By Andrew Bansal
July 7th 2016, Loaded Rock Bar, Hollywood CA: After serving as a busy hub for local hard rock and metal artists as well as playing host to national and international touring acts coming through the Los Angeles area, the Loaded Rock Bar in Hollywood closed its doors to live music in March 2016, while still functioning as a bar. While some locals continued to hang out at Loaded, those that went there solely for the shows definitely stopped visiting Loaded. But a few months later, with a revamped and modified interior, Loaded’s live music room is open again, and has started out with local hard rock stalwarts The Drama playing a biweekly residency. The first of The Drama’s residency shows took place on Thursday July 7th, and it was reason enough to go to Loaded after a long time and discover what it now offers as compared to before.
The exterior of the venue is exactly the same as it has been, and the outer bar and patio haven’t been changed one bit. But as soon as one steps inside the other room, it’s clear that quite a few things have been modified. The bar inside this room is now adjoining the right side of the room and occupies a more central position, and two giant semi-circular couches have been placed along the left side to make booths for people to sit in. Word on the street is that these couches spin, so if the band on stage is not up your alley, you can spin the couch the other way and build your own castle in your own little corner. There is also a couch in the back corner of the stage, and one can only guess that it’s for activities that do not involve a live band on stage. Taking of the stage itself, the old high stage has been taken out and replaced with a much lower one that extends to both sides of the room, unlike the previous stage which had an alley way on one side. Besides, the lit Loaded sign which used to be the stage backdrop is now perched atop the bar, and a peculiar, indescribable painting now occupies the stage backdrop. After getting accustomed to these changes, it was time for the show itself, to find out if and how the most important aspects of this room have been altered.
It’s totally fitting that The Drama would get to play the first residency at the reopened Loaded Bar, because they were asked to do the soundcheck for it, and they certainly set the benchmark for the parameters that would define the sound quality in this new setting. On this occasion, they hit the stage at around 11:20 PM and played an excellent set of expertly crafted, genuine, dynamic rock n’ roll. Thankfully, this band does not portray the doucher Hollywood rockstar image, and instead of guy-liner, Affliction clothing, cowboy hats/boots and hairspray, these dudes keep it simple while still pulling off the rock n’ roll look, and let the music do the talking. Through this set by The Drama, the new Loaded Live somehow sounded better than it used to, and it’s yet to be determined whether that was because of the venue’s revamping operations or the sheer brilliance of the band on stage, or (hopefully) a combination of both. The lighting rig also suits this size and shape of the stage better and succeeds in creating a vibe the old Loaded never quite did. The turnout was above average for a Thursday night, and the pleasantly strong perfume fragrances engulfing the room seemed to suggest that the ladies had outnumbered the gents in attendance.
On the flip side, the lower stage poses its own challenges, and in a completely packed room it would be hard for people not in the front two rows to be able to get a sight of what’s transpiring on stage. Also, those in the know have been saying that the new Loaded will be focussing more on hard rock/rock n’ roll/indie rock, and not on heavy metal per se, which would probably mean less frequent visits to Loaded for metalheads. But it’s definitely good to have Loaded back on the list of LA’s active venues, and as long as great bands like The Drama continue to grace this stage with pure, heartfelt, anti-poser rock n’ roll, shows at this venue will be on the to-do list for Metal Assault and its team.
Loaded links: facebook | twitter | instagram
The Drama links: facebook | twitter | instagram
Catch The Drama’s next residency show at Loaded on Thursday 7/21.
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