This week, our full team reunited for the first time in over a month, and visited The Bungalow Lounge for their weekly music trivia. It was certainly one of the most unique trivia nights we have been to. Maybe it’s because I have been trivia-deprived for so long, but I had a really good time, and our enthusiastic MCs did a great job with the questions.
The place is aptly named…it had a lounge-like feel to it (dim lights, candles, leather seats), and it was a bungalow. Really there’s no other name by which this institution should go by. Maybe “Kitchenless Menuless Lounge” would also have been appropriate, as they were redoing their menus, and we ended up ordering pizza and having it delivered to our table. We much would have preferred the tamale-man from Bucktown Pub, but it’s a tough economy.
Our server was very pleasant, and offered us a variety of menus that would deliver. The dim lights were offset by a small, battery operated, portable lamp. We weren’t big fans of the lamp due to it’s shoddy construction, and used the light from our candle instead.
The drink specials included $4 Heinekens, $4 cherry bombs, and $7 Stoli martinis. They had a variety of beers on tap, but nothing special. Trivia started a little late (closer to 8:40). The question format was really fun. There was a photo round (album covers and artists), name that tune, name those lyrics, and lastly (and most interestingly) a music video round. The music video was played on the bar TVs, and the MCs asked 10 questions about the video.
The questions were a good mix, and our MCs were very enthusiastic. I think one of them was a cougar (not that there’s anything wrong with that). The “Name that tune” questions were interspersed with little clues that could help you out, but you had to be constantly paying attention. Obviously, both MCs knew their music really well, as they always had random facts to contribute. The music was well spread across the decades. It was mostly rock/pop/alternative/indie, and there was very little country or hip hop (which is OK with us). The “Name that lyrics” round was surprisingly hard, but where the night really stood out was the “Video Round.”
They played an awesome video by Cobra Starship called “Good Girls Go Bad.” The video and the song were really as awesome as you are imagining them to be right now. The round was akin to a memory game that I played in a Will Shortz book when I was as kid. Back in my nerdy 8-year old days, I would look at a picture of a scene of lots of stuff happening. After studying the page for a few minutes, I would turn the page over and answer the questions. It would be obscure things like “What was the license plate of the car on the right?” This video round was similar. We watched and listened to the video, and then we were asked 10 obscure questions about them (Questions like “What did the sign in the store say?”)
Scoring was quick, and done by trade-and-grade. We thought we did pretty good until we started grading another team, and then realized that we actually didn’t do well at all. We ended up in 6th place out of 9 teams (ouch!). There are prizes for the top 2 teams – a bottle of cherry vodka (WTF?) and a $50 gift card for the lounge. The night ended LATE (close to 11 pm), which wasn’t ideal for exhausted members of the team.
All in all, The Bungalow Lounge is one of the better Thursday night trivia spots in Chicago, especially for music. As long as you’re OK eating food beforehand and getting out after 11 pm, watching the video by Cobra Starship was enough to make this a great night for me.
+ Fun and knowledgable MCs
+ Great variety of music
+ I was introduced to the greatness that is Cobra Starship
– Blah specials
– No food
– 11 pm is late
Bungalow Lounge Bar
1622 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago
8:30pm to 11pm
Free admission
3 paws (out of 4)
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