Although nostalgia for its grimier, former incarnation as Sorry Charlie's is understandable, the reality is that current owners/scene mavens Dave Meinert and Jeff Steichen have done an admirable job of making the Mirabeau Room a cozy- yet-glamorous den of inequity. The staff is sweet-tempered and the cocktails are excellent, if a bit pricey (when did everyone start charging $10 a pop for margaritas? Are tequila prices being inflated by the war?). Furthermore, the booking is impressively eclectic, with Bollywood and dancehall DJ nights sharing calendar space alongside burlesque shows and poetry slams. The club's latest creative endeavor is the Open Plug iPod Happy Hour, conducted every Thursday and Friday from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. Patrons are encouraged to bring their iPods and sign up on a dry erase board in the bar's main showroom for 15-minute sets. A vivid magenta counter projected on the screen above the stage counts down time remaining on each set, and the one caveat is that if a selection is truly reprehensible to the bar staff, veto privileges may be invoked. Although the nights' popularity has been steadily rising since their inception six weeks ago, the fact that we're walking into the dimly lit showroom on a sunny Cinco de Mayo means that an uncharacteristically sparse crowd is enjoying a monopoly on the "open plug." The adjacent lounge is doubling as a meeting room for an assortment of local luminaries, including Meinert himself, Mudhoney's Mark Arm, and Triple Door booking agent Scott Giampino, who are working out the final details of the Rock Star Bake Sale, a fundraiser they're hosting at Linda's on Saturday, May 14, for pro-music City Council Member Richard Conlin. Leaving them to speculate about what sort of confection the United State of Electronica might be baking, I return to the showroom and watch one enthusiastic participant vigorously rocking out to his Dandy Warhols selection. The woman who follows him isn't so fortunate; her Courtney Love track is swiftly--but politely--gonged by the bartender. HANNAH LEVIN