Last week, between landing at RDU and performing a stand-up show at the Carolina Theatre, Patton Oswalt killed a Thursday night the way any self-respecting punk might: by following the music up a mysterious downtown Durham staircase and finding himself at a three-band show. Cover charge: ten bucks.
Bands CHEW, Delta 8, and POLLUTE. were playing an 8 p.m. show at the venue, which regularly hosts live music, alongside karaoke, DJs, and “bring your own vinyl” nights.
His evening at Rubies on Five Points left such an impression that the next morning, Oswalt posted a lengthy Instagram tribute to the venue, calling it “chill, goofy, inclusive, friendly, dark and fun.” In a moment when many people are grappling with an uncertain political future, he wrote, spaces like Rubies offer “fierce, human light.”
Durham resident Chloe Spooner, who was hanging out at Rubies that night, spent several minutes working up the courage to show her Ratatouille ankle tattoo to the actor—who famously voiced Remy, a French rat who dreams of becoming a chef, in the 2007 film.
“I have a pretty strong celebrity boundary—I don’t want to bother people,” Spooner says. “But I was like, I have a tattoo from a movie that he’s in, and I don’t think I’ll ever be in the same space with him again.”
When Spooner approached him, Oswalt’s enthusiasm matched her own. He asked to take photos of the tattoo to show his daughter, which led to Spooner sharing pictures of her dog—also named Remy.
“He was so nice the whole night,” Spooner says. “He was super open to everyone.”
Oswalt reportedly stayed for all three bands. Dust, the vocalist for local outfit POLLUTE., made sure Oswalt was properly equipped for their high-decibel set.
“We play really loud and fast, so I offered him a pair of earplugs from the bar to make sure that he had protection,” Dust says.
In his post, Oswalt praised POLLUTE.’s “spine-blast thrash assault” and quoted what he called “one of the best bits of stage banter I’ve heard in a long time”: “Fuck God, we’ve got merch in the back!”
For Rubies co-owners Shawn Stokes and Rob Montemayor (who, serendipitously, also run the bar downstairs—Remy’s Lounge), Oswalt’s write-up captured the scrappy community spirit they’ve been working hard to cultivate.
“I was really taken aback by how genuinely sweet and kind it was, not just to us, but to the bands and the community and the culture,” says Stokes.
“What he wrote is touching—but, I mean, it’s very true,” Montemayor says. “We need spaces like Rubies, like The Pinhook, like Dain’s, like the taquerias on Roxboro. That’s what makes a city interesting. That’s what makes you want to go back to visit. Big high rises are not why you want to go to a city.”
On Saturday, the morning after his show, Oswalt posted that he’d made another local stop: Cup A Joe in Raleigh, where he used to write jokes during early 90s stand-up touring stops. The man knows how to find the good stuff.
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