The bell-bottoms come out and the disco ball spins at Sand Dollar Lounge, where a full party band dives headfirst into the sounds of the 1970s. Expect a set list stacked with the decade's greatest hits—funk grooves, disco anthems, classic rock riffs, and maybe a little glam thrown in for good measure. This is a bar built on live music history, with ghosts of blues legends like Muddy Waters and B.B. King still lingering in the walls, and on this night it channels a different kind of era, one built for dancing and singing along.
There's no cover charge, so wandering in off the street to catch a few songs costs nothing but the drink in your hand. The band plays late, running from 10pm to 2am, which gives plenty of time for the room to loosen up and the dance floor to fill. It's the kind of low-key, high-energy night that this dive-bar-turned-local-institution has been known for since its earliest days—unpretentious, loud in all the right ways, and full of people who just want to hear some good music played well.