The Lull Breaks: Your Aug 13–16 Guide to a Downtown That Woke Back Up
We told you the summer quiet wouldn't hold. This is the weekend it cracks open. From Thursday through Saturday, the Azalea City's rooms come back online more or less all at once, and the run from August 13 to 16 is the fullest downtown stretch we've had in weeks. Here's how to spend it.
Thursday, Aug 13 — John Hollier & the Rêverie at Callaghan's. The weekend starts small and warm, the way the best ones do. John Hollier & the Rêverie open a two-night run at Callaghan's Irish Social Club, the beloved Oakleigh Garden District room that's been going since 1946. If you only know Callaghan's by its burger — the one that's been called the best in Alabama — Thursday's the night to learn the rest of what it does. Get there early; the room is famously, gloriously tiny.
Friday, Aug 14 — a two-front night. Hollier & the Rêverie stay put for night two at Callaghan's, and if Thursday's any good, Friday's the one people will be talking about — a second night in a room that small turns a show into an event. Meanwhile, across downtown, NVSN takes the stage at Alabama Music Box, the Conti Street workhorse that's kept the calendar honest all summer long. Two very different rooms, two very different volumes — pick your Friday, or be ambitious and thread both.
Saturday, Aug 15 — the big one. This is where the weekend earns its keep, with three music options stacked across three rooms:
- EG Vines at The People's Room of Mobile. The seated, attentive "intimate listening venue" — the place built for you to actually hear the songs. If your Saturday speed is a chair, a hush, and a songwriter who rewards close attention, this is your ticket. - Blanket of M at Alabama Music Box. Back to Conti Street for something with more voltage. The Music Box does loud and immediate as well as anyone downtown. - "Bop to the Top" at Soul Kitchen Music Hall. The 18-and-up dance party at the big Dauphin Street room. Doors at 8, party at 9, tickets $26.16. Not a band — a full-tilt dance night — but it's the loudest room in town and the one most ready for a crowd that came to move.
One line of housekeeping so nobody buys the wrong ticket: the Saenger's big Saturday-night marquee, Killers of Kill Tony with David Lucas and Hans Kim, is comedy, not music. Great night out — just don't show up expecting a band.
So there's your map for the weekend the lull finally broke: an intimate two-night run in a 1946 landmark, a rock bill on Conti Street, a listening-room songwriter, and an 18+ dance party in the city's biggest downtown hall — all inside about seventy-two hours. I don't have set times for most of the music, so check each venue before you head out, and I'm not going to guess them for you.
What I will guess is this: after the longest quiet stretch of the year, Mobile's about to remind you why it's worth living downtown in the first place. The vans are pointing south again. The rooms are lit. Go find your Saturday.
Sources: Bandsintown — Mobile, AL; Soul Kitchen Music Hall