Woodham Sports Lounge

 

9

36

Bradd S.

San Jose, CA

This is a friendly neighborhood dive bar. The bartenders and owners are cheerful and engaging, if not particularly efficient. The regulars are a varied crowd, ranging from 20-somethings to septuagenarians, some single, some dating, some long-married. On the same night, you can hear Johnny Cash, Everlast, Metallica, David Bowie, and Nirvana. Simply put, this place reflects the diversity of the local homes and businesses.

While it's called a "Sports Lounge," you'll find much better sports coverage at bigger places like the Britannia Arms in Cupertino. (On the other hand, the Woodham's [sic] has two pool tables to the Brit's one.) Likewise, this is no beer mecca: There are only five or six taps, with everything else bottled. (On the other hand, you're in luck if you love PBR, since it's a favorite of one of the owners.) This is the kind of place that's all about lowbrow drinking, entertainment, and company, which is often exactly what I want.

The best time to visit the Woodham's is Blues Night (Friday after 10pm). Local musicians jam together and play blues & rock standards until closing time, with no cover charge. Saturday night karaoke is also pretty good, although the other reviewers' criticisms are well-justified. Both nights feature the lounge's star bartender.

Overall, I highly recommend the Woodham's if you live or work in the area. However, it doesn't have much to justify making a special trip, thus only four stars.

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0

45

Crunchy C.

Mountain View, CA

Yeah, the audio equipment is pretty high-quality.  The song selection's a little spotty though.  Any artist you look is bound to have a bunch of holes in their catalog, i.e. I was in an 80s mood one night, and the book didn't have Level 42 or even one song by Genesis.

This place seems to attract a fair amount of middle-aged hicks and baby boomers (performing middle-aged hick and baby boomer songs), so when a bunch of us Gen X-and-Yers came in doing Stone Temple Pilots, Weezer, Billy Joel, Britney, and other rad modern-day stuff, we were kind of in our own universe.  People are quick to point out how the Danny Bonnaduce-esque KJ is kind of a dork and wastes a good amount of time, but he seems like a good guy at heart and is pretty faithful about getting your song in.  You can expect to sing every 1-2 hours or so, depending on traffic.

Eh, but it's allright, and it's free.  Can't complain too much.

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0

13

Teresa A.

San Jose, CA

The ambiance was standard dive-fare.  I thought the bartender was very nice and the crowd average.

The song choice was decent.  The sound system pretty good considering the locale.  The DJ (Danny Bonnaduce look-a-like) was a giant PITA.  He didn't keep things moving along.  He did too much talking/singing/showing off/acting like a child.  There had to be 25 singers the night we went.  He didn't need to keep the show going...the singers kept it going just fine.  Good mix of good and less than good singers.  Hey dude--shut the hell up and let the people sing karaoke and drink.  That is what they came for ya' know.

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Elite '08

39

102

Weide Z.

San Jose, CA

Karaoke here  on Thursday and Saturday. I checked in on a Thursday evening. It was relaxed, friendly, not crowded, some pretty good singers.

That night there was a cute-looking bartendress who also sang and was not shy about cheering the other singers on with some nice affirming full-throated karaoke war whoops.

The Karaoke show is run by "Avents" which seems to be something of a multi-venue, multi-host chain operation. I see them running shows in other places with the same standard selection of songs.

Good sized song selection
Good sound

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