Still getting caught up with some old posts....Back in March, Andy and I went to see some live music at the Fringe Club. The club is listed in guidebooks as one of the few places in Hong Kong where you can see alternative music performed by local, aspiring artists. It sounded so different from the Filipino cover bands that make up much of the local live music scene. The event we went to had four bands performing various forms of electronica, like drum-n-bass and trip-hop. The headlining band happened to be from the Philippines, but the other bands were local.
So we headed off to Central on the MTR and hiked up the hill a few blocks to the club. It's an an older building made of red brick, which is always a novelty in ultramodern Hong Kong.
We got our tickets from a fashionable young lady working the door. Andy noticed that we were given ticket stubs instead of actual tickets. Which very likely meant that our cash, instead of going into the till, disappeared straight into the young lady's pocket. But hey, times are tough. As long as she didn't charge us more than the advertised price I didn't have a problem with it. It was actually reassuring, in a way, to think that nightclub economics work the same way all over the world.
The similarity ended there for the most part. For one thing, the bands started and ended exactly on time. I don't think I've ever seen this before, in any club, anywhere. The place was also very clean -- no spilled beer, no plastic cups littering the floor. As soon as you put down an empty cup, or even an almost-empty cup, it was silently whisked away by staff who suddenly materialized at the table. Also, smoking was not allowed, so there were no overflowing ashtrays or smoke either.
The crowd was enthusiastic, but well-behaved. And also well-dressed. Most of the women wore party dresses or the latest youth-oriented fashions. A lot of the men looked as if they had just come out of the office, still in their suits but without a tie. We shared a table with a couple who brought the cutest camera: it shoots out Polaroid-type photos about the size of a credit card. Nearly everyone there had brought a camera, in fact, and were constantly taking pictures of the bands and each other.
Though I enjoyed the music, I felt the atmosphere was too sterile, in large part because of the ruthless cleaning and the clock-watching. I do appreciate these principles in most areas of my life, but in a nightclub, I don't want to feel like I'm in a Swiss railway station. It will be interesting to find out if other venues run the same way. At least I know not to show up late, or I'll probably miss something.
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