One
of the greatest bars I have ever been in was called Otto Mosers.
And if you ask anyone from Cle if they agree, you will see a
lot of hands. The place was a 100 years old. You went downstairs
and pissed in ice filled urinals cause the water didn't flow
down there right. The place was full of steam. Steam filled
with the aroma of corned beef briskets and steam coming off
those pissed on ice cubes. James and Odell and Scotty would
carry those briskets by, down the length of the bar, to the
meat cutter by the front window. There they would slice out
and prepare the best sandwiches this town has known. People
out on the street, E.4th St. (a narrow, pedestrian crowded street..maybe
120 feet long....cutting through between two major downtown
avenues....alive with wig shops and trash dollar stores before
the current version of those existed), would stare in the greasy
window at the beautiful meat. It was always loud inside Mosers.
Barmaids shouting out orders from the tables, barkeeps calling
out names for the telephone. And laughter. Plenty of laughter.
Mosers was open only from lunch to about 6pm. There only to
serve the downtown workforce. But for a brief moment, they decided
to try a few live bands on Saturday nights. Mosers attracted
a greatly varied clientel, and a chunk of that was many underground
Cleveland musicians. I can't believe that there was more than
3 or 4 shows before the idea was abandoned. I know the Witch
Hunters did a gig there and I was fortunate to have played there
with the 2 Bobs. But the band that felt the most natural within
those walls was California Speedbag. I saw them there twice,
and in my mind, the best shows they ever played. I saw them
many times elsewhere, but never as magical as they were at Mosers.
The 'Bag performed like a heaveyweight prize fighter, returning
home to defend his new found title. Sometimes, it all comes
together and happily drunken, I was there when it did.
(Cheese
Borger) |
