Columbia, South Carolina (moving related)
youknowyouknow
264 Posts
Looks like I'll be moving to Columbia, SC come Winter. Any thoughts on the city? Good records? Food? Nice people who don't wish the Confederates won the Civil War?
Comments
I'd love to hear some music when I visit. If possible, let me know the best places.
Thanks again.
perfect combo of state capitol & university town,
papa jazz, 5 points & the vista,
it has been my second "home" since the 60's ,
great people, food, records, music scene
close to the ocean, charleston, charlotte, atlanta, asheville, etc
ditto all that pablo was saying, love the whig, columbia record fair, boiled peanuts
see ya in the bins sometime !
I lived a couple hours away in the upstate, but I had a number of friends in Columbia, and my younger brother went to school there, so I got there pretty often and it always seemed to be an all right place. I used to think Papa Jazz was dumb expensive, but I might feel differently today.
Columbia is the only place I've ever been that had a tribute-band tribute band. I can't remember the name, but they were a tribute to the then-recently-defunct Strutter, who were themselves a Kiss tribute band. Shit was next level.
Hey, does anyone know if that hair spot, Cut-Ups, is still around down there? That place had some of the illest signage I've ever seen in my life. Fish In A Basket was bugged, too.
Found this yesterday.....
Good luck with your move D....I'm sure you'll love it and won't miss 100F very much.
I have no real rock background, so back in my earlier days it was not unusual for me to unwittingly clown myself by calling down to WANS and asking breathlessly, "Oh man, what was that last thing you played? The trippy thing? With the chunky drums? And the guitar?" only to be told, invariably, that it was, like, "Down By The River" or some Traffic jernt or some Freedom Rock 101 shit known to everybody and their dog.
I also remember them for "An Hour From Atlanta To Charlotte," a late-Sunday-night showcase for "edgy" regional shit. I used to fall asleep to it religiously.
"Memm-weeze..."
Below this, in plain script, was their motto (wait for it): "Best Trim In Town."
My man Pruitt and I were at the time enjoying some midday cocktails on the upper deck of a neighboring parking garage, and when he pointed it out to me, I almost spit out my drink.
hell,
it's not even charlotte or richmond
think more along the lines of raleigh or durham or greensboro nc
but way more south carolina
and
it is closer to charleston and savannah than all of those other cities !!
If there's one thing that Soul Strut has taught me it's that some stereotypes are acceptable and some are taboo.
I lived in semi-rural South Carolina for about sixteen years, and I've lived in Chicago for about thirteen, and you know what? I believe him.
Don't be simple.
I went to college in Greensboro, and during that time, I went with my homie to visit his sister in Columbia, and Columbia seemed like a whole different world. Way more stereotypically southern, if you take my meaning (not judging, just saying).
b/w
Does SC still have that weird-ass law that says even bars have to serve you hard alcohol out of the little airplane bottles?
Then I remembered our history had been copyrighted and youtube is not allowed to show historical footage of Martin Luther King.
This got through.
When I lived there, I was always far more aggravated by the law that booze and mixers cannot be sold in the same store, rendering a simple gin and tonic a two-stop minimum. Not fresh.
I don't remember the booze/mixers law. I just remember being mystified by the airplane bottles law. Like, what was that supposed to prevent? What exactly did the proponents of that law think they were accomplishing?
Oh, one other thing I remember about Columbia: I went there after Hootie and the Blowfish had blown up and the backlash was really starting to take hold. "Hootie" (Darius Rucker) lived down the street from my homie's sister. "His house gets vandalized a lot," she said.
I can't speak on Hootie, but I've heard from multiple unrelated sources that the rhythm section dudes used to pretty routinely play the sidelines of USC soccer games, patrolling for jailbait on some "So...you know who we are, right?"
Around 1979/1980, there was a trend in Liverpool (at least amongst my circle of friends) for rocking a hybrid post-punk-meets-American-Graffiti kind of style, with vintage varsity jackets being a key element. One of my boys used to rock a pretty cool dark green number w/contrasting off-white leather sleeves and the legend "Cicero Gymnasts" emblazoned on the back. We were so taken by this that, after a night on the sauce, we even formed a band of that name (which featured the former drummer from the legendary Deaf School, the late Tim Whittaker). It ended up being one of those two-rehearsals-one-gig-and-split-up deals, and the concept (such as it was) was early Subway Sect meets early TG; not that this has any bearing on the point of my story, which I'm finally getting to. It wasn't until after we'd decided not to continue any further with the band that a friend who worked in a vintage clothing store schooled us, somewhat fortuitously, on the history of the institution from where the jacket originated; namely that it was one of several schools in Cicero that were defiantly and unrepentantly racist.
Thanks man! It's not a done deal yet, still need to decide if it's the right thing. Agree'd: 105 degree days in mid-September has me driving down Gaston in my non-a/c'd car swallowing ice cubes whole.
Not really. By stereotypically southern you mean preppy white dudes walking streets in pin stripped yellow dockers b/w i'll beat up your black friend if he crosses the line?
You can't smoke in bars.