"publicbj"
09/24/07 -see other reviews-
 Attitude - 3 Eye Candy - 3 Price - 2
"Locals hangout/dive with live music..."
We've been looking for a blues/jazz club to go to. We tried the jazz place across the street from commercial center before, that was laughable. The three piece band wasn't playing the same music at the same time. (At least that's how it sounded to us.)
So we tried out Sand Dollar Blues Lounge. We knew it was diveish (from this site), but we figured what the heck. If we didn't like it, we could leave. $7 cover per person (for locals, visitors are higher) on the stormy Friday night we were there. Location is in a simple strip mall location off of the freeway, looked like it used to be a motel. There's an asian massage parlor on the front side of it. (You want happy ending?) Typical dive blues place: painted black, cheap (but not torn up) stackable padded chairs and tables. Pool table in the back.
But we liked it. Good ventilation in the place (we counted three air purifiers over our head alone), so smoke won't bother you much if you were a non smoker. Drinks were reasonable ($12 a round). And the band was Scott Rhiner and the Moanin Blacksnakes, which apparently play there on Fridays (plus other locations throughout the week). The band was VERY GOOD...very talented.
The crowd was a mix of locals, some dressed up a little, some not. Not overly crowded. We very much enjoyed ourselves and will likely be back. If you don't mind a "local dive" in the good sense of the term, then this is a good choice. I don't know how the other bands that play here are, but we liked what we heard.
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