“cities at night” according to Martin Amis, “contain men who cry in their sleep and then say nothing” Hanoi is definitely an exception, all the men cruise around on little mopeds all night. Personally I don’t usually go for that either, I prefer to search for live music, preferably in little rancid bars in back alleys. There is a lot of local music, but the combination of live music, lots of beer and all-round lechery seems to be reserved to the Western way of life.
There are lots of Western orientated bars, usually filled with lonely ex pats with a serious drinking problem. The inevitable “Finnegan’s’ Irish pub had a band on a few days ago:
A Danish diplomat with an uncanny whiteness of skin and redness of face who looked as if he could eat three live lemmings raw for breakfast and a British diplomat, both mid forties and chubby, had taken along an impressive collection of electronic guitars and wow wow pedals, which typify the better amateur, and were rocking away with Pink Floyd covers. They knew they were not very good at it, but their fun in jamming together inspired the crowd.
Last night I found a rather impressively huge and well utilated club which has a local music and performance program on between eight and ten. I was there at half past eight, and the only customer. The forty or fifty waiters stared at me in amazement, thinking it rather odd that someone would care to actually see the show. It was very amusing, and also very HATLO. Hatlo is an Icelandic word for which I have, as yet, not managed to find an adequate translation. It can best be described as that being the really bad side of camp. Problem is these days that all things hatlo evoluate into camp. ABBA for instance used to be definitely hatlo, but is campy now. So are East German Trabants and seventies design.
Well, the performance in the club I visited last night was still very much hatlo. One of the bands for instance sported a lead singer trying very hard to at least appear to be Rock and Roll, in a too tight suit of truly awful tailoring, he proceeded to do various Saturday Night Fever moves to Bosa Nova tunes….hatlo!! Knowing they earn about one Dollar fifty for their appearance and go home to their 14 brothers and sisters in the suburbs to eat noodles does not help to improve their image. Neither does sniffing glue, drinking hard and smoking opium make them appear more appropriate for the Rock an Roll way of life they seem to strive for.
Towards the end of the show the place started to fill with people and lots of ‘Friendly girls’ who all wanted to sit next to me, I successfully rebuffed all attempts and in doing so earned the respect of the floor manager who shook my hand and bought me a drink.
There is another place called “seventeen saloon” done in American style with Red Indian masks and a huge Lucky Luke painting and waiters in Western boots and cowboy hats (we’re talking downtown Hanoi, Vietnam here) They have a daily live band from the Philippines. For some reason beyond my understanding Phillipino bands are exceptionally good. Very professional and cool, each band member plays various instruments and sings in various combinations.
Nice Site.Debt Consolidation (Email) (URL) - 15 December '05 - 22:50
Hi :)consolidate debt (Email) (URL) - 15 December '05 - 23:38
Les east Jeux elephant list DUNDEE elephant list d’hiver ? de elephant list Trustee Turin Frank se Scarpelli’s cat list sont controversial achevĂ©s vote elephant list il elephant list to y haveAttkns Kauntz (Email) (URL) - 15 March '06 - 08:59
Hope you come back soon!!kori (Email) (URL) - 04 April '06 - 00:36
Holla and Happy Thanksgiving.meta (Email) (URL) - 11 April '06 - 20:53
Holla and Happy Thanksgiving.jon (Email) (URL) - 24 April '06 - 21:11
I am here to say hello and you have a great site!yolonda (Email) (URL) - 25 April '06 - 22:28
Hello and congratulations!olga (Email) (URL) - 26 April '06 - 11:00
greetings !Nick (Email) (URL) - 08 May '06 - 01:41
best siteAlex (Email) (URL) - 08 May '06 - 14:17
Good site. Congratulations.Peter (Email) (URL) - 12 May '06 - 05:45
nice site !Sarah (Email) (URL) - 12 May '06 - 08:56
A very nice website !! Very well Done !!!billie (Email) - 12 May '06 - 14:09
Just wanted to say hi, thanks and byeAlex (Email) (URL) - 12 May '06 - 20:24
Hey man…sorry I missed the party.hermelinda (Email) (URL) - 16 May '06 - 11:37
nice site !Sarah (Email) (URL) - 16 May '06 - 15:11
Very interesting and professional site! Good luck!Taly (Email) (URL) - 19 May '06 - 02:17
Just wanted to say hi, thanks and byeMary (Email) (URL) - 19 May '06 - 05:04
I like this site!dianne (Email) (URL) - 19 May '06 - 19:44
greetings !John (Email) (URL) - 21 May '06 - 00:12
Hello! Very interesting and professional site.sylvester (Email) (URL) - 21 May '06 - 01:46
Hello and congratulations!eliseo (Email) (URL) - 21 May '06 - 17:47
I am here to say hello and you have a great site!earnestine (Email) (URL) - 22 May '06 - 08:46
To paraphrase, how do you do a search for information sites that fit what I want to check out? Does any body have learned how to BROWSE through blogs and forums by content or anything that on blog writer? .Joseph (Email) (URL) - 03 March '17 - 07:11
Howdy! I basically would like to give a huge thumbs up for the good data you’ve got here on this post. I will probably be coming once again to your weblog for far more soon.James (Email) (URL) - 11 October '17 - 11:42
Nice post. I was checking constantly this blog and I am impressed! Extremely useful information specially the last partJames (Email) (URL) - 07 January '18 - 09:13