Show review
the Cannibal Bar - Mission Beach, San Diego
March 7th 2003
Check out a CD Review of Door To Door
By Amber Shaffer, SDAM Staff Writer
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2024
SDAM.com/Amber Shaffer
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Nestled in the back of Pacific Beach's Catamaran Resort, The Cannibal Bar
is full of comfy seating and background groove music loud enough to fill the
spacious bar, but not so loud you can't have a conversation. Because the
bar caters to cover and dance bands most the week, there is plenty of room to
cut a rug to Top 40, Swing, Motown, and Salsa, all while enjoying some tasty
beverages.
But the Cannibal Bar isn't all about cover bands, and as the night wears on, the crowd gets younger. March is the first month the bar has had all original music nights, a format they hope to incorporate into their calendar on a regular basis. Tonight was their all original music debut featuring locals The Ballad Mongers and Bedhead Blonde. It took me awhile, but I eventually located the entrance to Cannibal Bar in the back of the Resort and was impressed by the size of the place. They could easily hold 500-600 people and the set up was very nice. I made my way to a corner seat down on the main floor and proceeded to look like a huge dork the rest of the evening sitting there by myself, flipping through The Reader on a Friday night, watching couples and groups slowly getting sloshed at the tables in front of me and admiring all the tasty looking beverages that I couldn't have since I was my own designated driver (eventually the cocktail waitresses in their short skirts stopped coming by to check on me). Cannibal Bar isn't the kind of bar you go to by yourself and can expect to easily meet people because it's so spacious and since there are servers, you don't spend half the night bumping into strangers as you navigate to and from the bar.
I only stayed for a few songs by Bedhead Blonde, the evening's headliner because I had a volleyball tournament at 7am the next morning; but I enjoyed what I heard. With their funky jam-rock, Bedhead is very much what comes to mind when I think of coastal California bands. Bad punk bands also make me think of SoCal in particular, but we'll save that for another article. Watching them, it was clear they love to jam and I could just imagine what their rehearsal sessions turn in to. They have a good singer who, for some reason, made me think of Dave Matthews, except without the receding hairline and with more energy. If you get over to the Cannibal Bar, have a Razberi Margarita or Lemonade for me. But please, don't turn yourself into the annoying drunk on the dance floor just for me. The crowd and the band thank you in advance for your consideration. Beadhead Blonde will be playing Cannibal Bar again on March 28th with Across the Room Learn more about Ballad Mongers and Bedhead Blonde |
The Ballad Mongers played two sets, encouraging people to "dance around,
even if you might not be familiar with the songs." A handful of older,
single women complied most the evening, and when the Mongers threw in a cover
song every once in awhile, quite a few people filled the dance floor. Along with
your standard bass, guitar, and drums, the band also includes a fiddle which
adds diversity to their sound; everything they played was rock, but some songs
had a distinctively Celtic flavor to them, there was a reggae tune, and even an
Irish jig that probably got more people dancing than anything else they played.
Except for their cover of "I Wanna Be Sedated" by The Ramones. I have
to admit, their original songs were much better than the songs they covered. And
it's not because they picked bad cover songs, they actually picked very
good ones. It's just that the songs were not suited to their style of
playing or singing. But the thing about patrons of the Cannibal Bar is they
don't care so much about quality; it's more about having a good time
after work. And that's what Ballad Mongers are: a good-time band. The local
guys who play at festivals, corporate parties, and dance bars.