A Little Late: Johnny Drama at Soho

Ok, so I'm little behind. I went to see Johnny Drama LAST Friday night. July 7th. I should have had this up a week ago. Sorry!

Anyway, yeah, so last Friday I had planned to stop in at Hooligan’s to check out Harmsway at the tattoo expo. I’d read it would be their last show with cover tunes and that from here on out, they will be doing only originals. I enjoyed their originals very much during the Battle of the Bands at Rock City Bar, and was curious to hear them do some covers. Unfortunately, I found out last minute that their gig at the expo had been cancelled. Oh well, I bet they did a good job with covers, too.

I had planned, after Hooligan’s, to go to the new Soho Lounge on Nacogdoches (the old Lucky’s). I saw some pictures on Soho’s MySpace page of the new decor and wanted to go check it out (looks nice!). Also, I caught a few songs by Johnny Drama one night at Charlie Brown’s but couldn’t stay. I wanted to hear them some more. So I headed over to Soho to see Johnny Drama.

Cesar

When I arrived, the bar was not very crowded yet. And if you’ve been in there, you know that there are high, mostly blank walls all around, the stage facing a wall probably only about 25 feet away, with another wall right behind the stage. So the sound tends to bounce around a lot, especially when it’s fairly empty in there. Thus the first set didn’t sound too good. There was a lot of echo, especially from the drums. They were often so loud that I could barely hear the vocals or guitar.

Alex

However, as the night went on and the sound man made adjustments and the place started filling up, the sound got much better. I guess more bodies help muffle the sound, cutting down on the echo. By the third and fourth set, they sounded great! (And no, it wasn’t just the beer.)

I can’t tell you everything they played. I started to write down songs during the first set, but then I bummed a copy of their set list so I could plan which songs I wanted to catch on video, so I stopped writing the songs down. Of course I accidentally left the set list there, so...

I know they played Hashpipe, Sex and Candy (hadn’t heard that one in a while!), Mudshovel, Remedy and Stupid Girl. I remember some Bush, Black Sabbath (excellent), Nickelback, STP...

And I always love some Sublime! They did..wait...not Santeria or What I Got...but...Caress Me Down! Love that song and I’ve never heard anyone else do that one. Excellent job. I got it on video:





There are also videos of Johnny Drama doing the Beastie Boys “Fight for Your Right” and the Toadies “Possum Kingdom” over on my YouTube. So check 'em out...rate 'em, leave a comment, whatever.

I had a great time and I think everyone else there did too!

Girls Having Fun!

Thanks to the friends of Johnny Drama who let me sit with them so I had a place to leave my stuff while I took the videos. Hope I wasn’t too much of an intrusion!

You can check out Johnny Drama for yourself July 28th at Sky Lounge, the 29th at BarFly and back at Soho August 4th. Check www.sadrama.com or www.myspace.com/sadrama for more dates and information.