Kung Fu Necktie

If demented clown paintings and massive carousel horses strike your fancy, have we got the Philadelphia dive bar for you. Eye-catching from any distance thanks to a building-covering mural containing a host of striking visual elements, Kung Fu Necktie is a dive bar-live music club hybrid in the city’s Fishtown-Kensington border neighborhood just steps from an elevated train stop.

Opened in 2008, Kung Fu Necktie took over a space that had operated as a much divier dive bar, Penalty Box Sports Bar. The change in ownership triggered an extensive renovation that added a bar, extended interior ceiling height and added a handful of tables built from old bowling alley lanes. Readily apparent from outside the bar, Kung Fu Necktie is fairly cavernous, these renovated features populating a generous footprint extended by a large outdoor patio.

All under the watchful eye of a giant disco ball, live music takes over the small Kung Fu Necktie stage nearly every night of the week and sometimes twice a day on select weekend evenings. These are largely ticketed events with advance admission available online. Though the bar itself is rather large, the area around the stage is fairly snug, meaning live shows often involve cramming into a sea of musically-motivated humanity.

In addition to local and touring acts, the stage also hosts a weekly Emo Night Philly event, framed by Kung Fu Necktie has the longest running city event of its kind and home to the classic bands well-associated with the emo genre like My Chemical Romance and others. Occasionally, a second event named Emo Night Philly Karaoke populates the bar’s weekly calendar, offering amateur participating in either paying tribute or absolutely butchering the same genre. While karaoke evenings are largely free of cover charges, other theme nights are indeed paid events.

The bar typically opens at 6 PM well in advance of live music acts taking the stage, meaning a small sliver of time is available to experience the space before the crowd starts to swell. This is a good time to take in the actual bar, though a more accurate depiction of its typical nightly vibe can be found after the live show is over and the crowd, fueled by the energy it just experienced, simmers with energy. On weekend nights, that usually means a crowd large enough that it extends to the stage itself.

Decorates here are diverse, ranging from illuminated plastic animals above the bar to more than one framed photo of a professional wrestler. A small chalkboard behind the bar depicts that night’s draft beer selection. Dive bar favorites like Hamm’s and even Natty Bo are typically found here in addition to a ‘mystery beer’ selection at a discounted price. If available, booth seating running along one of the bar’s walls offers the best vantage point of the evening’s shenanigans, each red, cushioned bench flanked by well-worn walls bearing remnants of stickers, posters and who knows what else.