Changing Hands

Live at PJs and Goodnite Gracie

by Sally Mitani

posted 2/4/2012

Two of Ann Arbor's increasingly rare venues for live music quickly changed hands and closed on January 1. Bartender Amanda Leavitt, who worked both Live at PJ's and Goodnite Gracie on New Year's Eve, found out that night. "Everyone was saying 'Sorry you lost your job,' and I was like what?'"

Both clubs are currently closed for some minor remodeling, and when they reopen, in early February, they'll be called Live and The Last Word. "We're going to have a Wednesday-night bluegrass, or folksy-bluesy evening of local artists upstairs," says Paul Drennan, one of five partners who just bought the two clubs on the corner of Huron. "And then downstairs there will be live music maybe one or two nights a week: mellow, laid-back, jazz, acoustic, that kind of thing."

At press time, the fate of Live at PJ's best-known attraction, the Friday happy hour, was up in the air. Musician Chris Goerke hadn't booked his band, Drivin' Sideways, anywhere for the month of February, but was hoping to find a happy-hour home.

Drennan hasn't entirely ruled out the possibility of a happy hour at Live, but says it won't happen immediately. According to Goerke, "It's between Live, Guy Hollerin's, and Creekside."   

[Originally published in February, 2012.]