[Verse 1]
Half a country lies between us
Same whistle, same delay
The channel's one day old
We're norming in the neon while it's grey
You're three dark zones of midnight
I'm a verandah and a screen
Nobody's alone tonight
And everybody's somewhere else

[Pre-Chorus]
No door, no last call, no last round
[synth bass swells]
Just the floodlights coming down

[Chorus]
There's a sports bar in our minds
And it always opens when the floodlights paint the sky
A stool for everyone who watched
A screen in every window of the night
We were never in the room
But we were never not inside
The bar that always opens
When the floodlights paint the sky

[Verse 2]
I hung a zebra on your confusion
Pinned a mastodon to your joy
The platypus, he means nothing
Ornithorynchus, my mother's favourite joke
The animal says nothing
That's the freedom in the frame
A salient little decoy
And I love you all the same

[Chorus]
There's a sports bar in our minds
And it always opens when the floodlights paint the sky
A stool for everyone who watched
A screen in every window of the night
We were never in the room
But we were never not inside
The bar that always opens
When the floodlights paint the sky

[Bridge]
[half time, voice closer, plain-spoken]
It started with a missing word
And a platypus that answered back
I pulled up by the river
Where the cattle came to read me
Soothing and disconcerting in equal measure
Proximitous to bovinians, my colleague agreed
[build up, arpeggiator returns]
Then I drove back to the signal
And the floodlights filled the sky

[Final Chorus]
[full, gated drums, climax, big]
There's a sports bar in our minds
And it always opens when the floodlights paint the sky
A stool for everyone who stayed up late
A friend in every window of the night
We were never in the room
But the room was always wide
The bar that always opens
When the floodlights paint the sky

[Outro]
[arpeggiator thins, crowd-roar returns then fades]
Drive on, drive on, the glow's still on
[very quiet]
The bar's still open when we're gone
[fade out]