I have been traveling in the Northern Virginia area for the past few days and had a chance to see Strange Souls, a very good Doors cover band, at the State Theater in Falls Church, VA. They seem to play theater shows in a broad geographic range with a base in the Virginia, District of Columbia, and Maryland area.
While the band is claimed to be “The Doors, reimagined live,” I found them to be more of authentic recreation of a Doors show. We sat through a two-and-a-half hour show that was unremitting. It was easy to imagine that the real thing couldn’t have been too much different—and I mean a good Doors show.
Morrison was known to be mercurial—there were shows for which he didn’t even show up. He must have been great when he was on…and pretty disappointing when he wasn’t. There was none of the last night.
The frontman, Jerad Szadkowski, did a remarkable job fronting the band. He kept up the enthusiasm and performance for the entire 150 minute set. From our perspective, there was no fatigue and his voice rarely faltered in any way. It was a truly remarkable performance.
As you would imagine in two and a half hours, the band covered a large portion of the Doors catalog including both the hits and deep cuts. There wasn’t much down time between songs—but when it did occur, they seemed to be authentic recreations of Morrison monologues.
The lineup was perfect to recreate the live Doors sound. On keys was Don Naideck. David Korteling was on the guitar. Joe Zad handled the drums. David Bach played bass. All were extremely competent and supported Jerad perfectly. And these aren’t easy parts to master for two-and-a-half hours.
If I were to offer a tiny bit of constructive criticism, it would be that the percussion seemed occasionally to be a little behind the beat. Not off beat, but instead of driving the enthusiasm, the beat sometimes held it back. To my ears, I would have preferred a bit more drive.
I liked this band, enjoyed the show, and would see them again..
—Tom Ranken, October 25, 2026 (Photography and prose) tom@rankenfile.com