Scenesters go with the soul at Missouri Lounge. Photo by Joshua Rotter.
By Joshua Rotter
If it’s a soul night – be it Memphis, Philly, or Northern – I’m the first on the floor, spinning, flipping, and back-dropping. Still, I’ve never fully understood why white people, myself included, so identify with the genre – and seeing The Commitments several times has done little to clarify this for me.
So like a modern-day Penelope Spheeris, I took an anthropological adventure – to what felt like 20,000 leagues under and across the Bay via BART – to Berkeley’s Missouri Lounge for Soul Knockout to gain a better understanding of this phenomenon.
About to hit its first anniversary, Soul Knockout is hosted by DJ Hot Grits, Sweats the Bed, and seasoned veteran E Da Boss (Slept On Records) at a renovated dive bar that has become a pit stop for hip white kids, while still remaining down-home.