Pizza partying with Filipinos

Yesterday we wanted pizza. So we headed into the downtown area, to a side street that we knew boasted a few different pizza places. We settled for the brightest lit place, because low light--as experienced in previous Chinese pizza outings--usually means upscale and pricey. This place had pop art(ish) pictures of pizza and toppings on the wall, and prefolded boxes stacked to the ceiling. It didn't remind us of Shakespeare's, but it did remind us of a pizza place we liked back in Korea. It was great; we have never been so excited to see black olives, not because we were craving them or anything, but just because they're such a novelty over here.

We ate more than we should have, but we were still in party mode. After all, we needed to spend a better amount of time downtown in order to justify the taxi fares to and from. It can get a little pricey. We headed across the street to a club called "Seven." We hadn't ever been to this place before; usually we go to a different place called "2046", also downtown and also home to lots of neon and half naked dancing folks (men and women). When we walked into "Seven" it seemed just like a smaller version of "2046", except significantly cleaner with a more impressive lighting display. It was nice. We sat at the bar and ordered a couple shots of whiskey (which we nursed, cause it's expensive) and some cold beers. It was still early, so there wasn't too much of a crowd, and no one was performing yet. We did notice that there was a keyboard behind the bar, though, which we thought was interesting. There was also a stool and music stand on the stage and a guitar pedal. We had heard from Neal that this club had live music, so our interest was piqued.

Soon enough the band came out. One guy on keyboards, another on guitar, and a tiny chick singing. I was in the bathroom when they started their first song, but I when I came back out, I was so impressed that such a huge voice came out of such a tiny woman. It was settled--we were spending a good deal of time at "Seven." This first song that they played was an Evanescence song. I don't know the name, and even though I don't really like Evanescence, I could really appreciate hearing songs in English. Next they did "Zombie" by the Cranberries. It was awesome. Rory and I were really just floored. They were all such good musicians--I think the highlight of the evening was the disco rock version of "Sweet Child of Mine" by Guns N' Roses. I never would have thought to make it a dance song at all, but I guess you have to cater to your crowd.

We got a chance to talk to the band a little bit, too. They are from the Phillipines, but they are under contract with this particular club for three months, before they go to a different Chinese province to do the same thing. I guess it's really hard for foreign bands to come make money in China, but they said that it wasn't hard for them because their singer was so good. And she was! She could have been on American Idol (or Filipino Idol, if they even have that). They told us how happy they were to see Americans, not just because they prefer performing English songs, but because they usually have to sing all their songs in Chinese, just for that kind of club clientele.

We stuck around for a little longer after they were finished, to watch all of the dancing. The club featured a whole array of cross dressers and girls in nighties. It was really funny. It was distinctly Chinese. I'm working on my Chinese girl dance moves. I think I've got it down. So I guess I could try to get a part-time job...