| rev:text
| - I typically don't review a place when it is middle-of-the-road, so to speak. I don't know if that makes me a lazy Yelper, perhaps it does, but I tend to review when I REALLY have something to say. Having said that, I've been trying to break myself of that habit, and so I present so you, my review of this new, and very mediocre establishment that recently opened on Fremont East.
First, the concept. It's called Backstage Bar and Billiard, so not surprisingly, it has a bar, some billiard tables, and the theming (which was actually quite cool) was "Roadcase-Chic". In other words, there were Anvil type roadcases for tables, and the bar and decor was actually adorned with Roadcase hardware. This was pretty clever, and helped a little bit to achieve the rock&roll vibe that they are apparently going for. Nice touch.
There appeared to be a stage, which leads me to believe that at some point, there will be live music, but on the night that I went, there was a DJ, which seemed somewhat out of place for a venue striving to be Rock-themed.
What really dragged it down, was the execution. The road-case theming was a nice touch, but very little effort was made beyond that. They took the cheap way out, and sprayed the entire venue black, regardless of the condition of the actual surfaces they were painting. I mean it looks like they just blasted away at every dusty surface in the place, thinking that keeping the lighting very dark would hide the fact that they it was really just a big, stark box.
There were a few cool pieces of rock memorabilia on the walls, namely some classic 60's-70's vintage concert posters that were cool to look at, but there were only 4 of them. If they continue accumulating them, then they could probably eventually give the place some personality. But with only 4 of these posters in a cluster by the door, it actually looked more lame than if they just had nothing at all. It was sort of like they were going for the "Hard Rock" feel, but after acquiring their first 4 pieces, it was like they said, "Eh, screw it, this will be fine".
Finally, I don't know where the bar is set between being a bar with pool tables, and actually being considered a proper "Billiard", but with 4 pool tables, darkly illuminated by blue lights, and a sparse selection of generic, slightly warped cues, I think they are going to get a lot of flack from serious pool players who seek this place out thinking it is a genuine "Billiard" hall, only to find that this is (at least in my opinion) a bar, with a few tables. I suppose it's technically correct in that the room offers billiard tables, it just seems to me that if you are going to call yourself a billiard, then they really could have put a lot more time and effort into that facet of the concept.
In short, this is a thrown-together little dive, that was fun, but nothing special.
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