08/14/03

The live music bar for people who normally hate them.

by Contributor

The Scene
This is no meat market (some handmade beef jerky might be traded among patrons, but that's it), and drink prices are kept low. There's a mounted deer head over the register, and a stuffed marlin in the adjacent Chinook Lounge. Dress is casual and so is the company.

The Draw
The Hideout is the local center of insurgent country music, a blending of punk and honky-tonk that has generated its own rabid following. Split Lip Rayfield, Kelly Hogan, Jon Langford and Nora O'Connell (of The Blacks) are regular performers, as is Bloodshot Records' bluesy duo Devil In A Woodpile, which has a standing popular gig on Tuesday nights. Don't order a fancy drink unless you want a strange look in return. Whiskey and soda is more the style here. Food is limited to snack-sized bags of chips and pretzels.