Stein Club / Driftwood: The Working Bar

Lyrics

[Intro]

[Verse 1]
Five o'clock hits like a hammer.
The tie comes off, hangs on the gearshift.
You could go home. Or you could go to work on forgetting the day.
Up on Peachtree, there was a door into the dark.
Smelled like spilled Löwenbräu and cigarettes from 1978.
Der Stein Club.
No windows to speak of.
The jukebox knew three chords and the truth.

[Chorus]
This was the working bar.
Not for climbing ladders, not for making deals.
Just a place to set your tools down.
Your tool was your thirst.
Your tool was the ache in your spine.
And the pay was just another round.

[Verse 2]
Years later, different side of town.
East Atlanta, and the floor is still sticky.
Same kind of thirst, just a different uniform.
Lighter beer, though.
A can of PBR sweating on a beat-up Ampeg stack.
Driftwood.
The band's too loud on a Tuesday, and that is the point.
Nobody's talking résumés here either.
Just trying to hear the kick drum over the ringing in their own head.

[Chorus]
This was the working bar.
Not for climbing ladders, not for making deals.
Just a place to set your tools down.
Your tool was your youth.
Your tool was the noise in your head.
And the pay was just another round.

[Bridge]
You can't weigh a memory.
But I can still feel the heft of that ceramic stein in my hand.
Heavier than the aluminum can.
Both of them just as empty by the end of the night.
You trade one ghost for another.
You just trade the ghosts.

[Outro]
Just another round.
The pay was another round.
And then they called time.
For good.