Three songs a bar can play to make me bolt immediately.
“Fields of Gold,” Sting.
“In Your Eyes,” Peter Gabriel.
“November Rain,” Guns N’ Roses.
At the Public House last week, with friends Scott and Wenz, the spacious LoDo establishment played them all. In a row. And this came after listening to entire Dave Matthews and Coldplay records.
Later somebody had the gall to throw down that ridiculous “I Knew I Loved You” song by Savage Garden, a track so preposterous I get angry at the hint of the opening strains and the dumb chorus: “I knew I loved you before I met you/I think I dreamed you into life.”
Um, gag me with a pouring spoon – that’s the one near the tap that minimizes foam.
It’s too easy to rip a bar for its music. But a more legitimate gripe came early in the happy hour when Wenz and I met Scott at a bar table.
“Do you have any drink specials?” Wenz asked the barkeep. “No,” he replied immediately. Keep in mind that it’s 5:30 p.m. on a Monday. Some people call it happy hour. But not the folks at the Public House.
One glance around and you definitely wouldn’t call the place happy. We were the only people here. And it stayed that way for a good two hours, after which a couple of wandering souls in button-down shirts settled at the bar. But the lack of people mattered not. Over Scott and Wenz’s pints and my Bushmills, we got silly and talked about the soundtrack to our lives, in particular, our senior proms.
Wenz’s was, not surprisingly, “In Your Eyes,” and you could see the shine in his eye as he talked about how much he loathes that song. “Mine was that Eve 6 song,” Scott said, “You know, ‘Here’s to the Night.”‘ Painful, tragic. I didn’t remember my senior prom’s song, but I did remember the theme/song to our senior yearbook: “More Than Words.”
Wenz broke into song, falsetto even. “Tesla, right?” he asked of the Extreme song. And we laughed.
Staff writer Ricardo Baca can be reached at 303-954-1394 or rbaca@denverpost.com.
| Public House
1920 Blake St.; 303-295-0800
Funky: The bar and its wide- open layout are ideal for big gatherings, going-away parties, etc.
Skunky: Enjoy happy hour elsewhere, which most people seem to do anyways.
