maxiewawa

I would have written this mini-review earlier, but a touch of RSI in the my left hand stopped me from typing properly. I might have written something but such vital letters as “w” “e” and everyone’s favourite “t” would have been absent, so I thought it better to leave it until later.

To celebrate Aika’s first paycheck from her new job, we decided to go out. We left after dinner at home, and wandered down the road to the House of Blues and Jazz on Fuzhou rd.

There was a band tamely playing jazz standards, and they were pleasant enough. Aika and I were looking forward to sitting upstairs sipping drinks and listening to the band, and to that end we went downstairs to get our drinks. After a few failed attempts, we managed to accost a waiter by the scruff of the neck and extract a drinks menu from him. He tried to get us to sit on a few stools squashed amongst other patrons, and I told him politely that we’d already found a nice spot upstairs. “Not open,” he said. “You can’t sit there.”

After a half-hearted look through the drinks menu and a look around to see if we could find any better seats (we couldn’t) we decided to leave.

If we had stayed we would have been squashed onto two stools next amongst strangers, straining our necks to see a band playing tame music, which had its heyday when Duke Ellington was alive. And don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking the Duke, but when one is sipping a beer on a Friday night, “Satin Doll” just isn’t a suitable soundtrack.

And a good thing we left. In retrospect the 10 minutes that we spent in The House Of Blues And Jazz on FuZhou Rd was quite substandard. The band was fine, but we had to accost a waiter, were told that we weren’t allowed in the nicest part of the bar, and were pointed towards two stools squashed in amongst strangers.

We made our way to City Diner, on the corner of TongRen and Nanjing West rd (if you want to go, show this address to your driver: 同仁路，南京西路 and tell ‘em maxiewawa sent you). The first thing that hit us was the music. They were small, as they always are at City Diner, (sax, drums, vocals, rhodes) but awesome. They played funky jazz and blues and really kicked along.

But now that I think of it, the service at City Diner was horrible. Trying to find a waiter, at one point I wandered into the bar area (something that will get you thrown out of a bar from where I’m from!) and actually ended up serving some bewildered patrons who, like me, were having trouble finding a waiter.

It’s strange that I didn’t remember that immediately… after my whinging about bad service at the House of Blues and Jazz I forgot how bad it was at City Diner. I guess it goes to show how good music can make up for bad service.

Anyway, we found seats to our liking at City Diner, helped ourselves to drinks (like I said, the waitstaff weren’t really on the ball that night) and sat, toetapping along to the band.

Eventually I worked up the courage to say hello to a group of Koreans, but only after a few drinks. Whenever I hear a language that I’m learning spoken a public place, I just have to say hello! Everyone was very complimentary after they realised that I was speaking Korean (ha!) and we all made friends. Aika was of course popular, being a foreigner who speaks Korean very well, and soon everyone stopped complimenting me, since it was quite obvious that I don’t speak all that well actually. We had a great time, dancing, singing and drinking.

The moral of this story is simple: stay away from the House of Blues and Jazz on a Thursday, Friday and Saturday night; there is a much better alternative at the City Diner, where Five Point Punch (or is it Three Point Kick? Sorry I forgot the name!) play. You might have to pour your own drinks though.

The House of Blues and Jazz is located on FuZhou rd ［福州路］, near the bund. You can recognise it by the laidback music, and a second floor that has no one there. The City Diner is located on TongRen rd, near NanJing West rd. ［同仁路近南京西路］You’ll recognise it by the uplifting music and the throngs of people gettin’ down and boogie-ing inside.