Lady E & The Best of the Bay
Eli’s Mile High Club
3629 Martin Luther King Jr Way
Oakland
March 18, 2024
An influx of Black workers in the ‘40s for jobs at the Oakland Army Base brought the culture of jazz and blues to West Oakland. Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) construction began in the ’60s; by the time Eli Thornton opened Eli’s Mile High Club in 1974, the BART project had wiped out Oakland’s nightlife. Eli’s soon emerged as a true “Home of the West Coast Blues” and today survives as a gathering place of the spirits and the living legends.
I’d venture a guess that not much of the interior has changed since the ‘80s, with old show posters of blues legends in their heyday line the wooden beams above the bar area. By 7 p.m. the day of the Blue Mondays show I attended, the red light flooding the stage and warm amber fixtures above the bar gave off an “after hours” feel.
The patrons of today’s Eli’s comprise the magical center of the Venn diagram including Western cowboys, blues lovers, punk rockers, skaters, BIPOCs, queerdos, and anarchists. A delightfully multitudinous mix. You could be 21 or 91 and still fit right in the scene.
The Blue Mondays crowd was small, but mighty. As I took in the fedoras, country Western shirts, and the occasional cowboy hat, I looked up to see a rat skeleton perched on the slowly rotating disco ball hanging from the ceiling.
The band introduced themselves as The Best of the Bay and informed us that while Lady E was a little ill, “the show still goes on.” Harmonica player Doug Cole, humbly dressed with his button-down shirt and glasses, got down and dirty bluegrass-style with the microphone cupped snug in his hands to amplify the sound. I enjoyed watching the keyboardist, California J, reading Cole’s energy to properly time the end of the song and go out on a bang.
The band covered Johnnie Taylor’s “Last Two Dollars” and rewound time back to Marvin Gaye. “We gon keep it in the ‘70s” bass player Skip hollered before dropping into “What’s Goin On?” and we couldn’t help but sing along. There wasn’t much talking between songs besides a “Right on brother. And sister!” and “Wasn’t that funky? I know that loosened yall up,” and there didn’t need to be.
My friend and I ordered a basket of Totchos, which I had initially figured to be an indigenous food I had not yet tried. It turned out to be a portmanteau of “tater tots” and “nachos.” I wasn’t expecting the perfect distribution of crema and queso and the cool crispness of the pico de gallo atop the crunchy golden tots to impress me but it did. Sitting there, munching on Totchos, whole body convulsing to spectacular, yet humble musicians, I felt the spirit of the blues institution Eli’s once was.
The band clearly loved playing with each other; you could see the attention and connection among them. It seemed that in the absence of Lady E, it was time for the esteemed California J to shine on the keys, evidenced by the frequent, “Go head J!” After a bumping rendition of Muddy Waters’ “My Love Strikes Like Lightning,” the players took a break and announced the musician sign-up for anyone to play with the band.
After a few games of pool, we returned to the bar area to find a new assembly of musicians, all except for California J of course, supporting the guest players. A little while later, The Best of the Bay came back up along with Malik on the saxophone and a singer whose name I heard to be Willow Pennywell. In the middle of their performance of Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition,” the band quieted down to let her speak. She told us her husband had been a saxophone player for the doo wop group The Flamingos, famous for the song “I Only Have Eyes for You.” He had made it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
“I lost my husband five years ago, but I still have him in my heart” she said, as the band picked right back up into “Superstition.”
And the crowd went wild.
Eli’s hosts Blues Mondays weekly from 7 – 11 p.m.
