What a weekend. I think I’m still recovering from what had occurred on Friday and Saturday. It was fun, don’t get me wrong. In fact, here are the summaries and pictures that will explain the adventure I went through.
Friday: Returning to “All That Jazz”
About five years ago, I went twice to a small live jazz club located in Itaewon. I went back there on Friday night because Ahmi’s class decided to make field trip out of the club, so I decided to go with her. When we arrived, we ordered our drinks along with the cover charge. Let’s just say that this club reminded me of why I hadn’t gone back in five years. Expensive. Drinks like juice and ice tea were about 7,000 won ($7) and cocktails were about 9,000 won ($9) plus 10% VAT (taxes of some sort), and the cover charge was 5,000 won ($5) per person. O_O;; I ordered a June Bug and it cost me 14,500 won ($14.50). Ouch.
However, I must say that the price for one drink and cover charge was WORTH seeing the band for the night. The band, 룩복성 (Luke-Bok-Sung), didn’t start performing until 9pm. We watched them start setting up, and there was this one ol’ 할아버지 (Halabuji = grandpa/old man) who was a percussionist/vocalist, a tenor saxophonist, an alto saxophonist, a pianist, a bassist, and another drummer. For the next two and a half hour, they rocked out the following stuff:
* An original piece. Nothing special. It just showcased each instrumentalists’, minus the Halabuji, skills.
* Some weird song where the Halabuji sang. X____X Let’s just say his vocals weren’t that great. But the lyrics were funny . . . since the audience were laughing.
* A cover of Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five”. HOMG. AWESOME cover. Halabuji took over the drums . . . and whoah!
* A cover of Herbie Hancock’s “Cantaloupe Island”. It was an okay song, but what made this song truly amazing was that one of Ahmi’s classmate, Barbara, an African-American woman was talked into singing with the band. She went up in this song and did some scat singing. Let’s just say we were blown away by her talent.
* A cover of Duke Ellington’s “Take the ‘A’ Train”. Earlier, Ahmi and I were saying that it’d be awesome if they played this song. She thought the song wouldn’t be played since it was mostly meant to be a Big Band piece, but they played it! As soon as we heard the beginning chord, she and I squealed excitedly.
* Barbara’s Blues Song. Honestly, I have no clue if this is a cover or not, but I don’t think it is. Barbara went up there again, and this time she sang a blues song. Damn that woman is talented.
* Another weird song where Halabuji sang . . . only this felt more like one of those Ahjumma (older woman’s) songs meet jazz than anything else. X___X;;
* Finally, they performed a really fast version of “Saint Thomas”. Like, whoah.
Couple side notes:
* Of the whole band, Ahmi and I both agreed that the tenor saxophonist was the best instrumentalist. When he played, he had the most passion. Whenever he had the solo, it was really a great listen.
* Halabuji can’t really sing, but MAN is he a genius of a percussionist! He played the following instruments that night: drum set, tom-toms, cowbell, maracas, some kind of kazoo/whistle thing, and lastly, the bottom part of a metal stool. *sweatdrops* The last “instrument” cracked me up so bad.
Anyway, that was Friday. SO FUN. Minus the monsoon rain, but I would so go back there now. I mean, yes, the price is a big turn off, but if we can get away with getting one drink and stay there for four hours to listen to a live band, the price isn’t that bad then. :3
Saturday: Re-living High School Days?
Ahmi and I had planned to meet up our friend Hannah. We decided to meet at Itaewon’s McDonald’s, but Hannah was held up for a bit. Ahmi and I decided to get some Oreo McFlurries while we waited.
When Hannah came, we went to Taj Palace for some Indian food. Mmmmm. X___X Stupid me forgot to take pictures of the food. DARN. After that, we left, and I wanted to take some pictures of a couple things around this area.
I am awfully curious as to what they mean by “well-being Billiards”. And, really? “Mbargo?!” There needs to be an “E” there! XD XD Don’t mind me. I’m just being silly. But after I took pictures, we decided to hang out at my favourite cafe, “Hell Beans”. Okay, it’s supposed to be called, “Hello Beans”, but it’s hard not resisting the temptation to call it “Hell Beans”. Here, I took some pictures of the second floor interior and my drink. XD
Don’t ask about the first image. I have no clue why there’s a picture of a woman like that. The second pictures just show more of the area with Ahmi and Hannah ducking out of the way. The third and fourth picture shows the window seat, the right and left side respectively. The view overlooks the main street of Itaewon. The last picture shows my Royal Green Tea (Green Tea Latte), Ahmi’s Royal Milk Tea, and Hannah’s Americano, all of them iced! Mwahahaha.
After that, we stayed until it was time for Hell Beans to close. Then we went to Dragon on base and . . . chilled out in the lobby like a bunch of a high school students! Hannah’s brother Donald came by later, and we goofed around some more. :3 Then we all met up with Hannah’s parents, drove to Hannah’s house, switched into Hannah’s car, and went back to the base to meet various people where they were going to go to Gangnam to party. That’s when Ahmi and I decided to just head for home.
But yeah. LONG WEEKEND. And long post, too! X____X;; In the meantime, time for a cold shower (no hot water until Monday or Tuesday X___X), and start figuring out my Tokyo Trip website. Now that I finally finished formatting the pictures (all 154 of them) that only took two months (BLEH), time to do that! . . . After I finish my workplace month’s newsletter, though. OI. SO MUCH TO DO. Why can’t tomorrow not be Monday!
ETA: OH! Hannah created a new word on an accident: TRINOSAURS. She meant to say “triceratops” but somehow combined that word with “dinosaurs”. I thought that was just the most brilliant ROTFL moment.
