Verandah the MDI music mecca Summer hotspot hosts live bands

From Memorial Day through October, Bar Harbor and the rest of Mount Desert Island become a mecca for tourists. Sure, there are drawbacks – traffic congestion, long lines for ice cream cones, and men with black socks and too-short shorts – but the upshot is that this influx of summer residents and passers-through helps get the live music scene a-hopping ’til the leaves of summer turn.

There are some great venues in Bar Harbor proper as well as some of the smaller oceanside burgs around MDI. This seasonal opening of the field also necessitates a migratory infusion of another kind: bands and solo performers. And in the coming weeks, I’ll be doing my best to check out and report on some of the other sounds and places eastern Maine has to offer.

As a starting point for the musically inclined weekend warrior, it’s hard to beat the upstairs space at 119 Main St., the address of one Carmen Verandah. In the thick of souvenir and ice cream shops, this nightclub offers a consistent schedule of original live acts, and a casual, upbeat atmosphere for tourists, locals and semilocals (all us folks from the towns beyond) to mix, play pool, shoot darts, dance and listen to music.

Live bands take the stage at about 9:30 p.m. most Fridays and Saturdays with music ranging from rock to funk to ska. The Jason Spooner Band, a New England-based, eclectic rock band, takes the stage Saturday, June 5.

Of course, a person and his or her companions cannot live by music alone. Sharing a kitchen with Rupununi downstairs, Carmen Verandah offers some tasty bar foods with flair – burgers, the increasingly ubiquitous but nevertheless tasty buffalo chicken sandwich, crunchy fries, quesadillas and the like – as well some more pricey entrees like salads and seafood. There’s even a late-night menu and $2 PBRs – that’s “Pabst! Blue! Ribbon!” to the uninitiated.

For more about Carmen Verandah and coming shows, log on to www.carmenverandah.com, or call 288-2766. George Bragdon can be reached at gbragdon@bangor dailynews.net.