GRILLING AT THE ROADSIDE WITH NRBQ
Think of NRBQ as a diner somewhere off the main highway, serving up Tex-Mex chili, Kansas City barbeque, Philadelphia cheese steaks, New England clam chowder, Chicago deep-dish pizza, Anchor Steam beer on draft. The gamut of American gastronomy.
GRILLING AT THE ROADSIDE WITH NRBQ
by Mitchell Cohen
Think of NRBQ as a diner somewhere off the main highway, serving up Tex-Mex chili, Kansas City barbeque, Philadelphia cheese steaks, New England clam chowder, Chicago deep-dish pizza, Anchor Steam beer on draft. The gamut of American gastronomy. And every time you drop in, the clientele is whooping it up, clearly delighted with each course. So delighted, in fact, that they're concerned lest this place become too popular.
So when the announcer at this club in downtown Manhattan introduces NRBQ as "America's Best-Kept Secret" (as they come bounding out to the strains of Sinatra's recording of "New York, New York," with its "if I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere" moxie), it's part complaint, part boast. To the people inside, NRBQ is no secret, but there is this air of exclusivity, of being privy to something that the world at large hasn't discovered yet. You get the feeling that if the exclusivity is never threatened, that'd be just fine with the regulars. Puts the band in a bind, you might conclude.