Barbershop Blues

There was some pretty major carpe dieming happening today in Hong Kong. Some friends suggested that I visit a barbershop in the Soho district downtown. But not for the haircuts. Or, at least not in tonight's case.

The third Friday of each month, the owner of the Visage One barbershop hosts a few different blues/bluegrass musicians and packs forty or fifty people into the salon turned saloon. Typical capacity of the barbershop? Fifteen. Tops.

Six friends and I arrived two hours early to get decent seats and have a chance to explore the shop. It had a loft (see picture.)

Getting there before anyone else allowed us to fully appreciate the eventual transition into cramped madness this place would endure. But two hours is a long time. We started getting ansi. To our luck, there was an art gallery opening next door with free wine and painting, even for average nobodies like ourselves.

Some of them got carried away with the body paint. I liked it. New fashion, perhaps.

I painted a tree. 

We had a little more time to kill, so we mulled about and found a hip little bar called Club 11. Michael found a guitar hanging on the wall, which he played marvelously. He was even joined by a flutist.

I found some Confucian writing on the wall.Right?

As it turned out, Michael's guitar playing at Club 11 was just a warm-up. After we finally settled in at the barbershop and soaked in three or four quality blues songs from two guitarists, and one R Ha-ist (sp? plz?), Michael grabbed the guitar and started playing like he'd been jamming with these guys back in Florida. "How 'bout Blues in 'b?'" he decreed with the cool of Miles Davis and the authority of the munchkin coroner.

Just like that. The next three hours was a mix of blues, bluegrass, and jazz from the East and West. With covers of "Somewhere over the Rainbow" and John Lennon's "Imagine," plus "Hava Nagila," the night progressively awesomed. What came next? a flutist, a harmonica player, and and very cool audience interaction. Everything about this night was unexpected. I felt a part of something special. It was the best time I had with forty or fifty strangers in one room. I'm sad to think this sort of thing doesn't usually happen at Great Clips in the States... to the best of my knowledge.

Consider the day seized.

Enjoy low quality video of the event. I'm sorry it is so dark. Come with next time.

Some good R Ha/Bluegrass: Somewhere over the Rainbow: 

Let it Be: Let it Be, ending: Original blues: 

And for those of you who have just gotta see the real thing: I can't resist this voice.