We do most of our work around here during the day. Sure, it can be lame working in the day sometimes, but it’s kind of what most of the world does, so we just go with the flow.
But we’re a publication that’s more about play than work. We exist to keep you informed not about the latest crime spree or political sparring match, but about the tastiest beers, the coolest places to visit and the most excellent adventures Concord has to offer.
That’s why for this issue, we banked some hours so we could go out on the town for a whole night and really try to experience this city.
This isn’t to say that there’s nothing to do or experience around here during daylight hours, but we so rarely get to go explore at night and we felt it would be doing a good service to you to fill you in on all you can do around here after dark.
We went out on a Thursday night – it’s not actually the weekend, but it’s close enough for Insider standards (when do we play by the rules, anyway?). It also happens to be a night in which there are all kinds of regularly held activities all over the place, so we were ready to take it all in.
Here’s how it went:
Bowling
Our first stop was Boutwell’s Bowling Center. We’ve surprisingly never really done anything at the bowling alley, so it just had to be included in our night out.
We had the entire place to ourselves when we first got there, though two guys showed up about halfway through Tim’s string. I decided to sit this one out and let my superior break in the ol’ bowling shoes while I documented.
He said he hadn’t played in a while, and he wasn’t kidding. Although his form looked solid, it didn’t exactly translate to the scoreboard. His final tally for one string of old-school, small-ball, candlepin bowling: 55. Not bad for a guy who hadn’t picked up a bowling ball in a few years.
After bowling came video games, naturally. Boutwell’s has a modest arcade near the front desk where you can play some throwback and modern games.
I tried my hand at Ms. Pac-Man, which, if you don’t mind me saying, is one of my better life skills.
I was flying through the first few rounds untouched, but the pressure of going for the top score got to me before I ever even made it close. I ended up scoring in the 20,000 area, a mere 10 percent of the top score.
Pool
After bowling, it was time to try another athletic endeavor: pool, as in billiards. For this we went to Area 23, which features free pool (but out of courtesy, try to order something if you’re going in there just to play pool) all the time.
It’s a nice table with cool, custom billiard balls. It’s pretty impressive considering it’s a free-to-play bar table.
Tim and I played a game of 8-ball, which dragged on a lot longer than either of us planned.
It was a tight match that came right down to the wire, but in the end it was the larger Insider who came away with the victory.
Open mic night
After all of that physical activity, it was time to relax a little bit. After all, this was to be a long, taxing night of hard work, so pacing was important.
We ended up at True Brew Barista, home of open mic nights every Thursday. Open mic at True Brew is kind of a big deal – this is a venue for up-and-coming serious musicians to showcase what they can do. Musicians get about 15 minutes to play, and there’s usually about 10 acts a night.
This particular Thursday featured Kate West and Carter Richardson (pictured) while we were there. Both had impressive voices which seemed like they didn’t even need microphones. It was a pleasant and easygoing atmosphere, something Tim was very impressed by (can you believe this was his first time catching a show at True Brew?).
Roaming the streets
Once we had our fill of live, local, original music, we decided to walk around a bit. Right there in Bicentennial Square, among tons of Pokémon Go players, we discovered a chess board etched into a stone block over by the fountain. Neither of us had ever seen it before, so we had to check it out.
I sat down looking to play, but there were no pieces and no opponents, so I resorted to some air chess. Needless to say, I won the match handily.
With that victory in the bag, we wandered over to North Main Street. Since I had just won a big chess match – albeit against an imaginary opponent – Tim wanted to step up his own game. That’s why he used a couple of those new ring-style bike racks to perform a little pommel horse routine, in the spirit of the Olympics.
Being the limber gymnast that he is, he nailed his routine. It really was a thing of beauty and a wonder to behold.
He had an audience, too. As soon as he began his routine, a car full of rambunctious 20-somethings pulled up right behind him and started cheering him on. Once they realized we were with the press, they pleaded with us to put them in the paper. As a favor to them, we didn’t.
Once that group cleared out, so did we. It was starting to get a little late – it was almost 11 by this point – and our bellies were grumbling. So guess what we did?
The Draft
You better believe we went to The Draft to end the night right.
The original plan was to try to get there to watch the Patriots play their preseason opener, but we were a little late for that. Luckily, the Olympics are on every channel at all hours of the day, so we took in the USA vs. Brazil men’s volleyball match instead.
Since we were approaching starvation, we had to put in a food order, and fast – the kitchen would be closed if we didn’t get our orders in right away. Tim got some buffalo chicken and a Goose Island IPA (pictured) and I got some regular chicken tenders and a Sam Adams Summer Ale. Monitor photographer Liz Frantz ended up bringing us a tripod on the spot (thanks, Liz!), so we invited her to join us for a beer to end the night.
Needless to say, a great time was had by all. Can we just do this every week from now on?
