A Second Night out at Four Green Fields, Bingo Style

I have posted on the Four Green Fields Pub located in Royal Oak on 13 mile and Woodward before and my previous review slanted towards the negative side.  But I recently joined a few friends there for a Wednesday night bingo session that was phenomenal.  It included $3 burgers and fries, $2 bottles of Pabst Blue Ribbon (when can you get Pabst in a bottle?) and some awesome rockabilly live music courtesy of the lead singer of the hot 90's alternative band from Detroit, Sponge.  Here is how the night went down.

I called up my brother on Tuesday night to see if he wanted to get some dinner.  He was busy but we decided to get dinner the following night, probably somewhere in Royal Oak like the brewery or in Ferndale at the BW3's.  

The next night my friend Jeff (from lesson-share.com) calls me up and says there is bingo at Four Green Fields plus live music and prizes.  He tells me to be there at 8pm.  So I call up the broheim and we decide to go.  We get there at 8 and there are like 3 other groups there all eating dinner, I think there were even some kids.  I'm thinking this is another bust, like the last time... but we sit down anyway and order a very well priced burger and fries and a couple beers.  We get Pabst... in a bottle because we're classy.

Around 9 Jeff shows up with his posse and we all sit at a different table while the band sets up.  By this time the bar has filled up noticeably.  There is a huge group of folks at a table right in front of the stage, looking a lot like band fans.  There are also a few other tables that have now completely filled up and I am pleased that this could turn out to be a good night. 

Then it starts.

Bingo cards get passed out, free bingo cards!  The markers that we are to use to mark our cards with... smartees.  You know the sugar disc candies that you loved as a kid.  Totally Rad!  

Then the bingo caller starts drawing numbers, but announces that four corners does not count as a bingo.  The prizes that are laid out at a table are all swag from the recent SXSW music festival in Austin, Texas.  Apparently the band we are to hear tonight has just returned from the festival... a good sign.

The first person to reach bingo at our table is my brother.  He chooses two tickets to the Anvil show in Pontiac the day of my fiance's birthday.  Oh well I can't go, but I tell him I will anyway.  Anvil is a whole other story but let's safe it to say that they are the real life Spinal Tap and have just released their own film.

Next up for bingo is Jeff.  Who also picks up two tickets to the Anvil show, which I don't think either of them used anyway.  Then it's my turn finally!  When I get up to the table I ponder taking a poster but then decide on a rubber beer coaster advertising premium quality Chang Beer.

Bingo is over... the band starts.

The band is called The Orbitsuns, led by ex frontman for Sponge, Vinnie Dombrowski, and they are a loud, brash, alternative rockabilly country folk band.  Suffice it to say that I enjoyed it and stayed for both of their sets.  They played a good mix of original material and covers and ended with a blistering rockabilly sludge of a song called "Haul Ass."  Everybody was dancing and enjoying themselves.  They even invited Brandon Calhoon from "Rockstar INXS" fame to sing a tune.  

All in all it was a beer soaked, down home, trashy yet folky adventure that I would recommend to anyone who likes bingo, beer and great music.

Night out at Four Green Fields

I have been wanting to visit this place for a while now and I finally got to go on Saturday night.  Four Green Fields is an Irish Pub located inside the shopping center at 13 mile and Woodward in Royal Oak.  It is nestled between the Secretary of State and a Thai Cuisine restaurant in the strip mall that also includes a Kroger, a Leo's Coney Island and Safety Town.

This week one of my best friends from college is visiting Michigan on his way to Memphis, TN. to visit another good college friend.  We decided that we would really hit it hard Saturday night and have a night on the town.  Well one of our friends bailed on us so it was just us two, no problem.  Well we got kind of a late start and decided to play it safe and walk to Four Green Fields.  As I said, I have wanted to check this place out since I moved back here.  It just seems like the kind of neighborhood bar that would be a good place for friends to kick back, watch sports and guzzle a couple dozen beers.  I was right... and wrong.

As we walked up the "bouncer" was talking to a bunch of either friends or co-workers that were sitting outside having a smoke break.  When he spots us he stops us and tells us there is a $5 cover.  Kinda steep if you ask me, especially when your bar is located in a strip mall next to Kroger.  But we pay and head inside.  There is a stage set up for a band, hence the cover, but we head straight to the bar.  Surprisingly the bar had a great selection of beers on tap.  The Irish bar staples were there, Guiness, Bass, Boddington's, Harp, plus there were a few other good beers you don't usually see on tap like Sam Adam's and Sam Adam's Lite.  Anyway, it was good drinking.

A couple friends meet us there for a drink or two and the band starts to play.  The set list was very interesting.  They lead off with some knee slappin' country mess and then "Hey Jealousy" by the Gin Blossoms.  Then just when I think they have some class they march out another country song.  Then back to 90's alternative, Better Than Ezra's "Good."  Their songs confuse me, but hey I can't stop thinking about them, so they must be doing something right.

Now, I do not consider myself super young.  But I will have to say that the average age in Four Green Fields on this particular Saturday night was probably mid 30's.  I am not saying there is anything wrong with that.  Those folks deserve a night on the town just as much as us young bucks do, it's just that now I know where they go.  When we first got in to the bar, there was a 30 something couple dancing.  And when the girl attempted to walk past me on her way to the bathroom she completed a half gainer on her way to the floor.  Then when the band started playing, all the cougars (older women on the prowl) came out of the woodwork.  Some attractive, most not, all singing and dancing.  Then the band made the best decision of the night.  They handed out two tambourines to the dancing cougars.  Four Green Fields has earned the nickname, The Cougar Den, from the two of us.

My friend and I did not stick around too long.  Instead we left, bought an 18 pack on the way home and proceeded to drink 1 beer before we both went to sleep.  Oh well, we don't party like we used to, but maybe that's a good thing.