Fantastic night of rock ‘n roll at the Soda Bar when Johnny Pandora rocked the house. Johnny Pandora is the band, fronted by “Johnny” Daigo Yamashita who is an actor, singer, dancer, and model from Japan via Singapore. They get classified as “rockabilly”, but I saw them as more of a pure rock ‘n roll band. And by “pure rock ‘n roll”, I mean early Beatles and Chuck Berry. They had a bunch of originals and threw in a bunch of covers too, like “Twist & Shout”, “Johnny B. Goode”, and “La Bamba” among others.
They had a great stage presence, and a whole ton of energy. They gave it their all and you know what? Everyone else did too. People were dancing ALL OVER THE PLACE! And not being obnoxious about it. I felt like I jumped into the Dick Van Dyke “The Twizzle” episode. This may sound weird that I mention that, but it’s highly unusual for people to be dancing like this in San Diego. The lead guitarist ran into the audience no less than 3 times to do solos, including one time where he literally went around the club, then was on top of the bar for a bit wailing away on an amazing solo. Totally great. I can’t wait to see them again.
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