Joydrop _______
Joydrop _______
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Photographs and story by Jeffrey Howard

It was a crazy week. I thought I had lost my wallet. Sometime between Tuesday night and Thursday morning it disappeared. I had no money. I had no way to get money (ATM card, etc.). No license/ID. Just how was I going to see this band from Toronto called Joydrop. I saw their band picture in the Orlando Weekly the day before it was to happen. All I know was I saw this cutie dark haired gal in the picture and I had to go see this. I had no idea who they were or what they sounded like.

Luck would have that my wallet turned up. Somehow my kitty, Puzzles, was playing with it and it ended up between my sheets and mattress. It was past time at that point so I ran out to my car because the drive to Fern Park is pretty far.

Now I should say The Station in Fern Park is, for descriptive purposes, a heavy metal bar. They call it The Station because outlining the club are train cars. It looks cool. It just reopened after being closed for a couple of years. I had been to it once before in '93 or '94 when The Spinanes played with Crowsdell and The Afghan Whigs. That was one of the best shows ever. Everybody knows The Spinanes and Crowsdell are my all time favorites. So there were a lot of metal chicks and guys there - not my crowd. Scantily clad waitresses roamed everywhere and stood in front of beer bins. It was almost offensive. Between bands they played Guns N Roses, Motley Crue (from the first record, yeah!), Metallica, Ozzy, etc. and had this guy with a big announcer voice (now that was offensive ;-) ) kept announcing crap.

Since I was by myself I found myself somewhere to sit and had to endure this band called Push Monkey. The only way I can describe them is that they are the type of people that would hang out at guitar store. You know the kind. The trumpet was nice but other than that - ugh. I was offended with their demeanor. "This is the fuck song cos we know Orlando girls like to fuck". Whatever!

But I'm here to talk about Joydrop. I went up to the very front so I could get good pictures. Everyone around me was drunk and there I was - completely
sober. Even before the music started there was a fight between a guy and a girl. They got tossed out. Now, like I said, I didn't know who or how Joydrop sounded. I have to say I liked them a lot. They were part shoegaze, part rock and their live show is fantastic. Though I didn't like the singers (Tara Slone) vocal style at first but it grew on me. She wasn't as cute as the picture but she had an appealing attitude - down right sexy. She had nice-back-of-knees and lovely dark hair :) *giggles*. She had on a sheer black top with a black bra underneath, a leopard print skirt and high boots. She also commented on the waitresses. She was "what about the guy bartenders? Where are their speedos?". Tara ROCKS!

Their bass player was awesome. He played it chord style and literally ran in circles. His cords kept getting wrapped up. It was hilarious.

It wasn't toward the end of their set when I did recognize "the song". It was that one song called "Beautiful" or something like that in the title. It got played a lot on the local rock station (WJRR). I remember asking my friend Rebecca about that song because it was so out of place on that station. They don't play "girl" bands. Anyway, that song reminded me of that Dawsons Creek theme (Paula Cole?) and it really isn't a good representation of what the band is doing.

After the show I made a quick exit.

[ Tom McKay - Joydrop ]

[ Thomas Payne- Joydrop ]

Related Links:
Joydrop - official page