Music nights

Anyone who knows Andrew knows that he LOVES playing music. Luckily we packed lightly enough when coming to China last year that he was able to bring along one of his guitars, and recently he started trying to start up another band, which is always a bit tricky, but he stuck with it until he found 2 great guys to play with (Garrett from California and Tyler from Quebec).

Last weekend the 3 of them were practicing at a jam-space close to our house, but apparently the accoustics were pretty bad, so they came up with the idea of going to play in the metro (subway). Andrew called me at this point and invited me along, which was great.

The 4 of us took off for the metro and then set up right where all the people were coming out. It was already 10:30pm, so we didn't think there'd be much traffic, and we also didn't think we'd make any money, but we opened up the guitar case for cash, just to see.

Tyler (the drummer) had found a solid bucket out on the street, which he was pounding with his drumsticks. Andrew and Garrett were playing guitar and singing, and I was the back-up singer. No sooner had we started with Bob Marley's "One Love", then a security guard came along, motioning for us to leave. So we moved about 20 feet down the hall, set up again, and kept playing.

What was really funny was that a whole bunch of Chinese people put money into the case, and every time one of them would, everyone else around them would start clapping. SO many people whipped out their camera phones and were taking pictures and videos of us and seemed SO happy to hear some live Western music. We ended up making almost $10 (Can) in only 30 minutes, which we totally weren't expecting.

Hopefully we'll go to another metro station soon (at rush hour) and see what happens there.


Then this past Sat night we played again at a little expat bar called BeeDee's. Just one set of cover songs, but the crowd loved it. The owner wants Andrew to do regular Sat nights now (3 sets of 10!), but we're not sure b/c it was SO smokey in there, and we don't love that! We came home just REEKING of smoke, and it irritates my throat a lot too. China is SUCH a smokey place... one of the major downfalls of being here.




There were only 2 mics, so Garrett had to share one... a bit awkward seeing as he's way taller then me, but we made do. Next time they'll arrange for 3. You can't see Tyler in this pic, but he'd behind us all on the drums (not a bucket this time)!