Cha Cha's

Just around the corner from the Freak Bar on the Boardwalk there lies another venue where one can go after sundown to experience a type of entertainment unique to Coney Island.....uniquely unique in this case, ha. Formerly known as Club Atlantis, the building was be re-birthed as Cha Cha's. The dude running the joint, JT, is quite an interesting character. Depending on which mood swing you catch him in the middle of, you'll either get an awesome story and new buddy, or an insane madman who will kick your ass out of the bar for no good reason. I remember asking him about an afternoon jam session I had peeked in on. And based on the sounds coming from the stage, the session consisted of mediocre blues musicians hacking their way through predictable material (but having a BLAST doing it so more power to 'em!). When I inquired about sitting in, he kind  of just stared at me for a while and said (well something along these lines) in a very serious tone: "You've got to be GOOD to sit in here. If you fuck up here, you'll never play anywhere in this town. So think about that before you come down here buddy." I guess the half dozen people in the bar when I passed by the session must have been super important....

Anyway, the first time I wandered in was during daylight hours and Cha Chas seemed to just be another dive boardwalk bar and good place to grab a beer and BS with some locals. As the summer wore on I obviously learned otherwise.

The vibe at Cha Chas is much much divier than the Freak Bar and the acts performing there are more "in your face" and "shocking" as opposed to the "classier" performances of the Freak Bar. While I did spend several late nights there with friends after the performances had already ended, I was able to attend a few Saturday night performances of the Philly based Squidling Brothers Circus Sideshow and was thoroughly entertained.

Some of the memorable performances I was exposed to (or were exposed to me in some cases) included some quite disturbing anatomically (in)correct muppets, "Lunch Box" eating moderately gross things and revealing more than necessary to make his point, monetary tips being stapled to both he and Jellyboy The Clown on a variety of body parts, spastic performances by Jellyboy's band The Hydrogen Jukebox, a super hot and extremely impressive Ariel Chain act by Anya Sapozhnikova, some rather dark and awesome burlesque performances including my friends Serpentina and the super rad Remy Vicious, the incredible Insectavora performing her fire act, and some (unintentionally) hilarious, horrendous magic tricks performed by the omnipresent and ever skeezy Mystic Marlow.

Cha Chas also played host to the Coney Island Rockabilly Festival, which was held the last weekend we were in town. I suppose I could go into more detail about my specific Cha Chas experiences but the nights are best remembered through pictures. Good times. Good peeps.