon Dee Graham song. It hadn't the simple power of their usual playlist, and Mac added afterward, "Not bad for the first time."