Vintage polaroids from Bill Bryson’s book on legendary Gainesville rock club Covered Dish

As any longtime Floridian musician will tell you, Gainesville is a great place to be in a band. It’s about as enjoyable for music fans, too, and Bill Bryson’s book, All Of Us Are Now: Snapshots from a Rock Club, captures one slice of the Florida town’s most charming venues, the Covered Dish. Opened by Bryson in 1992, the Covered Dish was at 210 SW 2nd Ave. (where the High Dive is now). The book is filled with more than 100 polaroids (Bryson’s staff kept one behind the bar, ready to capture candid moments), and we’ve compiled a couple dozen of them here. Listen to Bryson — who ran the club until 2000 — talk about it all via WUFT, and find a copy of the book here.