Fake Dives...

...in other words, suburbia. Eric loves LooAbbey, and I have to say, even with my disinclination for cover bands, they are exceptionally good. My decision to go enjoy their music is purely based on location though (assuming we're in town). I never cared for Carmel, Indiana, and Detour Grillis another notch in my dislike for the town. I'm thinking they went for an industrial / construction dive feel, but are apparently unaware that the authentic influence in a dive is what makes those places special. Newly built fake shady brick work with super clean fake warehouse garage door doesn't work. Servers who seem to have a goal of being hipsters (an oxymoron, I know), was a turnoff too. Also, the major special of adding Pucker to Grey Goose was offensive on every level...who would waste Grey Goose like that????

My biggest issue by far was that they clearly built a stage for bands, plopped the bar right nextto it and provided a tonne of sitting space on the other side of the bar. The only people who could actually see the band were the 20 people around the bar who would also get blown out of the water with sound so that the seating behind the bar could hear it. When the band had to deal with the challenge of sound management, people had the audacity to suggest that the band didn't know what they were doing. Hello! Look at the logistics!

My only resolution to this is to go downtown tonight for the authentic locale experience in Fountain Square. LooAbbey is still the best 80s cover in Indy as far as I can tell, but I'll wait until they go to a little more normal locations. Suburbia takes another major strike ... it just takes occasional reminders.