Post #765446 by Bay Park Buzzy on Sat, Jun 25, 2016 12:29 AM

On 2016-06-18 11:14, lunavideogames wrote:

There is also a new bar called the Atomic Tiki Bar at 762 5th Ave. They are having a Grand Opening on the 22nd of this month. Buzzys band, the Drop Ins are playing...

Thanks for making it down there! I was reminded that night that I'm not an "out for a night of fun in the Gaslamp" type of person. I learned that last time I went down there at night, in 1992. For some reason all of downtown smells like urine to me. I want to snort bleach when I get home...

Atomic's tiki bar is what I'll classify as "Mainstream Tiki", as opposed to what most of us tiki fanatics prefer, which I'll now call "Historical/Traditional Tiki" (Which is the same as what sven has called "Tiki Style". It's just that it seems there are more new examples of Tiki bars and art which are falling out of the stricter definitions of "Tiki Style" now.)
Mainstream places cater to Mainstream tiki fans- who are the masses- the general public, who do not carry the traditionalists shorter checklist of acceptable style inclusions in their definitions of a Tiki Bar.
Traditional inspired places are harder to find, harder to execute, and seem to close after short runs. We, the purist/traditionalist fans of TC, would all like every new tiki bar to be like the old postcards of Trader Vics from before we were alive. However, after another Trader Vic's bit the dust recently, I'd have to wonder that if Trader Vic;s cant make it with their business model, could a Trader Vic's inspired copy make it? Doubtful...?

So the minority Traditionalists in San Diego will still wait for another tiki style bar which fully meets their standards... Meanwhile, the booty shakin hip hop dancers at Atomic go upstairs to another Mainstream SD Tiki bar setting for a moment of "escapism" from the sensory overload of downstairs. maybe some of them young hip hoppers will grow up some day and want to make their own home tiki bar inspired by their younger happy memories of the HIp Hop tiki bar.

So, in summary, Atomic isn't a tiki bar. It's a live Music, Hip Hop dance bar with one floor of the bar decorated as a tiki bar, in what I call Mainstream Tiki Style.

And, I wished we could have played upstairs in the tiki bar part, as opposed to the main downstairs concert stage light show setup that we played in. We're a lot more low key than that display and were kind of "overstimulated" up there!

Thanks to all you that did come out to check it out!
Buzzy out!

[ Edited by: Bay Park Buzzy 2016-06-25 00:32 ]