I often feel older than my years when I attend major nightlife events. It was 11:15 last night at Moonfest on downtown Clematis Street, where my girlfriend and I had been wandering for about an hour and a half. The emcee took the microphone at the outdoor stage and, before announcing the next act, which was Band in Heaven, he mentioned that not only does the event run until at least 2 a.m., but there will be after-parties at the clubs, like Roxy’s, Respectable Street and the Lounge. And that’s where the real crazy stuff goes down.
Crazy stuff? No thanks. One drink and I’m as sloshed as I ever want to be. Besides, I begin to get sleepy before 1 a.m., and I’ll need a shower, and I want to catch at least some of that interesting documentary on the history of Halloween on the History Channel, and we have a dog to let out…
You get the idea. I’ve never been a nightlife kind of a person, but I love live music, and Moonfest usually has a solid lineup. I didn’t stay till the wee hours of the morning, so I missed the exciting headlining act A Place to Bury Strangers. Truth be told, I didn’t see much of anything. The street was so claustrophobically clogged with demons, witches, skeletons, pirates, Leatherfaces, Chilean miners, Na’avi refugees, convicts (my perennially popular costume of choice), slutty nurses, slutty police officers, slutty devils and slutty bumblebees that it was a chore even to find the stage. It was busier, even at the early hour of 10, than I’d ever seen Clematis.
What we did manage in our brief time at Moonfest was to eat dinner atO’Shea’s, which was surprisingly pleasant, quick, delicious and uncluttered: a great experience, give or take the overloud cover band butchering Van Morrison. So too was the Lounge, the small club a couple of doors down, which was an intimately lit, comfortable little oasis of dance-pop – with no cover to get in.
I can’t say the same for Respectable Street. It’s been my favorite downtown spot forever, a long-held truism I’m beginning to abandon. Just like it did during the last New Year’s Eve block party on Clematis, Respectable’s charged a $10 per-person cover. And to see what? The employee outside couldn’t even tell me any bands that were playing inside. This is West Palm Beach, not New York. They should be ashamed of themselves, and I hope their business suffered last night because of it.
