The Tombstone Kid books a Sunday-night bill at The Green Door

Five acts, a 6 p.m. start and a $7 ticket: The Tombstone Kid heads to Lansing's longest-running music bar on Sunday, Dec. 6.

There is a particular kind of Lansing Sunday that ends at The Green Door: early dark, a cheap cover, and a stage that has been handing the microphone to local players for longer than most of the people in the room have been alive. On Sunday, Dec. 6, that stage belongs to The Tombstone Kid.

The show was announced Oct. 19 and the details are simple. Music starts at 6 p.m., tickets are $7 through Prekindle, and the night is a deep one: The Tombstone Kid leads a bill that also includes Colton Throop, Kerry Armes, Andrew Corbin and Jeff Mcniven. Five names for seven dollars, with an early enough start that you are home before the work week finds you.

That math is the point. A bill this wide at a price this low is how a scene keeps itself going, giving a room full of people a reason to hear four or five acts they might not have sought out on their own. Go for the headliner, stay for whoever surprises you, and buy a drink while you're at it, because rooms like this run on the bar.

The room matters, too. The Green Door, at 2005 E. Michigan Ave., has been part of Lansing since the mid-1960s, when it opened as a restaurant called The Green Door Lounge before turning into a music venue that has hosted bands across a long list of genres, as Model D laid out in its look at how the bar has survived for decades on loyalty to its regulars. Its reputation leans blues, but the booking has always ranged wider: Capital Gains describes a calendar that runs from blues and funk to soul, classic rock, R&B, bluegrass and American roots music.

Lansing has noticed. City Pulse readers named the Green Door Best Dance Bar in the paper's 2018 Top of the Town awards, and the bar took Best Music honors that year too. It is the kind of place where the stage is close, the crowd is mixed, and nobody is going to ask you whether you have heard of the band before you walk in.

That last part is useful on a night like this one. The Tombstone Kid is not a name with a national press trail, and that is fine; the best way to find out what this bill sounds like is to show up for it. A Sunday show at 6 p.m. is about as low-risk as live music gets in this town: cheap, early, and in a room built for it.

If you want to plan around it, the essentials are all in one place. Doors and set times beyond the 6 p.m. start may shift, so keep an eye on the show listing as the date gets closer, and grab tickets ahead through Prekindle if you'd rather not deal with the door.

December gets busy fast. Put a cold Sunday at the Green Door on the calendar now, bring a friend who still thinks Lansing has nothing going on, and let five acts change their mind.

Sources: The Green Door survives decades with commitment to regulars, great entertainment (Model D) (modeldmedia.com); Places: The Green Door Blues Bar & Grill (Capital Gains) (secondwavemedia.com); 2018 Top of the Town winners (City Pulse) (lansingcitypulse.com); Tickets (Prekindle) (prekindle.com); The Tombstone Kid at The Green Door (JamBase) (jambase.com)