Johnny V’s

Pretty cool place. Dark. Loud music, but fun and intentional. Drinks are reasonably priced. Bartenders are polite and fun and will banter with you.
I just would hate to see what the place looks like with the lights on, which makes me not want to sit down or spend too much time there. A little scary on the cleanliness side. I went to put my arm on the bar and it stuck. Eeeks. LOL.
I think if I felt it was a cleaner establishment, I would probably up this rating to a 4 star. Everything else was great.

Decent dive bar for SJ. Cool that they have punk shows and aren’t to stringent about slam dancing. Bartenders aren’t bad. Some kind of snack choices would be cool, bags of chips or something. If you want to keep it sleazy you’ll have fun here!
See ya again soon Johnny V’s!

This place is lame. It’s small and smelly. It’s not a good place to see live music. I’m not sure why anyone would want to come here…

I love this place only because of the beautiful tall redhead I saw there when I went for the first time. I have been returning to Johnny V’s in hopes of finding her again to tell her how I feel about her. lol ridiculous I know, but it’s important that I find her. She is into punk rock and has tats on her arms. She seems to be a regular here, but I never found her again. I came to Unilocal to see if she had a review here. I’m actually at Johnny V’s right now, but no sign of her. :(

Had a great time last night. The bartender was hilarious and they play the best music

I always have a great time at Johnny V’s. Cheap drinks, dive style bar with an attitude. Not many great dive bars in San Jose, but Johnny V’s has a certain charm to bring the misfits together and rock out. Always great live music and open late.

I hadn’t been here for a while. Last night I went to see some bands and grab some drinks. Although busy the bar staff were on top of their game and I had a great time.

Good service and select friends but if you build a good pool team you’ll see a little longevity.

Never. Again!
So I manage a band that played here the other night. I’m a very adaptable person, and much like the artists I work with, we pride ourselves on being able to build positive and cooperative relationships with other artist and businesses in the local music scene. That being said, I’ve had my fair share of lame gigs but this place was by a wide margin one of the most unprofessional, and outright UNDIGNIFIED gigs I’ve ever been a part of, and for a dive bar that’s saying a lot. But lets break this down and keep it to the point :
–Management not only forgot they had a show booked that night, they forgot they had DOUBLE booked 3 bands that alone would have stood well together, but they were alongside a metal band from LA who was very obviously not a good fit for the congruity of the show. Seriously guys? If you’re going to host live music, and expect musicians to use their time and money to travel to your establishment and perform at their best to a crowd that will hopefully remember both them and your establishment in a positive light, do your goddamn homework! How hard is it to send an email/​text/​sticky-​note/​calendar-​note that you have a show booked that day? Get it together!
–Sound guy showed up totally sh*thoused. I’m a sound engineer as well and I’ll have a few drinks on the job, but getting obliterated before a job is entirely unacceptable, even in this profession. moving on!
–All bands were good, but management was not being at all assertive about set times so the opening band started late and still got a 1 hour set, 2^nd band (who booked the show) was cut by 20 minutes, and the two bands that followed (including my guys who were bumped from 3^rd to 4^th to make sure the other outta-​towners got to play before last call), got 30 minutes each. Also, only the band from out of town was (under)paid for taking their own valuable time to come to San Jose and perform that night
–Absolutely obnoxious DJ blasting music ALL night, even while live bands are trying to perform, which is just downright disrespectful. Then again nothing helps you keep a beat like dubstep blaring from the other half of the building that is only separated by a very thin curtain. If there’s a large group of people dancing, fine… I saw maybe 2 dancers the whole night; everybody else was just trying to talk over the music. If you want to run a joint that has two rooms for live music simultaneously, then make sure those rooms are SEPARATED. If you can’t do that, show some courtesy to the people who are bringing in your clientele and when their band is playing, you tell that iPod with a head to shut the hell up!
–Outside the venue, the following things occurred in the last hour: A trash can caught fire, the same guy was ejected from the club by the security personnel multiple times (the only people there who were sincerely trying to do their job that night), saw some dumb drunk girl get punched in the face so of course a fight broke out, and when the cops across the street heard the commotion, all they said was «Keep it down!»
If ever there was a night to get drunk, it was that night, but I chose to stay sober because I REFUSE to give this establishment even 1 dollar! This place, the staff (sans security), the neighborhood, the natives… not crackin’, not even a little bit. If you want a drink, go to another bar. If your band wants to play a gig, play somewhere that will treat your talent and professionalism with the dignity it deserves. It makes me livid that they can take time, gas money and emotional energy from 15 people who put all their heart and soul into what they do, and act like what they bring to the table has absolutely no value. I wholeheartedly believe this place and its management personify a complete and utter lack of integrity. If Jonny V’s burned down overnight from an electrical fire the world would be a better place

Best bar ever the ppl are nice and always in a cheerful mood make sure to tip the bar tenders well and they will fill u up

Pretty divey bar in downtown San Jose
Located near San Pedro Square, the place is hard to miss. The name of the bar is cool, and the sign is flashy. Lack of cover charge is a plus – can’t say no to that! Inside, you’ll see a mix of college students from nearby San Jose State (complete with the «troubled teen» goth persona, wearing black leather gloves, edwards scissorhands hair, and black lipstick), to old-​time dudes who look like bikers.
The drinks are cheap, and the girls get wild towards the end of the night. But alas, 2am is when the downtown area stops serving alcohol, and this bar is no exception. At least it Does stay open until 2am, holding down the fort until the police cracks down.
Overall, a pretty cool place to stop by, chill, or just hang out with some cool girls.

Nothing fancy about this bar. Though they had some great 80’s music playing, we didn’t stay long during our bar hop. It’s the kind of bar where u would grab a drink and move along your way and not look back.

Stopped in for a drink and Ben was gracious and accommodating from the moment I walked in the door.
If ever you’re in downtown San Jose I’d absolutely recommend Johnny V’s and specifically Ben.

Like many I used to be a regular here in early 2000. It is depressing to see it in this state. I don’t expect sparkling clean in any dive. But I do expect there to be 2 things.
1. Usable bathrooms not literally splattered with feces.
2. Enough liquor so as not to run out before 12.

First time = Last time.
We were doing a bit of a «San Jose Club Tour» for a visiting friend and were actually wrapping up our night and heading back to our car when we heard the great tunes coming out of Johnny V’s, so ventured over. Initially delighted primarily by the music, though we were quite content with our previous consumption (and quite sober) we purchased a couple of drinks out of respect to the folks working the bar. Unfortunately, this respect (nor gratitude for it) was in no way returned when less than 10 min later the last song was played, 2 of the staff started wandering back and forth through the bar verbally (but nearly physically) pushing what few folks there were (about 6 at the time, I think — 3 in our group) to leave and my friend had to guzzle his beer. And then, even in actively trying to guzzle — and after I’d openly given up my glass as a gesture confirming our efforts toward leaving — the staff still persisted not only in verbally pushing/​harassing, but in being extra-​rude a-​holes about the fact that we were still there, spouting out something about laws and threatening what would happen if we didn’t get out NOW…
So in summary:
— Live music was (accidentally, I’m sure) AWESOME, but I suspect those folks play elsewhere, and recommend and will look to going to those venues instead, ’cause otherwise it ain’t worth puttin’ your hard earned $$ toward these folks & this business.
— Service was über-​lousy. When we ordered drinks we didn’t want in the first place — out of respect for the establishment — we weren’t informed of the super-​short amount of time left. And when it came to closing time, were given ~2 min to wrap up, catching us totally off-​guard, and then were verbally harassed and made to feel like the worlds biggest pests/​hinderances for the full 3 – 4 min (or less) that it took to finish our drinks.
A few recommendations:
1) If the cutoff is really that stringent and there are concerns around the laws, and new customers come in near closing time (because it’s different for different bars) give them a clear heads up re: closing time in the first place so they can decide if it’s worth guzzling.
2) Although being arses may be the only thing that works with the crowd there generally (I can only give the benefit of the doubt that’s where the bad attitude comes from??) consider there may be occasions (especially when dealing with sober people new to your scene) where just preemptively communicating in standard respectful human-​to-​human conversation might actually serve the situation better for all involved.

Never stepping foot in this place again!
Came here for the first time last night, just to try it out. The bartender was so RUDE! He was all over the place, ignoring us when we were trying to order drinks, and when he did answer us it was short responses, no eye contact. Just got that «buy some drinks and move on» kind of attitude. Not friendly what so ever. For that, we tipped him on the lower side. (He’s lucky he got any tip) after trying to get his attention AGAIN for a good 5 minutes to try and ask how long the wait was for karaōke, he said «It’s full you guys need to start tipping» We were in shock LOL! Shitty attitude and you want a bigger tip? I don’t think so! We got up right away and left!
Very dirty too! Cigarette buds all over the bar, and not to mention the place was extremely small! Couldn’t move anywhere without bumping into people.
There’s plenty of other bars in downtown San Jose, don’t waste your time at this hole in the wall!

Great dive bar with cool local music. Sunday Karaōke nights are sooooo fun :) They also have two dance floors now which is great.
Nice bar staff and fun crowd. If you haven’t been you should go.

Cheap drinks. Awesome staff. Wide variety of music.
I first discovered this place several years back with my bf. we got free entry to electronic music and swag from one of the employees. One of my closest friends has played here, and is really good friends with the event guy. They have all kinds of cheap show ranging from punk rock and metal to live emcee battles and electronic music. Good place for up and coming artists to hook up and collaborate.

Had a blast here at the Underneath the Underground II –night 2, show.
Real laid back vibe, decent prices, and the sound wasn’t bad!

Of COURSE it’s awful. It’s a dive bar. That’s what makes it great.
Went recently to see a friends band play some ska. Saw a fight on the corner on the way in, had a few laughs with the hard working bartender, drank a bit of Glenlivet and a Blue Moon, and listened to some fine music until a fight broke out inside. That’s mah cue. Exit stage left.
Pretty much went as I expected it to and I had a blast. A filthy blast, but a blast nonetheless. YMMV. Don’t sit on the toilet seat and you’ll be fine.