That’s what people call the scene happening at the Live nightclub from 6:30 to 9 p.m. on Fridays. And in mid-January, the New York Times declared it “the coolest rock show in Ann Arbor.”
The Ann Arbor Happy Hour—a dance party featuring live music—has been around in various forms and venues since the 1970s. Its salient characteristics these days are old tunes—like Muddy Waters’ “Got My Mojo Working” and the Spencer Davis Group’s “Gimme Some Lovin’”—and old folks. As Times reporter Joseph Bernstein noted, “almost everyone is over 65.”
“Geezer?” says seventy-two-year-old bass player and event organizer Randy Tessier with a smile in his cracked voice. “We’re a bunch of cool people that got old. That ain’t our fault!”
While his day job as a lecturer in the U-M’s English Department earns him accolades like “the coolest professor,” Tessier is a rocker at heart. He’s gigged around town for decades, but since Bernstein’s article ran, he’s got a national profile, fielding calls from CBS, NBC, NPR, and others.
The moment of fame “feels good,” the UP native admits. “But I’ve always been a legend in my own mind. So I guess it’s leaked out!”
Fame came when Tessier was at his lowest. In January 2022, his best friend—Tessier calls him a brother—died at work. Nine days later, “my son died,” he says in a tearful voice. But the losses didn’t stop him from rocking. “I said, ‘Randy, you’re gonna play!’
“When I play my bass, I feel like I’m in touch with my brother,” Tessier continues quietly. And “I feel like my son’s been teaching me how to play better. I’m more devoted to actually playing than I ever was since I was twenty.”
The happy hour started in the 1970s at Mr. Flood’s Party on Liberty (where West End Grill is now) and passed through the Blind Pig, the Cavern Club, and the Heidelberg before landing at Live. “The owners have been really good to us,” Tessier says. “They’re providing a venue for us old people to do our thing.
“My goal is to keep it cool and to be true and honest to our whole cohort,” he says, his voice rising. “My job is to be the curator of cool!”
Tessier intends to rock as long as humanly possible. And while he doesn’t “believe in karma,” he says, he does “feel blessed and grateful for all this attention.”
