Live Music at the Lake Trail Tap Room

I've wandered past the Lake Trail Tap Room several times in the last year, even went in to the yard and checked it out a little, but I only stuck my head into the bar and didn't order anything. I knew they had live music - I ended up Facebook friending Jeremy Serwer, a local singer/guitarist I saw at the Musiquarium Lounge last year, and later he mentioned playing there.

I just thought he played outdoors in the yard. This week I figured out that I was wrong. The weather was nice and Heather wanted to get out of the house, so we took a walk down to the Burke-Gilman trail. We usually go West, towards Lake Washington, but this time we went East a little to the Lake Trail Tap Room and walked in and checked it out more thoroughly. We ordered a nice local microbrew while we were at it. It looked like they were serving tasty pulled pork sandwiches too, but I stuck with the beer.

While we got a table in the small tap room and sipped the beer, a few people came out of a door on the opposite - interior - side of the tap room. I realized that there was a further public space, and the familiar Pink Floyd music I was hearing was being played live. Heather and I picked up the beer and walked into the music area - I had no idea it even existed! It's still a little cool in early Spring, and we noticed a wood stove in the corner that was pumping out some heat and took seats near it. I hadn't come prepared to see live music, so I only got fairly lousy cell phone pictures.

I didn't catch who the performer was, but we had a nice discussion about Pink Floyd - it's the 40th anniversary of "Dark Side of the Moon" and that was a seminal album for me as an adolescent. It also had ridiculous staying power, never dropping off the charts well into my adulthood over a decade later. I mentioned seeing Floyd back in the old Kingdome on the Momentary Lapse of Reason tour and again on the Division Bell tour, he mentioned seeing Nick Mason getting interviewed, and we both silently acknowledged just how important that band was to us. He played Breath, The Dark Side of the Moon, and others, and it was quite pleasant listening to the theme songs of my adolescence and drinking a potent hoppy local microbrew with the wood burning stove warming up my backside.

I'll definitely have to catch some more shows there, and next time be prepared with cameras and take notes on who's playing and such. According to their web site the tap room has free live music every Friday and Saturday. I always figured it was less frequent, and I had no idea it was an indoor venue. I should see more shows now that I realize I'm a 5 minute walk from  free show every Friday and Saturday night. Pretty cool. I recommend you check the Trailside Tap Room out, they allow dogs and kids in the yard and the performance area (not the bar), they have outdoor fire pits once it gets dark, good food and nice drinks, and they are right on the Burke-Gilman trail if you are a biking enthusiast.