Chris Reece’s bar and grill the Pike is the only thing in Long Beach worthy of both that name and the history: a local institution with reverent representation of past local institutions all over its walls, such as the U.S. Navy, LA punk and the original old-school Pike amusement pier/sideshow carnival. So Memorial Day Madness (presented by Pike regular DJ Resistance) works both ways here. You can hoist one for the boys in uniform who helped make Long Beach what it was—back before the 7th Fleet headed south—and you can haul up another for the memory of the way things used to be, back before a bunch of empty stucco storefronts stole the name the Pike. And do one little shot for Elmer McCurdy, too. He’s the Oklahoma outlaw who died and got mummified and ended up serving for years as a scary dummy in a funhouse at the old Pike, until they figured out that the mummy was no dummy. To the best years of our lives, boys!
Mon., May 30, 10 p.m., 2011
