By Sam MillerSenior Tempo Writer
His drummer was pounding padded stools. His bassist was pluckingan unplugged electric bass. And Jose Sinatra was crooning kitschycovers into a pink and green kids microphone he’d picked up at KBToys.
“It’s called Echo Mic,” Sinatra said after his set. “It’s just aplastic, 99-cent thing that has some reverb on it. It’s stupid. Ibrought it in as a joke one time and somebody said, hey that actuallyworks, so I kept bringing it.”
It didn’t actually work, truth be told, but for the most part,neither did the toy guitar and cellular phone the novelty act playedin a hopeless attempt to project that night.
Sinatra is one of the many artists who have had to alter theirshows in the two months since Java Joe’s went unplugged. The changewas a condition of the alcohol permit granted to the Ocean Beachcoffee shop.
While initial rumors were that the venue was in the process ofapplying for a license to electrify, Java Joe himself said that’s notan immediate plan.
“Ikind of like it the way it is,” Joe said — real name, he says: JavaJoe. “And the artists like it more. Maybe in the future (we’llreapply), but right now I like it the way it is.”
But for patrons who’ve enjoyed the 12-year OB entertainmentstaple, the changes involve a sacrifice. All but one or two shows amonth are now 21 and up, excluding much of the sizable collegecommunity that frequented the bar.
Katie Hartl is part of that community, and a former Java Joe’sregular.
“It’s tough to find evening activities, so when we found out JavaJoe’s had switched to 21 and over, we were really bitter. It seemedridiculous that we couldn’t see (Java Joe artist) Jason Mraz’s showsthere just because Joe decided to sell alcohol.”
Hartl finally was able to see Mraz at an all-ages show last month.
“It was a huge disappointment. The instruments seemed dull, andseemed to wash the voices away. Going there for music now is prettymuch pointless. It has all changed for the worse. I can’t imagine whya musician would still want to play there.”
Part of that reason is that Joe’s is still one of the only venuesfor singer-songwriters. But Anya Marina, another regular performer,said the changes have their benefits, too.
“As an exercise, it’s illuminating,” she said. “It’s a newchallenge and a new hurdle. And the first few shows, when I had 30 or40 people there, it was really fun because I can move around a lotmore, so it was fun to be freed up. But I’m over it.”
When the soft-spoken Marina played March 9, her breathy whisperbarely carried to the fifth row. Even the louder voices of GregoryPage and Mraz are lost past the coffee bar, effectively cutting thecapacity, though no official change has been made to Joe’s 160-180limit.
Joe made changes to the stage to aid the acoustics, adding a falsewall, taking out curtains and making the d
