Trivia Points Are Gold: Inside Bozeman’s Trivia Community

Editor’s note: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the MSU Exponent, its editorial staff, advisers, or Montana State University.

Free bar tab for the winning team, $2 shots each round, local beers and unpredictable topics sum up the bar trivia community in Bozeman. The most successful teams need upwards of 20 members, each studying a different major, one obsessed with Minecraft, and others with random historical facts tucked in their belt. Even then, getting half of the answers correct is barely feasible. To these players, trivia points are gold. 

Many MSU students make their way to the bar for trivia, especially in the winter with longer nights. Friends I know who play weekly have one goal: don’t wait until the weekend to get a few beers down. If it’s seemingly impossible for anyone in our generation to even buy a house, why not get hammered on a Wednesday night? 

On Monday, Wildrye Distilling holds general trivia while Bacchus Pub and Rocking R Bar host sports trivia. It Will Always Be That Way lounge, Last Best Place Brewing Company (LBPBC), Lockhorn Cider House and The Jump Restaurant & Bar all have trivia on Tuesdays. There seems to be the highest volume of trivia participants on Wednesdays, at SHINE Beer Sanctuary﹢Bottle Shop, Pub 317, Rocking R Bar and, most notably, The Molly Brown Bar. 

LBPBC is laid back and, most importantly to some trivia-goers like myself, dog friendly. Food is not served there, but it's not uncommon to see players with a fat bowl of food, as outside food is allowed. I know this because jealousy slaps me in the face each time my eye catches a flattering plate I wish I’d gotten. Something not so eye catching — the taxidermy. If you’ve got taxidermiphobia, you’ll be leaving early.

On Tuesday at 6 p.m., games took over the bar with every seat filled, while pickleball played on the TVs and dogs wandered for pets. The spunky trivia host and head honcho of LBPBC, Colin Ruh-Kirk, announced each question over a mic and players had to pay close attention, as the questions were not displayed on TVs. I found myself asking “What’d he say?,” one too many times. Some teams played as if they were trying to solve a puzzle in the dark and others picked up a game of pool during each round. 

For some free points, Ruh-Kirk asked people to write down how many people in their team had voted, as the trivia was held on Tues. Nov. 3. — midterm Election Day. Similarly to Ruh-Kirk, two bartenders paraded around in their “I VOTED” stickers. Sam Forstag would have been all over it. After four rounds in two hours and my IQ lowering after each question, Ruh-Kirk announced the top three finishing teams who each won LBPBC merchandise or brewery points, redeemable for a free bar tab or free drinks. 

One of the more engaged teams wore matching armour — bright yellow T-shirts that read, “There are two kinds of people in this world. Weasels & Weasel Slappers.” 

The Weasel Slappers — Alana Bugland, Lauren Rankin and friends — tend to go out each week for trivia, though they are not avid LBPBC goers. Let’s just say the team shirts were intimidating. 

I would rank LBPBC as the best trivia for a diverse crowd and most laid back bar. 

Rocking R Bar acts as a home base to plenty of college students and may be preferred by many when choosing a bar to play trivia, drawn by the fabulous neon lighting, non-excruciating thunder of noise and the questionable, but intriguing, potions poured into a glass. 

Rocking R, unlike any other trivia hosts, offers trivia twice a week — Monday is sports based, while Wednesday has more randomized themes, both beginning at 7:30 p.m. 

Rocking R takes the cake in presentation: trivia questions are shown on the screen and not announced at all. So girls, don’t get too busy gossiping in the bathroom stall and guys, take a break from YouTube. Specials offered during trivia include a $2.50 draft beer, loaded nachos, a beer pitcher for $20 and $2 shots each round — each shot correlating to the different themes presented during trivia. During the Minecraft round, a funky neon-green shot was on display. My roommate got one. Hard pass.  

The Rocking R trivia first-place winners receive $100 cash, and second place gets a $50 gift card to the bar, so friendships are at stake as groups argue over which answer is correct in hopes to gain a pass for endless booze. Beware, the cheap deals end at 9 p.m. and some servers cannot be trusted in relaying this information, even if you ask them. At least they were kind. 

After trivia at Rocking R, “Wild West Wednesday” begins in earnest as the dance floor opens for free line-dance lessons. They hold these events back to back in order to keep their customers sitting at their bar ordering drinks, accompanied by some weird questions and synchronized stomping on the side. 

The bar also has the youngest age range compared to other trivia hosts, so if someone is nasty with random facts, this is their place to outshine the ChatGPT dependent students. One boy was cheating using his phone. The trivia host got tips from other players — aka screaming bloody murder — and had everyone in the bar “boo” at the group, who was immediately disqualified. Like all bar trivia games, no phones are allowed at Rocking R. Save your streaks on Snapchat for later. 

In competition with Rocking R for bustle on a Wednesday night is the Molly Brown, a local dive bar that welcomes people with the smell of musty beer and humid air, making many feel right at home. The Molly is home to a bar area, a pool room with eight tables, slot machines tucked in the back and Munchies — a food truck permanently parked out front. The food truck is pricey, but after a couple beers, spending money will not be a tough choice, according to my own agenda. 

Every Wednesday at 8 p.m., seating becomes scarce as groups pile in for their weekly game. Sometimes huddles of 15 will surround a table, having an advantage over the couples and throuples. The trivia host reads the questions while also previewing them on the TVs. The questions at the Molly are formidable, asking about actors from the ‘50s or travelers from the 1800s whose names we have only seen once in a sixth-grade textbook. Like other bars, the teams are displayed on a TV in order from most points to least. Though, at the Molly, if your team is not in the top 10-ish, your team name will quickly slide off the leaderboard screen. 

With pool tables taking up half of the bar, many teams will multi-task with a pool cue and sheet of paper labeled one through 10. Do not be fooled, if you lay quarters down on a table, prepare to be looked at like you are a python eating the table. 

The winning team is offered a “free drinks tab" for the rest of the night, so many choose to keep their butts glued to their seat in hopes of the coveted prize. While LBPBC had few students attending and Rocking R had students make up most of its trivia games, the Molly could not seem more randomized by age. 

Following these hustle and bustle trivia nights Monday through Wednesday, The Tune Up Bar holds trivia Thursdays, The Ponderosa Social Club on Fridays and the AC Hotel on Sundays. It’s important to look into drink and food prices as well, because a college student should not be galloping up to the AC hotel, though a nepo-baby might. 

Bozeman’s trivia community, especially in the winter, is very fluid and deeply intertwined with weekday-life. Highly competitive teams rile each other up while also always providing an extra seat for newcomers. 

Maybe it's the fact that Gallatin County is the drunkest county in the U.S. and the people want their beer, or the fact that outdoor winter activities are extremely expensive while trivia is free — either way, a communal activity to occupy people when it feels like the sun is setting before the day has started, has allowed a subculture of simple fun to emerge. 

For information on local trivia locations, visit https://trivianearme.net/bozeman.