Goodnight Gracie

Over the past few weeks, I have been hearing about this great cover band that plays classic rock and blues music every Wed and Thurs at this club in Ann Arbor called "Goodnight Gracie". Last Thursday I was able to go check them out. I went with my roommate Shannon, our friend Chris who goes to watch them every time they play, and a few other friends showed up later on that night.

Gracie's (as we call it) was a cute little bar, very small, in the basement of a popular b-school spot called Live at PJs. Incidentally, they make great martinis! :-) The band consists of three guys, and I don't know their name (if they have one), but the lead singer is Laith. They are awesome. When you first see Laith, he is not the best looking man in the world. As Chris said, he looks like he could be the librarian that works in the stacks. But inevitably, as I find happens with almost any guy, as he started to sing he magically got better looking! (Ladies, are you with me on this?) He often went off on great guitar solos and Shannon told me that one other night the drummer had some 7 minute incredible solo. They started off the night with some Jimi Hendrix, and later on played Rolling Stones' "Beast of Burden" and some Buddy Holly at our request.

So yeah, the band was great. But I think the best part of the evening was seeing the townies dance. It was a pretty heavy townie feel, which is quite unusual in Ann Arbor. There was this group of about 6 middle aged townies who were busting a move on the dance floor. It was hilarious. And please don't misunderstand me -- I'm not knocking middle aged people's dancing skills. These particular people were just characters and had hilarious dance moves (and hopefully you'll understand once I describe them).

First, we got intrigued by a soap opera-esque story unfolding on the dance floor. A man and a woman who looked very normal and probably in their late 40's got onto the dance floor together. We all assumed they were together since they looked like husband and wife. He was a pretty good dancer, but her only dance move was to hold her arms up in the air, half bent, and move them up and down. Plus, the kicker was that she was wearing a fanny pack. Yes, a fanny pack. Anyway, then a younger woman (probably early 40's) got onto the dance floor. She looked like she should be in a county-western bar...in the 1980's. Bleached blond permed hair, tight lowcut tanktop, and tight jeans. Anyway, she was a much better dancer than the other lady and started moving in on the guy. We were pretty shocked when the man started dancing with this "other woman" instead of his "wife"! I felt especially bad for her since I figured she had been dragged onto the dance floor for him since she obviously wasn't a great dancer. Anyway, we were enjoying trying to figure this out and feeling indignation on the part of this poor woman, but we discovered that they weren't together after all. We never figured out their exact relationship, but it was clear that they were not married.

Flash forward to later on that night...Fanny pack lady (who looks like she just wandered out of suburbia with a polo shirt, ankle-length khakis, and white keds) was doing her one dance move (at the same pace no matter how fast the song was) with a new dance partner...a tall hispanic man with corkscrew curly hair about chin length, gold earring, tight jeans, huge silver belt buckle, and cowboy boots, and a great smile plastered on his face. He was salsa-ing like there was no tomorrow, bending down to touch the floor, and hopping back up, kicking his leg out. The two of them made such an unlikely dance pairing - it was hilarious. At least he got her to loosen up a bit - she actually bent her knees at one point.

Then you had 1980's woman dancing with a new man...short spiky gray hair, football t-shirt tucked into tight jeans, and a silver chain hanging around his neck. He was also having the time of his life. First thrusting his hips forward into the air, then trying to imitate Mr. Salsa and doing his own salsa version.

Finally, there was this younger guy (probably early 30's) dancing by himself, cavorting around in some very random dance moves.

Like I said, hilarious! We all sat there for a lot of the night, watching these people dance and having fun.

Here is a clip of the band from a different night (got it from my friend Chris):