Spring semester freshman year, the day before our mid February break and I am looking for one more night of boozing before heading home. None of my fellow Montauk Hall residents were down so I sought out a different group of associates who would be down to get fucked up on a Tuesday night. I contacted my friend from orientation Ging who I had partied with on occasion in that first glorious year at Albany. Apparently Ging and his floormates were heading out to a “new” bar being promoted in Albany’s capital district which was unknown territory to me at that time. That bar was called the Pearl Street Pub and they were offering free transportation to the bar, and incredible drink specials that night. Upon hearing this news I became extremely excited, it sounded so fucking legit and sounded almost too good to be true. Now according to Ging there was going to be a party bus that was going to pick us up from the quad, be supplied with booze, and take us all the way to the pub. Now I may have been naïve and stupid back then, but even I was skeptical about this, but I wasn’t going to complain, I was just down to roll with the night a matra of mine that will inevitably lead to my demise someday.
After shot-gunning a few cans of keystone light, Ging and I began to feel a good buzz. It was moments later that the “transportation” arrived. If you could have guessed it was not a luxurious party bus, but instead two dank vans, with Pearl Street Pub logos on them. Don’t misinterpret this, they didn’t look like rape vans, they looked like taxi vans but kind of rundown. Looking back I don’t know what the fuck I was thinking, getting into those vans without question, I guess I just blindly trusted Ging’s crew in making good decisions, blame it on the booze.
We jump into the taxi like vans and started heading to the capital district. My bladder began to betray me, I had maybe four beers, and they were passing through me quickly. I’d been to the capital district one time before back when my dad and I were visiting Albany in the summer, and this was my first time going back since, so I had no idea how long the ride was going to be. With each passing minute the need to piss grew and grew. Finally I caught a break, the second van with the rest of our crew missed a light and we had to pull over to wait for them. I took full advantage of this opportunity and leaped out of the van and started pissing in the snow. One of the most relieving feelings of my life and although I was being yelled at by everyone in the van I could not give less of a fuck. Luckily I finished just before the second van caught up, so there was no delay. A few minutes later and we were not being murdered by the drivers, but being dropped off in front of the bar.
We arrive at the bar, show the bouncers our chalked/fake IDs and get into the place no problem, ah Albany freshmen year the good old days. This was my first time in a legit bar and I was blown away by this place. It had two bars with legit liquor bottles in stock, no Crystal Palace or Evan Williams at this place. There were plenty of space to move around and have actual conversations without screaming, and a big ass dance floor on the ground level. Considering the only three bars I’ve been to before that night were the hole in the wall sensation affectionately known as Chubbys, my most successful hookup spot the shady Michaels, and a total shithole called Boogies, so needless to say this was the nicest bar I had ever been to in Albany.
There was a legit crowd in attendance, a much more diverse crowd than I was used to. It wasn’t the usual blend of freshman and sophomores from a combination of schools in the Albany area, but a lot more of an older crowd, which further feed my belief that I was finally at a legit place. The best part was that it was two for one drink specials that night. This usually results in an eventful evening for me, sometimes entertaining, sometimes shameful. Take a guess which genre this night fell under. After pounding down maybe 10 drinks, McMandy had officially broken loose from his minimal confinement within my twisted mind.
While McMandy, I aggressively flirted with almost every girl in attendance including an older woman who I think was part of the bars management, and was obscenely hot. She was nice to me probably because she was used to getting hit on by horny drunk bastards like me. I had no shot which I loudly informed everyone around me once she walked away.
I was in the bathroom when it happened. I stumbled into the bathroom to excrete some urine when I butted into a conversation with three dudes I had never met before. For some reason I thought they said kick the wall or we’ll kick your ass. Afraid a three on one beat down (that I cannot confirm was the actual scenario), I complied with their ‘demand’ (that probably wasn’t even made) and started kicking that absolute shit out the bathroom wall. I was wearing boots and kicked a fucking hole in the bathroom wall. Hearing the crowd reactions and the breaking of tile, two giant bouncers ran in grabbed me and threw me out of the fucking bar. I don’t think I was speaking English while I tried to negotiate my re-entry and as you can guess wasn’t allowed back in. I peed in an alley behind the bar, jumped in a cab with some girls from Ging’s crew who by a miraculous coincidence were leaving too and headed back to campus a defeated man.
This was the beginning of a battle of wills between my primitive alcohol fueled alter-ego and one of the best party spots in town. Countless times Senior and Junior year would McMandy come out on Pearl Street and have his share of victories and defeats. Victory meaning I survived without incident or got ass, defeat meaning I get kicked out of whatever bar I went too or ended up puking the whole night. At the conclusion of that night freshman year, it was Pearl Street 1 McMandy 0
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