Exit
Wes Giglio
Where they haven’t been replaced by charmless, trend-crunching tune-bots, jukeboxes say a lot about a place—nay,enhance the place. In Jukeboxing, Decider spends some quarters and punches some buttons at Chicago bars and venues. This edition takes a look at the jukebox at Exit.
The Jukebox: Slightly sinister, though it may just be the barely lit locale. It’s black, bumper-stickered (one ominously says “splat it all,” another “Stink-E”), and hanging on the wall right next to the bar. It’s filled with punk classics and ’80s metal, from KISS to Black Flag to Guns ’N Roses.
Price: Standard. A buck buys three songs, $2 increases nets seven tracks, and $5 a gets a whopping 18 plays.
Drinkin’ Songs: Traditionalists can make a selection from the two country albums in the box courtesy of Hank Williams and Johnny Cash (“the original punk”), but for the punk contrarian there’s Black Flag’s “Thirsty And Miserable” to keep you ironic.
Nerd Jams: Depends on what you mean by "nerd." At Exit you’d probably get funny looks if you cranked up Hank Williams, but the best bet is anything from A Hillbilly Tribute To AC/DC, which is exactly what it sounds like. Psychobilly has some proponents in the machine as well—Tiger Army first and foremost.
Mixes: Exit’s box is mix-heavy, with cuts from the 2005 Fat Wreck Chords tour and local compilations like Devon’s Friday Night Hits (Pegboy, Buzz Cocks, The Damned). When Decider visited on a Sunday night, the jukebox was actually deactivated, to make aural room for a DJ spinning his own compilations in the back.
Local: None. This is a classics-and-comps-only jukebox.
For Bar Time: The downside of a greatest-hits jukebox is the over-played classic. To wit, bartender Amanda claims that she can no longer listen to Danzig’s “Mother” without gritting her teeth. “Now I hate that fucking song.”
