Tampa Calling

The Hub: playlist

July 17th, 2007 by Wade Tatangelo in News

Here’s a snippet/rough draft from an upcoming edition of my Bar Tab column [that became Her Name Was Lola, published .07.25.07]. For the uninitiated, The Hub is probably one of Tampa’s most beloved dives thanks in part to a commendable jukebox. And, well, the strongest cocktails in town. And $1.50 cans of Busch. And a crowd of regulars that runs the gamut from yuppie businessmen to nervously shaking bums. Anyway, here’s a little bit of how my night went at The Hub last Friday, when I was joined by Hub enthusiasts Helen and Lola (pictured with me at the bar.)

Either way, Lola was hammered when we returned to The Hub. Luckily, she’s not a sloppy or belligerent drunk. Just one that feels it’s appropriate to start dancing in a dive bar where everyone is huddled over their beers and shots, drinking in silence, as if they’re trying very hard to forget how bad their lives are fucked up. Lola couldn’t hold back when Elvis Presley came on the jukebox and started singing the rockabilly favorite “Money Honey.”

Lola: “Dance with me.”
Me: “Nope.”
Lola: “Dance with me!”
Me: “No way.”
Lola: “You did it before.”
Me: “And I made a fool of myself. I’m not quite that drunk tonight.”
Lola: “Come on!”
Me: “Dance with Helen.”
Helen (rolling her eyes): “She’ll find someone.”

Lola turned to her left. Smiled at the sucker in a floppy baseball hat that was sitting there next to us at the bar nursing a cocktail. Lola had already smoked his last Pall Mall. Now she was asking the middle-aged fellow to dance with her. Of course, he agreed, figuring he’d get to rub up against this woman who was probably half his age. But that ain’t how Lola dances. She does those crazy swing moves from the 1920s and ‘30s that got popular again in the ‘90s and require mad skills.

“I’ll lead,” Lola said after firmly grasping the man’s nicotine-stained hands.

The fellow didn’t have a chance. Lola was leading him around the dirty checkerboard floor and it looked like she had, well, a drunk bum in her hands not blessed with an iota of coordination. I feared his heart would go out at any moment.

“Can’t you hear the beat?” she snapped. “One, two, three, four — see, it’s easy.”
But for him, it wasn’t.

The Hub: Playlist (7 songs for $2)

1. “What’d I Say” (live), Ray Charles

2. “Cheap Thrills,” David Allan Coe

3. “Money Honey,” Elvis Presley

4. “Love and Happiness,” Al Green

5. “Doreen,” Old 97’s

6. “Jambalaya,” Hank Williams Sr.

7. “I Don’t Wanna Be the One,” Lucero

ANYONE ELSE GOT ANY HUB TALES?

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7 Responses to “The Hub: playlist”

1. London Says:
   July 17th, 2007 at 2:53 pm

   My friend, Kamran, and I are regulars at the Hub…I don’t know if I should be embarrased by that fact or not. Either way, we came up with the great idea that we should have his bachelor party at the Hub, and it should be a bender…a bachelor bender. From 10am till 3am, we’d be throwin’ em back. All his friends could make it because there’d be an open window of 17 hours to catch him there. Probably an open window of 2 hours to catch him there sober. But as the date got nearer, Kamran got cold feet…not to getting married, but to the bachelor bender! His exact words, “Come on, London, I don’t wanna die.” Can you believe that? Ok, ok, in his defense, the way the Hub makes their drinks, it is a real danger…but I’m still up for it. It just takes planning. Who’s with me?

2. Leilani Says:
   July 17th, 2007 at 4:01 pm

   I was once a witness to an extremely heated argument between my fiance and former music writer Scott Harrell. I don’t exactly recall how it began, aside from several too-strong drinks and a conversation about music, but it quickly escalated to the two yelling at each other while the rest of us looked on uncomfortably and tried (unsuccessfully) to intervene.

   And yes, the drinks are stronger than a mother fucker; I once ordered a side of cranberry juice to go with my cran and vodka because it was really just vodka with a splash of cranberry juice.

3. David Jenkins Says:
   July 17th, 2007 at 5:30 pm

   I swear I hear Ring of Fire, Let’s Get it On, Sex Machine and Radiohead (it all sounds alike, so it doesn’t matter what track I say) about a billionty times every time I’m in The Hub. Can those all make the Anti-playlist?

4. Wade Tatangelo Says:
   July 17th, 2007 at 7:23 pm

   Come to think of it, the entire Radiohead catalog deserves to be on the anti-playlist. Who wants to be subjected to that misery-loving mopester Thom Yorke while throwing ‘em back at the bar? I say save your disaffected anthems for when you uncork that bottle Bordeaux at home. Some music just wasn’t meant for saloon jukeboxes.

5. Rick Says:
   July 17th, 2007 at 10:49 pm

   For the past 12 years I have met the same people(even thought the Hub moved) at the Hub for Gasparilla, we only see each other once a year, yet we live in Tampa, and its just funny to see the different people that we have broght along each Gasparilla to the Hub!

6. jj Says:
   July 18th, 2007 at 12:22 pm

   there is only one other place in tampa that will make a drink as strong as the hub… which is just the way i like them.

   there was an extended amount of hours that i put into the old location due to my job at the time… i loved every minute of the strong drinking and smoke filled hazy air filled some of the best tunes.

7. David Jenkins Says:
   July 18th, 2007 at 1:37 pm

   For you, Wade: Radiohead Sucks