UPDATE July 2009: Joe’s trivia has been cancelled. Check out our list for another trivia night!
Joe’s Bar is an equal mix of sports bar (boasting over 110 plasma TVs playing sports all day long), concert venue (featuring acts like Gary Sinese & The Lt. Dan Band) and all-around excellent place to get drunk (offering Tuesday night specials like quarter beers). Wednesday night trivia night seems tame by comparison, but then again, we are tame by comparison to Bret Michaels’ Rock of Love Bus Tour (coming to Joe’s Bar on March 28!)
Trivia starts at 8pm, and you can probably get a seat if you arrive between 7:30 and 7:45pm. The comfy-looking booths and the larger tables, all with their own personal television screens, are reserved for groups of 5 or more…meaning 5 or 6 (that’s the team limit). There are five rounds: general knowledge, movies, music, sports & leisure, and television. At least one round’s winners get a free round of shots and the best team name also wins a round of shots. Tip for when you play trivia at Joe’s: the winning names are usually either very long (“Hey Blackhawks, Have fun playing at Wrigley Field, Hope you don’t catch gay“), about people who have died recently (“Guess There Won’t Be a Sequel to Stop or My Mom Will Shoot“ ), or, ideally, both. Lots of Natasha Richardson-based team names this week.
Even if you don’t come up with a lengthy & topical team name, trivia is worth playing because of the prizes. First place gets $250, second place gets $150, third gets $100, and fourth gets $10 off the night’s bill. Not too shabby…unless you compare it to State.
The Wednesday night special is a $10 pitcher of Coors Light. To celebrate the day after St. Patrick’s Day, we were treated to leftover pale green Coors Light. Tabhair póg dom, táim Éireannach!
Oh! And free popcorn!
The questions are a good spread from easy to difficult, not too easy that it is not satisfying to know a correct answer, but not too hard that it is just not fun. We especially enjoyed the movies round, where our guest team member impressed with knowing all but one of the Suicide Kings cast, and we got a question about the divine movie Beaches. That reminded us of a question we got the other night at Crew about another of our favorite tearjerkers, My Girl:
If you’re not crying right now, you are a robot.
Joe’s Bar
940 W. Weed St., Chicago
8pm to 10:15pm
Free admission
Here Comes Treble is a group of Chicagoans who want to share our love of trivia nights with the rest of the city. Follow us as we search for the best pub quiz in town!
