Saturday night? All the more reason for the Blues!

 The evening started off early and nice; dinner at a lovely Japanese restaurant in Mandarin Gallery, to celebrate the fact that our friends’ son finished his primary school. It was a lovely couple of hours spent with great company and good food, topped up with some lovely chestnut Shōchū. We parted from the family at around 8:30 PM and decided right then and there to head to the Barber Shop, for the Blues Jam. Added value, we thought, could be that we would briefly hop up to OCF to see our friends Alina and Lily perform, but once arrived at the Barber Shop, we settled at a high table and chair and ordered ourselves a couple of drinks. 

I think the people behind the interior decoration of the Barber Shop did a real good job to create a hole in the wall atmosphere. The steel beams and shutters all around give it that nice gritty feel. Even from the outside, possibly thanks to the black of the walls and the blue of the spot light it gives me this sense of looking into the semi-basement of one of those classic American pre-war buildings. In my imagination like those spaces where I was told they were housing speakeasies!?

The resident band for the jam is Raw Earth;

Chen Yaohui Victor Guitar

Danny Loong Guitar Organ

Francis Chan Bass Vocals

Gary Tan Drums

Surath Godfrey Vocals

We were a bit early so I got up after our order to have a peak in OCF the restaurant upstairs to see how Alina and Lily were doing, when at that same moment they entered the room. They were taking a brake from their gig upstairs and stopped by for a drink. That killed our time nicely for the first blues jam set to start off.  We had been to the blues jam before and remembered we enjoyed it back then, and the first few songs told me I was not going to be disappointed. I believe I mentioned that my all time favorite tune is the thrill is gone?! They played that song with so much fervor and enthusiasm, the cool guitar solo’s by Danny and Victor, 

the raspy bluesy voice of Surath. 

 
My evening was made right then and there.  But the night went on, complemented by Gary’s drum solo shows 

and Franchis’ Bass lines and a voice that reminded me often of the of Robert Plant.

This was exhilarated further by Louis Lam’s performances on his harmonica added some lovely blues vocals in between. I honestly do not know whether he was there to jam or came as a special guest to the band but the match was great and I think it should be the latter. 

With that the evening already had several pinnacle moments, and one would think that couldn’t get any better than that, until Lily Anna Naris came to the stage. 

She had descended from OCF where she was finished with her jazz ballads and clearly had some cropped up energy underneath that lovely green dress. What a singer what a performer. I saw on Facebook, Louis taped it so figured I include the link. Not sure of any of the dinner guest came down to Barber Shop for some after dinner entertainer. If they did, they must have seen the full range of Lily’s capability, 



a beauty by face....

a beast by heart!