Dreamstreet Live

dream street has done an interesting thing.
they have managed to mix thug rappers with bikers. on different nights of course
who the fuck could cater to those two kinds of people
DREAMSTREET thats who!
did i mention ive never been there… and seeing how i dont fit the above stated groups, i probably never will.

RIP Dreamstreet. It’s been dead for several months now, and I’ve been watching and waiting for whatever’s going to follow it…

Dream Street Bar
Ocean Beach
11/​04/​2010
Three Star Bar and Four Music Venue
It’s a typical OB bar: Cheapish Drinks, Peculiar People, and a Laid Back Atmosphere. I have performed a couple of metal shows and I have seen few others at this fine establishment. The sound quality is great and the stage is raised four feet off the ground so that you can see the performance on the other side of the room. They sell $ 2.50 Rolling Rocks all day, every day. Their liquor is a little expense $ 5 for a single well cocktail in a plastic cup. The Bartenders are almost always female, usually friendly, and fairly attractive. However, the best part of Dream Street is its location: On Bacon, Far enough from Voltaire to avoid its craziness but close enough to walk to when you need a different atmosphere.

love to perform here…
exactly what the website says… couldn’t have said it better… «If you just want to relax and chill to some awesome ‘Live’ Bands, Watch Music Videos or Sporting Events on our 10 foot big screen, shoot pool, or play video games… Feel free to kick back with us and enjoy a cold one.»

Why demote Dreamstreet to 1 star? Well it’s been 2 years since my last visit and I still haven’t felt a need to go back.
As the description states «Eek! Methinks not.»
Someone, preferably a OB local, give me a reason to come here.

This venue is pretty cool. The bartenders are just average, but they are good company. I like the open windows, since he is 20 and has to stay outside, we can still sit and chat before his set. The inside is nice. It sort of has a beach/​music/​college feel. I also like that they have a sound guys. He was pretty good and I could actually hear my boyfriend singing. The only thing I don’t like is that bands can and will play as long as they want. The band before went over an hour over their time.

If memory serves me right, this place used to be a dump. Mostly known as a Metal bar, the last time I was here was about 10 years ago to see a buddy’s band open up for Warrant.
My band was playing a benefit show here last Friday and I was pretty impressed on how they cleaned this up. No more sand on the floor.
They added more windows so now it doesn’t feel like your in some dungeon. New paint job gave it a livelier feel.
The Door guys was cool and we ended up chatting about old San Diego bands for a bit.
The sound guy actually cared about the sound (unlike some bars). He took the time to get our levels right.
Like I said before, this was a benefit show, I thought it was really cool of this place to host it and make sure everything was running ok. I’m sure they made some money at the bar, but all the money from the door went to a Cystic Fibrosis foundation. I’m sure some money hungry bars would not do the same.

Saw Tabernacle play here. So Sweet. Sound man needs some training but overall it was a good time. good prices and good management. I will re-​visit.

I’ll try to be fair about this — Dreamstreet has its pros and cons. Here’s the cons first:
1) The sound guy is amateur at best. Have you ever used a DI in your life? Have you ever mixed anything other than nu-​metal? Why have monitor speakers onstage if you’re not going to use them?
2) The bartenders act like it’s the end of the world when you order a drink, and invariably spill every pint you order. I realize the aesthetic you’re going for, but it’s more annoying than anything.
3) It’s overly hot and onstage is even worse. Having a few (3? 4?) windows open and a single fan onstage is not a viable substitute for A/​C.
Pros:
1) They have a couple pool tables that may or may not give you back the cue ball.

We went to Dreamstreet on a Saturday night to see a friend’s band play. They were charging an $ 8 cover to get in. Luckily I was on the list with the band and didn’t have to pay or I would have been pretty annoyed. Dive bars shouldn’t have covers.
The venue is long and thin with the bar at one end and the stage at the other end. There are tall tables and chairs in the middle. On the bar end, it was nice and cool and comfortable. On the stage end it was hot and miserable. They had fans blowing on the ban members but even then they were covered with sweat before their first song was over. There is a door on the stage end of the bar but they refused to open it to allow air flow because they had to funnel people through the other door so they could charge the $ 8 cover. After just sitting and watching the band’s set I was sweaty. It was so hot no one could even get into the show, much less dance. We ended up spending most of our time standing outside since it was so hot. That’s not great for bar business since we weren’t buying drinks when we were standing outside.
Speaking of drinks, the mixed drinks were ridiculously weak. Vodka Collins drinks ran about $ 6.50 each I think and small and weak. I actually prefer a slightly weak drink (at least to start the night!) but I think there was water in their vodka bottles. Ordering a beer on tap was no refuge from the bad mixed drinks either since the tap beer came out flat and warm. My friend’s Dos Equis was so bad he sent it back and got a bottled beer instead.
There was also no soap all night in the ladies room. I doubt they have a separate employee bathroom so this means the woman making our drinks and touching the ice scoop that then sits on the ice that ends up in our drinks was going to the bathroom all night and not washing her hands. YUM.
There is only street parking but we didn’t have much trouble finding a spot that was only a block away.
The location is good and the venue could be great if they bothered to try.

This place is okay, buy the $ 8 cover is crazy for a dive. I got 3 beers, all of which were flat, causing me to switch to bottles. Then, I decided to get some cocktails and they were so weak! Bartender was lame. Will not be coming back here again.

My shitty metal band played there a few times back in ’96-’97 and we always had a blast! The place always treated us well considering 99% of all other SoCal venues we played in were filled with pretentious a-​holes.
Anyway, mellow local vibe and a surprising location to showcase hard rock/​metal since it is located in OB! After 10+ years I went there last summer on a random night only to find that the evenings’ entertainment had been cancelled because none of the bands showed up. I had a drink anyway and was strangely pleased that nothing much had changed.

I recently did a big burlesque benefit here, for breast cancer research (Susan G Komen was the recipient). The staff was very friendly, the owner was personable, they helped me a lot with stage set up and what not. Drinks were reasonably priced.
I never went to it when it was the old place, with no windows. I have been several times since they remodeled and always had a good time. I recommend this place. Good sound system, clean, hot bartenders.

Go for happy hour, $ 5 domestic pitchers and awesome bartenders. I wouldn’t recommend staying for the music unless you like shitty bands that sound like Drowning Pool.

been here a few times. they usually involved me walking back from the quick stop, and deciding what the hell maybe its not to early to start drinking. bartenders were nice enough, unfortunately for me i usually ran into the one neighbor that creeps me out there. been there to see a show once, left within 5 mins. they have random hip-​hop nights and its funny to see the mediocre graffiti on the walls outside after. it was so bad i started bombing on the walls, just to show them what it supposed to look like. good for a drink just don’t come for the live entertainment.

Dreamstreet is hard to pin down. It could be a great venue if it wanted, but it doesn’t really try. I could see great success if it cared to do well at all but, as with most things in OB, it goes with the flow and in OB the flow is about as quick as molasses. The couple of times I’ve been here, the crowd usually consisted of people the bands brought with them and a handful of locals who are there for drinking and not much else.
I came a couple of times to watch my friends’ band play. The first time the bartender made me a Jameson & ginger with her own homemade ginger recipe. «Cool,» I thought to myself, and it WAS cool until I looked into the glass and saw a dead gnat floating at the top.
I took my drink back to the bartender who said «Oh. That’s not good.» She then proceeded to fish it out with her finger.
She fished out
The gnat
From my drink
With her finger.
Successive visits only proved to me that this is par for the course.

i stop into Dream Street every once in a while when i decide that i haven’t heard shitty music in a while, and need to pay for it. i headed over there the other night to discover a band with a lot of «womanist» fans. it was a bit crowded and from across the bar, my friend signaled to me that we should leave. i then tapped a girl on the shoulder to signal that i need to squeeze by her really quick… she obviously didn’t get that signal
womanist: «don’t touch me, cock-​man-​opressor!»
me: «no, you don’t understand, i just need to get b…»
womanist: «i’m not interested in your penis!!!»
me: «look, can i just…»
womanist: «pack up your rape-​culture and beat it!»
me: «okay, your blocking the entire…»
(womanist begins to blow rape-​whistle)
me:“oh my god!”
(womanist maces Ryan S.)
me: «AHHHHHHH!»
the staff is pretty cool there, even if some of the patrons are a bit standoffish. the cover isn’t something i readily deal with, but its always fun to see some «rockstar» who just cleared $ 11 for playing the place walk around like he’s the next big thing…
me:“nice set dude.“
drummer of shitty band: «how’d you get backstage?!»
me: «what the fuck are you talking about? we’re in the parking lot out front
drummer: «this is the talent area!»
me: «dude, again: parking lot»
drummer: «security!»
(bouncer looks up, shrugs shoulders, and continues reading magazine)
drummer: «ugh…okay, so what do you want, my autograph?»
me: «hahaha…yeah…you called it dude.»
wow.

i’ve seen many a band here… its a little small… but you can get right up close to the stage and get really into the music. and i know that this place has helped out a lot of local bands, so that is always appreciated.

dreamstreet is ok. weirdly, they feature bands that can only be described as «dreamstreet bands»… it’s the only place they play and only their friends show up at the shows. i must admit, it’s a fair bit perty-​ier than it used to be, thanks to the windows. i gave it an extra star because it’s the last place i saw my friend dee dee (ramone, not a «dream street band») play. he was high on junk, he knew we knew, and he was emabarassed… and dead a few weeks later. FUCK. FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK.

I have no idea how Dreamstreet got it’s name. Until less than two years ago, it was a little bit scary, kind of a biker and metalhead bar. Not exactly the stuff dreams are made of. It was renovated and revamped to focus more on being a live music venue than being a pre-​stabbing watering hole.
They still focus on hard rock and metal bands, but the new veneer of brushed stainless steel and deep red vinyl has taken the scary out of it. The drink prices are reasonable, but the bar is a little small, so keep your eye out for an opening and jump in.
Set off of the main drag in OB, this place has no parking to speak of, so be prepared to do some laps and still walk a little to get there.
Check out ‘Metal Lounge’ on Wednesdays, a few local bands for $ 5 or $ 6. They claim it has a relaxed lounge feel, but don’t be fooled, the music will be hard, fast and loud.