You’ll recall that we were in Jacksonville, home of Camp LeJuene. As a result of that, a lot of the people at Hooligan’s were Marines.  My note states “joining the Marines will not make a dork cool”. I’m not sure exactly what caused me to write that but I’ll give you an example of the sort of thing that would have caused me to write it. There were 3 Marines in line in front of us, all under 21, all three combined didn’t break 500lbs.  One of them had this huge cigar that he was “smoking”. I say “smoking” because you can’t make finger quotes in a blog. I suspect he had never seen a grown-up smoke a cigar because it looked a lot like a high school girl giving her first blow job. There was a lot of that going on as I recall. Of course, you’d sort of expect some non-trivial number of the people who are attracted to the Marines in the first place to be compensating for some perceived shortcoming. You know, like how most cops are bullies but too pussy to actually bully people on their own so they become cops and that way people can’t stand up to them.

The other note I made says “ugly girls should not stand with their backs to bright lights”. I think that’s probably self-explanatory.

I hadn’t ever been to a show in Jacksonville before and the routine outside was my first clue that we weren’t in Kansas anymore. There was one security guy working his way up the line checking IDs, then a little while later there were 2 guys with those metal detector wand things checking people for weapons (I’ve never once seen that happen in Raleigh outside of shit going on at Walnut Creek of course I guess Jacksonville is full of Marines). Through the gates to the courtyard and there’s another guy doing security letting people in the front door 2 at a time. Inside, you give your tickets to the girl and she checked them against something and made some marks on a piece of paper. Let me say, though, that the TSA should really come down and take a look at how they run things at Hooligan’s. Then maybe it wouldn’t take 2 hours to board a plane.

Inside, Hooligan’s is divided into 3 sections. Left is the pool tables. I never went in there but I’m guessing there were maybe 6 tables. Center room is the main bar with some tables and booths and the bathrooms. Right side is the large concert space. The stage is pretty good sized and there’s room for probably 500 people (if they’re really friendly) with 2 bar-lets at the back (cash only, limited selection).

Anyhow, bob from Washington, DC opened. They were already on stage when we got there so I only heard a couple of songs. They seemed like a really competent Alternative band. Maybe that’s not fair. They were good. I wasn’t overwhelmed but it may have been because of a 2 and a half hour car ride followed by freezing outside for another half hour. From what I heard they reminded me of kind of an edgier version of Red Hot Chili Peppers. Maybe I’ll catch them at Lincoln when they play with Airiel Down.

Next up was a band whose name I don’t remember that started with a V (something like Voodoo – again, see my previous posts about bands pimping their shit). They aren’t listed in any of the listings for last night that I can find. Too bad, they were pretty good.

Then came Almost Kings from Atlanta. I think they were probably my favorite. They did this kinda hip hop based rock thing with some definite Southern Rock undertones. Take a listen on myspace you’ll see what I mean. Very high energy and catchy tunes. On Like That is a definite winner. We got one of their CDs . I’m glad I caught them at Hooligan’s because that looks like it’s as close to Raleigh as they’re coming anytime soon.

After a waaaaay too long setup, Framing Hanley came on. We wound up leaving after they did like 4 songs because it was 12:30 and we had a 2 and a half hour drive home. They were good. Of course we missed their single Lollipop — I’m sure it was the last song they played. I was pretty drunk by this point (Important safety tip – if you’re planning on drinking at night you should definitely eat something after breakfast). It’s hard to tell but they didn’t seem to have the energy level all the way to 11. It may have just been Almost Kings putting on an exceptional show though.

At any rate, Jacksonville should be proud of having a place like Hooligan’s – it rivals anything you can find in Raleigh. The alcohol was reasonable ($3.50 for a Highland Oatmeal Porter, $3.50 for a Yuengling Lager), the barstaff brought their A game (at the bar-let in the back room the bartender knew what I wanted the second time I came up – she rocked). They concert space was large and free of visual obstructions and there didn’t seem to be any chokepoints except the door to the main bar. They had security everywhere but they weren’t  overt about it. I did feel a little bad for the dude they threw out who lost his shirt. He was sitting outside arguing with one of the bouncers with no shirt on and it was probably 20 degrees by then. Another thing I thought was cool, is that at a couple of points security brought people who were obviously regulars to the front of the line. It’s good to see that sort of thing rewarded.

BTW, I took pictures but my blackberry zoom is fucked up again so they’re unusable. I guess I’m going to have to get a real camera at some point.

One last thing: Hooligan’s, your myspace page bites. Hire a professional to take care of it. I can make recommendations if you need some.