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Vibe: Eight by Ten Club, which changed its name after an unsuccessful two-year stint as the Funk Box, used to command a fair amount of street cred as one of Baltimore's best live music venues, but recent upstarts throughout the city have relegated the venerable Federal Hill establishment to also-ran status. In a lot of ways, the Eight by Ten seems permanently stuck in 1999, and not in the good Prince way.
Crowd: On most nights, it's a pretty safe bet that the majority of the crowd consists of friends of the band. Well, at least the bands seem to have a lot of friends. Baseball caps, khaki pants and Abercrombie & Fitch are usually the order of the day here. At your average Eight by Ten show, it's hard to avoid feeling that you're rubbing elbows with future soccer moms of America.
Libations: This is the kind of place where the men drink Rolling Rock and Budweiser, and the ladies drink pink, lime or otherwise vibrantly colored mixed drinks unless they want to show that they're party girls who can hang with the boys. In which case they might go wild and drink Miller Lite.
Sounds: There's not much variety to the live bands that play here. Local and regional jam bands, middling alt-rock acts and reggae crews rule the roost, with occasional appearances by veteran feminist folkies like Dar Williams and Melissa Ferrick. It should be said, though, that the second-floor balcony provides an excellent vantage point to take in live shows. The Slip, seen here, looks pretty disaffected, huh?
Service: Bartenders usually get your order in a relatively speedy and polite fashion, which is pretty much exactly what you'd ask for anywhere.
Bottom line: If you're jonesin' to pay a remarkably high cover charge for unremarkable live music, this might be your place.
Crowd: On most nights, it's a pretty safe bet that the majority of the crowd consists of friends of the band. Well, at least the bands seem to have a lot of friends. Baseball caps, khaki pants and Abercrombie & Fitch are usually the order of the day here. At your average Eight by Ten show, it's hard to avoid feeling that you're rubbing elbows with future soccer moms of America.
Libations: This is the kind of place where the men drink Rolling Rock and Budweiser, and the ladies drink pink, lime or otherwise vibrantly colored mixed drinks unless they want to show that they're party girls who can hang with the boys. In which case they might go wild and drink Miller Lite.
Sounds: There's not much variety to the live bands that play here. Local and regional jam bands, middling alt-rock acts and reggae crews rule the roost, with occasional appearances by veteran feminist folkies like Dar Williams and Melissa Ferrick. It should be said, though, that the second-floor balcony provides an excellent vantage point to take in live shows. The Slip, seen here, looks pretty disaffected, huh?
Service: Bartenders usually get your order in a relatively speedy and polite fashion, which is pretty much exactly what you'd ask for anywhere.
Bottom line: If you're jonesin' to pay a remarkably high cover charge for unremarkable live music, this might be your place.
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