Thursday, Sep. 17, 2009
Block to the Future
While I don’t frequent the area at night too much anymore, the downtown Myrtle Beach section known as The Superblock – and more recently rechristened as 5 Points – holds a special place in my heart.
It’s where I got to know the other Myrtle Beach – the non-tourist geared nightlife, the places where true locals hung out.
One spot in particular was Alley Cats Bar & Grill where I would show up each Wednesday night for the infamous open mike jam.
It’s also the site where my future wife gave me her phone number for the first time. I still have the piece of paper it was scribbled on, a torn off portion of a flier.
And people often don’t believe me when I say I saw a performance by legendary drummer of The Band, Levon Helm, in November 2002 at the blues and jazz club known as Gypsy’s, one of the Superblock’s main hotspots.
Unfortunately, the word “defunct’’ is used to describe many of the businesses in this eclectic strip.
Yet, those boarded up doors and tape-crossed windows are being un-boarded and some hopeful entrepreneurs are banking on a burgeoning bohemian strip; even as we experience a recession.
There is a bit of an identity crisis as this little hub of businesses, cafes and nightlife spots doesn’t quite know what to call itself, but it seems 5 Points is now the preferred name.
In any event, with the recent re-opening of the former Gypsy’s site as Drink! which is also focusing on live music, and with The Basement at Crazy J’s seemingly taking over the flying of the flag for the beach’s original, underground rock scene, we wondered if things were starting to look up, especially at night, on the ol’ Superblock, er, I mean 5 Points. (That one is going to be a little hard for me to get used to, because I grew up in the Atlanta area which has a 5 Points downtown and a Little Five Points village I used to live near.)
So, we dispatched intrepid correspondent Paul Grimshaw to put some shoe leather on the ground and see what is happening in this downtown district.
He spent a few nights and afternoons canvassing the area, talking to business owners and patrons to find out why they choose to visit a block that requires you to “negotiate the mish-mash of intersecting cross streets, all at odd angles to one another, a hairpin dogleg turn in the middle of Kings Highway and two dead ends,” as he writes.
Is it a gritty urban oasis in the midst of a shiny tourist Mecca?
And what about crime? Is it a real concern or a perception problem?
Dead Doggy Style
I joked that I was a groupie.
But it was more like hanging out with the pros in the dugout during a baseball game.
There I was, back stage, but in full view because of the open air construction of the place, as local band after local band loaded in their gear and performed mostly-shortened sets at the eighth annual Sept. 11 benefit event at the Dead Dog Saloon in Murrells Inlet.
I have to say I had a blast, and apart from making Myrtle Beach Pelicans Manager Rocket Wheeler skedaddle when I started asking questions about recent dubious decisions by Atlanta Braves Manager Bobby Cox, I don’t think I annoyed or pried too much despite being the nosy journalist that I am.
I went to the inaugural Sept. 11 benefit at the Dead Dog, and I’m pretty sure I hadn’t been back – and my, how it has grown, as the party spilled out onto the Marshwalk as the sun went down. And although I didn’t sample any of it, the free food menu seemed to have expanded beyond the basic burgers and dogs of the first year.
I was not there for the entire day-long celebration/remembrance, but I did catch full sets by Gogglez Pizano, eight: fourteen, and The Necessary Band, bits and pieces of The Bil Krauss Show, Surge’s own Paul Grimshaw and The George Davis Band, and an unintentionally funny performance by an Elvis impersonator that had everyone backstage biting their lips.
Each group brought different tunes and vibes to the proceedings and you could see the musicians checking each other out, perhaps trying to steal a lick or two, or gauging the audience response to a particular tune.
The one tune that really caught my attention was The Necessary Band’s rendition of David Bowie’s “Young Americans’’ – because I don’t believe I have ever heard anyone cover this track from the Thin White Duke’s 1975 album of the same name.