The Thursday Night Party | The SureFires at Amp the Alley Some nights walk in with confidence. Others edge in — slowly, cautiously — like they’re not sure they’ll be invited to stay. Last Thursday was one of those. By mid-afternoon, the radar looked clear enough. The humidity was a presence. Folding chairs started to appear, and The Alley began to fill — not in a rush, but with quiet optimism. And for a while, it seemed like we were in the clear. Then came 8PM.

The Thursday Night Party | Lost Dog at Amp the Alley By now, Thursdays in Aiken arrive with bated breath. You can feel it in the way the chairs start stacking near the door, in the slow-down of the last afternoon meeting, in the hopeful glances at the sky. Because Thursday means music. It means downtown fills in — not in a rush, but like a tide. It means people you know, and people you don’t yet, gathered under lights that flicker on just as the sun lets go. But this past Th

It was a 70% chance for storms According to nearly every weather app Kenny and I could get our hands on. The sky couldn’t make up its mind. It had the look of someone hovering just outside Southbound Smokehouse on karaoke night, deciding whether the line — and the stage fright — were worth it. At 6:15, The Alley was a scatterplot of hopeful folding chairs and maybe five people pretending not to refresh their radar app.