The Lodge Room – December 22, 2025
Oh my gosh what a fun show! Since seeing Beck at the Lodge Room a few years ago, I am on their mailing list. It’s mostly people I’ve never heard of or people I HAVE heard of with sold out shows. When I ran this one by Julie I got a wholehearted YES. We were going to meet at her place but she got delayed and texted that we should just meet at the venue. There is no parking at the Lodge Room, but there are a few metered lots and street parking. I found a spot a couple blocks away in front of a church. At least it wasn’t pouring rain like last time we were at the Lodge Room. Julie had take the train and beat me there by a few minutes so we met up and walked over together. There is a restaurant at the front of the building which we’d forgotten about so we went up the wrong set of stairs and had to make our way back down and around the back. The entrance for the Lodge Room is in the alley behind the building. They don’t have proper tickets, instead they have a list of names and they check ID’s (or not – they checked them for Beck, they just asked my name for El Vez). They checked ID’s for wristbands if you wanted to drink as well. We had a brief bag check and made our way upstairs. It’s a small room. It’s Masonic Lodge roots still shine with the murals and carved wood paneling. It’s also standing room only, so we found a wall to lean against while waiting for the show to begin.
Up first was Santa Sabbath – a Black Sabbath tribute band playing Christmas songs set to the music of Black Sabbath. They did not disappoint. Seriously, they were everything I was hoping they would be when I saw them on the billing. The sound levels got up to 109 db though, so I was glad I had my earplugs. Then El Vez himself came out to introduce Duderella starting with, “I’ll be El Vez later…” Duderella were locals and had family there to see the show. They are a synth punk duo. The singer had painted himself silver. They were weird, but not bad.
And then it was time for the main event. The Centuries took the stage wearing white shirts with little bow ties, harnesses (like reindeer harnesses) and reindeer hats and launched into the first song. Two santas then carried El Vez out in a sack and left him on the stage where he burst forth in a black leather outfit with a santa hat. He was thoroughly entertaining and the Centuries were a fantastic super tight rockabilly band. El Vez had several costume changes throughout the night, including a skin tight poinsettia patterned Elvis style jumpsuit that he said he made out of his abuela’s tablecloth and had no give so he couldn’t bend over. This was definitely one of the best shows of the year. I hope he does it again next year because it was well worth the price of admission (which in this case was only $26).