Taking the Bait
Thursday evening is Live Bait’s weekly “college night” promotion. The slogan posted on the huge neon sign outside of this wild, surf-shack-themed club is “where you’re guaranteed to catch your limit.”
Manager Mike Zorn says things have slowed on Thursdays since summer ended. That’s hard to believe. The capacity is 650, and there must be around 600 here tonight, meaning there is barely room to hold a glass of beer.
Don’t forget that I.D.--without it you won’t get in, much less get a beer. The club is somewhat loose about a posted “strictly enforced” dress code: no tank tops, no shorts below the knees, no oversize clothing and no hats.
Sound fairly reverberates off the concrete floor, and when there is live music every Thursday through Saturday, the amplifiers are turned up full blast, so come prepared.
The band is a disco outfit called Bootie Quake, a name quite close, in spirit, to the club’s own. The quartet’s mission, it appears, is to pound out such disco chestnuts as “Stayin’ Alive” and “Get Down Tonight” at eardrum-blasting levels.
Live Bait’s decor is equally jarring, to say the least. Most of the club, for starters, is bathed in fluorescent light, the better to illuminate the Day-Glo murals painted on virtually every inch of wall space.
One mural depicts bug-eyed, anthropomorphic fish and sharks wearing sunglasses; another is filled with grotesque caricatures of muscle-beach men and bikini-clad women.
Surfing logos, peace symbols and T-shirt decalcomania, including “No Fear,” also grace these walls, along with neon Corona, Rolling Rock and Bud Light signs.
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In fact, the entire interior appears to be one huge advertisement for beer drinking. Budweiser banners are suspended from much of the ceiling, keeping company with a giant plastic shark hanging above the dance floor.
The people dancing, meanwhile, look blissfully oblivious. They jerk and jive under powerful strobe lights, pulsating with youthful energy.
There is little refuge from sensory assault. One part of the room with its own bar and pool table is sectioned off by a chain-link fence. There are also several booths built into one part of the wall, often used, with relatively little discretion, by people wishing to deepen their newfound friendships.
I’m winding down, so I head for the video arcade and area by the front entrance, next to the beached cabin of a pleasure boat. Whew! Did I really go for this lively a scene when I was in college? I certainly hope so.
BE THERE
Live Bait, 6251 E. Pacific Coast Highway, Long Beach. (562) 594-6775. 8 p.m.-2 a.m. Tuesday-Sunday. No cover Tuesdays or before 9 p.m. nightly; after 9 p.m., $2 cover Wednesday, $5 Thursday-Sunday.