Tuesday, July 06, 2004
Zydeco drunk
Lafayette may be the coolest town in Louisiana. About one fourth the size of Baton Rouge, it is 100 times more fun. Recently, some buddies and I went down to the heart of Cajun Country to catch some live music and get Zydeco drunk. As usual, we were late and only caught the end of the band we came to see: a guitar, tuba and drums trio called, appropriately, Drums and Tuba. What little we saw was actually quite good and, more importantly, we got a jump on the nights drinking before going to catch some country music at The Blue Moon Saloon, the coolest bar in the coolest town in Louisiana.
The Blue Moon is basically somebody's house with a dance floor, a bar and no bullshit attitude. On this night there was an old school country band playing and people dusted off their shit-kickers and did some bad ass drunken country dancing. I knew I liked the band when they started dusting off shots of Jack in the middle of their set.
The last stop of the night was Hamilton's nightclub where it is all Zydeco all the time. Being as segregated a state as Louisiana has been (and still is in a lot of ways) it was explained to me that Zydeco is essentially black Cajun music. The crowd at Hamilton's was very heavily black cowboy, with the hat, the shoes and the duds. It was one of the friendliest bars I have ever been too, so much so that I didn't even hate the Zydeco music that night.
A very unique feature of Hamilton's is the men's bathroom, or, I should say, the bathroom mirror. You see, in the bathroom the pisser is a trough urinal, which is weird enough; however, right above that trough urinal is a gigantic mirror. Unless you point your head straight up toward the ceiling there really is no getting around staring at your own dick and catching a glimpse of your neighbor. And, at a bar with Hamilton's clientele, it's a little depressing.
The Blue Moon is basically somebody's house with a dance floor, a bar and no bullshit attitude. On this night there was an old school country band playing and people dusted off their shit-kickers and did some bad ass drunken country dancing. I knew I liked the band when they started dusting off shots of Jack in the middle of their set.
The last stop of the night was Hamilton's nightclub where it is all Zydeco all the time. Being as segregated a state as Louisiana has been (and still is in a lot of ways) it was explained to me that Zydeco is essentially black Cajun music. The crowd at Hamilton's was very heavily black cowboy, with the hat, the shoes and the duds. It was one of the friendliest bars I have ever been too, so much so that I didn't even hate the Zydeco music that night.
A very unique feature of Hamilton's is the men's bathroom, or, I should say, the bathroom mirror. You see, in the bathroom the pisser is a trough urinal, which is weird enough; however, right above that trough urinal is a gigantic mirror. Unless you point your head straight up toward the ceiling there really is no getting around staring at your own dick and catching a glimpse of your neighbor. And, at a bar with Hamilton's clientele, it's a little depressing.
