Words by Tom Price
Photos by Joshua Rivera

There’s nothing normal about the three guys sitting at the table.

One is cloaked in black from head to toe, another is a bit bleary-eyed with a crooked trucker’s hat and the last is well dressed but with a coy “I can drink you under a table” look on his face.

They don’t want to be normal, never have and never will. Brothers RC and Joey Essig and friend Tim Williams are the definition of independent. From the music they listen to, to their rogue bar downtown, the trio is literally making a living by living on the fringe.

“We founded this bar knowing there are a whole bunch of people who want something different,” says RC. “We aren’t for everybody, we are for everybody else.”

The Partisan opened its doors two years ago this month. Tattered guitars, goofy pictures and concert posters cover the walls. The interior design is more basement than feng-shui and the dress code is a little more unbuttoned flannel than cuff links and Windsor knots. Their prized piece of wall art — a faux stain glass window.

“We stayed up until like 2 a.m. playing with puff paint in a room filled with cigarette smoke,” Tim says.

There’s a reason these three can’t help but laugh as they sit here today. They feel like they are getting away with something. A few fellas that couldn’t tell you how to make a martini have turned their little downtown shack into a sanctuary for music lovers.

Some of the most well-known artists in the indie genre consider The Partisan the perfect pit-stop on their way to San Francisco or down to Los Angeles. “It’s like Cheers but with Indie Music,” says Joey.

From Jason Lytle to Earlimart and Thee Mile Pilot and Nik Freitas, some incredible acts have landed at the Partisan. Its cozy atmosphere and excellent sound allow for an incredibly intimate experience.

One Saturday 30-or-so people were clamoring in the bar as the band Nick and Janni took the stage. The group from Portland started strumming and the crowd went silent.

“Everybody was talking and then it was quiet. It was like that for 45 minutes straight,” RC says. “People started pulling up chairs and sitting around the stage and the band asked the crowd to sing a long.”

Nobody was drinking, but everybody was listening. People unstacked chairs and huddled around the stage. It something you don’t see everyday at a bar. Most of all, a “dive bar,” as they call it.

But then again, everything about The Partisan is a little bit different. And that’s just the way they like it.