by Monica Davies

Created on: July 18, 2009   Last Updated: July 19, 2009

I have a favourite time and place in New York City. It's as Sunday evening nears 20:30 and I turn off Bleecker Street onto MacDougal, and Cafe Wha? appears in front of me, with its gaudy lettering blasting its nonchalant attitude to all the passersby in the Village. This place is cooler than I can ever hope to be. Rock snobs out there will know that it's a landmark because Bob Dylan played his first NYC gig here, but it was also a regular hangout and gigging spot for the likes of Hendrix and Springsteen. You see - cool! You just can't fake history like that.

But the modern charm of the place comes from the Cafe Wha? House Band. At one of their gigs, you'll regularly hear them claim to be the best damn band in New York City, and I think they might just be right.

Eight or nine interchangeable members of the large band take to the stage of the dimly-lit, sub-level bar every Wednesday through Sunday night. Without fail. (I even watched them perform on Easter Sunday.) And man, oh man, are they only enthralling - from the first to the last words that come through the multiple mics.

Most of the band members take turns on lead vocals throughout the night, while keeping up with their regular instruments, showing that each of them could hold the stage on their own, if they wanted to.

But you can see that they don't want to, because they seem to be having a blast every time they get up there. Whether they are drunk or high, I don't know (it's the Village, so they have to be one of the two), but their love of the covers they sing is infectious, so they fill the bar with rowdy returning fans every night.

As an example, the Cafe Wha? Band, led on this song by Bryan Stephens (who I am in love with and whose presence eludes the internet because I can't find anything on him), repeatedly produce the best version of Solsbury Hill that I have ever heard. It literally made my jaw drop the first time I heard it. When I eventually get round to video-taping it, I will put it up here for you. But this has now put me in such a quandary that Peter Gabriel's original version of the song disappoints me and leaves me longing for a Sunday night every time I hear it.

Simply put, the Cafe Wha? Band has ruined all other music for me. And I think I love them for it.

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