friday night at the cave

on friday night, we went to la cave. la cave is a steakhouse and bar that has live music every night of the seven day week. It is appropriately named; only after you walk down a short flight of stairs of wine red carpet (at least that’s how I remember it) is the cave seen in its entirety. the concept is kind of like “cheers” in hell. of course, that isn’t an appropriate description at all so let’s picture this: here’s a classy steak house that offers only the best cuts and fresh seafood, now look at that fancy restaurant under the dark red neon lights of vegas. all the lights in the house are red, creating an effect that says yes, I must certainly be in a restaurant built in a cave. something about the red lights imply sleaze, but perhaps that is an unfair attribution. either way, the place has an undeniable charm and sense of character. we sat ourselves in the corner booth opposite the stage and the bar. we were told that la cave would be a great place to chat and catch up while treated to the magic of live jazz. apparently, live jazz night is wednesday.

 

instead of thelonious monk inspired jazz men, we saw two skinny sid vicious worshipping dudes. the singer of the group had spikey black hair and an all black ensemble, save for his two overlapping studded white belts that hung loosely over his skin tight jeans. the set list was a pleasant surprise of cover songs ranging from ‘born to be wild,’ to ‘ziggy stardust,’ and even ‘your song.’ the dudes were pretty entertaining. at first I was rattled by their faithful following of the rock and roll play book. the writhing guitar solos on the ground, the indulgent 8 minute renditions of ‘satisfaction,’ and my personal favorite, the shirt coming off in the middle of the set (meaning after the second song, he performed shirtless). these guys are really cheesy I thought, but then I also thought, ‘hey this is kind of awesome.’ you don’t see this kind of rock and roll idolatry anymore in this day and age. it was like watching rock cliches unfolding in front of me, but with a certain earnestness and that, I can appreciate. someone in the bar cried out, ‘moby dick! moby dick!’ and without a word of affirmation, the skinny dude busted into his version of ‘moby dick.’ and come on, he took his shirt off like he planned it. is this a parody? nay, this is real. that sort of thing transcends criticism and deserves applause. bravo, dudes.

 

all in all, the cave was a lot of fun and I would like to go there again sometime. as for the young cats playing them classic rock covers, godspeed.

approximately 10 minutes into the set

rajiv: best friday night ever!