"You've got a few people with family money, but most of the people who drink here are just sort of scrabbling by," says David Greenwood, an "underground performance artist and puppeteer" who has been a 6 East regular for the last two and a half years.
Greenwood, who lives 10 minutes away from the Beast by foot, moved to Tempe after dropping out of the University of California-Riverside in 1989, and says he drinks at 6 East three or four nights a week, on average.
"There are definitely people in this bar who are wastoids," he says. "Just dumb-fuck idiots who drink and get stupid. And then there are those who make it an art form. At 6 East, you can be a loser drunk going nowhere, or you can use the dive-bar experience, much like Bukowski did in Barfly, as a means of inspiration, a way to reach that next level of awareness.
"I can eat at the table with kings and queens, but I'm just as comfortable here with the beggars and thieves. If, as an artist, you really want to get to the heart of humanity, you can't preclude yourself from any sector of society."
Plus, Greenwood says, 6 East is a good place to go "fate surfing." Take June 19, the day of OzzFest, an all-day heavy-metal concert at Desert Sky Pavilion, featuring a reunited Black Sabbath.
"I woke up around 10 and said, 'You know what? I want to experience OzzFest,'" Greenwood says. "'I want to hang out with dirt heads and get drunk all day.' But I didn't have a ticket or a way there. So I went to 6 East. Decided to have a beer and think about it. Boom! Out of the blue, two guys walked in who had just gotten off the plane from California, and they had heard about 6 East, and they were going to OzzFest." After the festival, Greenwood says, he stood at one of the venue's exits with a hand-lettered sign that read "6 East, Tempe."
"I caught a ride with the fourth car out."
The surf was also up one summer day two years ago that began with Greenwood down and out in 6 East with his friends Carrie and Christian. "We got there in the morning with 36 cents between us, and decided to see how long we could last just bumming drinks off friends that came in. When 1 a.m. rolled around, we were still there. We'd pulled a shift with no money. 6 East is what you might call a very enabling environment."
The next day, Christian died of a drug overdose. Most of the regulars went to the bar that night wearing black.
"I've buried three friends from that bar," Greenwood says. "That place represents the best and worst for me. There's definitely a beautiful community there . . . but there's a lot of tortured souls. It's like the main character in Leaving Las Vegas. He was really out to get himself. And there are people at 6 East who are really out to get themselves. And some of them have great potential, and it's hard to watch them. But they're exactly where they want to be, so who the hell am I to judge?
"Still, I can't help thinking that when they knock this place down, this giant, evil face will appear in the dust cloud, like one of those Weekly World News covers. You know--'Satan Appears Above 6 East Ruins. Tempe dive actually a portal to hell, experts say.' I'd say it's earned that kind of headline.
