Had time for a quick Juke yesterday before open-mic
The bar: The Patriot Pub on Chambers between Church and Broadway
The Scene(s): The Pub is a 2 in 1 the up stairs has a separate bar, with a different tender and a different juke. Both scenes basically the same as clientèle freely wander from upstairs to down generally settling where they prefer the bartender. In the afternoon it was less than half full of a strange TriBeCa mix of depressing old barflies, business men and young dart throwers. The bartenders are scantily clad busty ladies, who try to live up to the sign outside soliciting for "shameless slut bartenders," to inquire within. Conversations were at a minimal level, leaving men to try to chat up the bartender who was only wearing a bra as a shirt. Upstairs the vibes were similar, in fact, there wasn't a single conversation that didn't revolve around the sexy, fast-drinking bartender, who had a shot with every guy sitting there.
The Space(s): The jukebox from downstairs could be heard softly, when the one upstairs ran out of money the bartender got upset with her patrons demanding that they feed it immediately. Strangely the jukeboxes were both positioned close to the stairs, encouraging leakage from bar to bar. The downstairs is open and has a pulsating clang from the video games and dart board that were getting good use. Upstairs was slightly more quiet, and smaller, but had background noise from a small kitchen that doled out sliders and other hastily assembled bar snacks.
The Juke(s): Disappointingly, despite exhibiting two jukeboxes of different models, the selection was identical downstairs and up. Mostly full of divey bar rock, with a lot of country and southern rock thrown in for good measure and an extra dose of Americana (a theme that lies mostly implicit to the bar's image). When I played Meatloaf's "Paradise By the Dashboard Light" with my other selection the bartender turned it down with her audio controller (most bartenders have hidden control of their Jukeboxes, that they generally only exersise when they need to make an announcement), and threatened to kill anyone who plays Meatloaf again. I slunk down, and was thankfully not indicated by anyone. When I played Jerry Jeff Walker's "Mr. Bojangles" downstairs the mood got somewhat somber and people moved their heads and mouthed along some of the words. The lack of conversations here made the music an important shaper of the bars energy.
The Songs: Downstairs was another notch for Charlie Daniels "Devil Went Down to Georgia." For an examination of this song see my review of "Doc Holiday's." Here the tune seemed to have more of a special reason for being most popular. Since being used in the film "Coyote Ugly," the song has inspired many young ladies to dance on bars when it comes on. Right when the opening fiddle started the bartender got excited and jumped on the bar and started to slowly hula hoop (complete with exaggerated hip motions) for everyones amusement. So there is a utility to chosing "Devil Went Down to Georgia" at least when she was working. Upstairs the most popular song was curiously different (given that you have the same selection and clientèle). Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" is one of classic rock's most famous songs, it has been used in commercials and movies and is one that most rock fans can recite from memory. When it played the bartender was excited to be relieved from "Meatloaf" and echoed Van Sandt's "Turn it up" after the first two bars of the unmistakable intro. While the bartender upstairs didn't dance on the bar, she did enjoy the song to the point of changing her temperment and starting to pour shots for herself and unsuspectinng patrons at a generous and alarming rate. On both floors it paid to play popular.
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