Respectable Street Celebrates Its 27th Anniversary This Saturday

By Olivia Feldman

Bring your black T's, tight jeans, and a few extra packs of American Spirit cigarettes: Respectable Street is celebrating 27 years of debauchery, dancing, and drunkenness with another blowout block party. And you're cordially invited.

The Respectable Street staff knows how much its patrons love the combination of live music venue and super-stomped-upon dance floor, so this Saturday it will offer an open bar from 8 to 9 p.m. and free pizza (you read that correctly). There will be a Ping-Pong ball blast at midnight for a chance to win cash and prizes, along with 27 bands performing on five stages.

For being in its late 20s, Respectable Street shows no signs of aging or slowing. Since its opening in 1987, it has been the premier watering hole for the young and hip at heart to hang in West Palm Beach. On any given Wednesday through Saturday, you'll find plenty of people chilling on its spacious couches, swaying on its stage, and enjoying the groovy murals on the patio walls. Nestled on the west side of Clematis Street, "Respects," as it is lovingly called by many, has generated a unique local love that is hard to find anywhere else in the county.

"The people there give a certain aura you can't find anywhere else in South Florida," says Oscar Ramirez, lead vocalist and guitarist for West Palm band the Drip Effect, on the bill for Saturday's bash. The band first felt Respectable Street's magic when performing at last year's anniversary party. "I did not see a single person we did not know, and we filled the small area -- we were in to capacity," Ramirez says. "That has never happened to us at any show so far, so it was quite a milestone."

Chuck Callaway, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist of Lake Worth bluegrass band Jangle Leg, which will also perform this year, says he loves the random crowd that Respectable Street draws. "You never know who's going to walk in the door, but they're always down to party."

Respectable Street's 27th Anniversary. With the Band in Heaven, Jangle Leg, the Drip Effect, Riot Act, Ordinary Boys, and others. 8 p.m. Saturday, October 4, at Respectable Street, 518 Clematis St., West Palm Beach. Call 561-832-9999, or visit facebook.com/pages/Respectable-Street. See the Facebook event page for full lineup.

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