A new contender vying for your attention in the weeknight Buffalo social scene is Geeks Who Drink, a "pub quiz" event recently franchised out to a handful of locations in our fair city. The Tap House on Tuesday nights, Cole's on Wednesdays and now Fat Bob's Smokehouse on Thursdays. Personally, I'm a big believer in truth in advertising, so let's get that out of the way right now; two things you need to realize about this event series:

1. It's no accident that these events happen only on weeknights. The point is to inject some vitality into the bar scene on nights when we can't sleep in the following morning. Nothing wrong with it, smart for the bar owners. That said, if you choose to attend these events, while they are free to attend, be a sport and order something a little more substantive than tap water.

2. The Geeks Who Drink website (link) would have you believe that this is more than just a bar trivia night, that it is an intense multimedia experience, something akin to a Lady Gaga concert or raiding Prince's panty drawer... Well, I'm here to tell you that this is not the case (about the trivia night thing, I don't have any hard evidence about the Prince thing). A trivia night is exactly what it is. And that's perfectly fine. Let's call it a defect of a generation that in order to be noticed everything has to be sold as radically different and hugely innovative, but nobody stops to consider that some things don't necessarily need improvement or reinterpretation. It's a pub quiz and pub quizzes are a good thing. If you need more selling than that then this event is probably not for you anyway.

A word on format... The game consists of eight rounds, each having it's own theme. Each round has eight "questions", some name-that-tune, some historical trivia, and one visual round where you are given a sheet with images from movies and you're asked to name the movies. Point scoring is a little more complicated than it needs to be honestly (double point rounds, single point rounds, partial credit redemption rounds and something about a joker's face that affects scoring somehow), but putting that aside the quiz itself is pretty straightforward and fun. Prizes are awarded for First and Second place at the end of the night, and throughout the game there are "Bonus Questions" that if you get the right answer first will score you a free pint at the bar.

I joined a group of local friends at Fat Bob's this past Thursday (29Nov.12) to form our team for the night. I think it would be fair to say that we fit the target demographic for this particular event, geeks who do, in fact, drink. As it would happen, we were not nearly nerdy enough for this; our trivia was not trivial enough. Anyone out there able to distinguish between the umpteen versions of "Mustang Sally" to say which artist's version it is from a 15 second audio clip? I put "Not Johnny Lang" because as far as I was concerned that was the only pertinent information I could offer. But I appreciate a challenge and I will endeavor to stretch the limits of the useless things rattling around in my head for the next time. Also, I would recommend that you arrive with a team name already in mind, because as I will get into in a minute the isn't much time for creative debate once the game starts.

I attribute the handful of drawbacks of the evening to factors that were not the fault of the venue or the format. Firstly, the group of obnoxious drunks situated next to us at the bar were a perfect storm of loud, stupid and way too close. Nobody's fault, that's just the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. Secondly, the host/emcee was a little rough around the edges. Nobody is expecting Chuck Woolery for the night, but telling the belligerent drunks in a pre-pubescent, nasally voice, "Alright guys, I'm asking you nicely to keep it down," you're kind of asking for it. That is a middle school hall monitor's way of dealing with assholes, and in the adult world it seldom ever works. But, I give the guy credit for having the stones to try hosting an event like this in the first place. Fill a room with people looking to unwind after a hard day's work, throw in dollar-off drafts, add a splash of competitiveness and it's half a miracle that nobody got punched in the neck. All the same, I think they would do well to find a more charismatic host who is slightly more comfortable behind a microphone. Have you ever stopped by a Starbucks or Tim Horton's at10amon a Saturday morning and they are 8-10 people deep in line for coffee because they are training a new employee behind the register? This was a similar experience, the guy deserves a shot and he may do better when he gets some experience, but this was not the situation upon which to cut his teeth. Also, it would've been nice if the questions were paced a bit better. I accept that it is a balancing act between going too quickly for people to keep up and too slowly as to bore the audience, but there was a sizable part of the game where I wasn't able to drink my beer or talk to the people on my team because it was all just moving way too fast.

I want to reiterate that these things, while irritating at the time, did very little overall to detract from our enjoyment of the night on the whole. I think it's a fun event that will only get better with age (this was an inaugural night for Fat Bob's). The trivia was challenging. Fat Bob's is a great venue with top notch bartenders & staff. They were also offering dollar-off draft beers and half-price appetizers from the bar during the game. So if you carry with you an inordinate amount of "useless" information from day-to-day and know a few similarly burdened individuals, then head out to Fat Bob's on Thursday nights to see if you have what it takes to come away a winner.