A Couple Club Reviews, Strange Experiences, and "White Monkeys" Pt. I

In the past week and a half, I have been to about 10-12 different night clubs/bars in Chengdu (太多). It seems difficult, even unthinkable, but so many factors contributed to this:

• There must be hundreds within a 3-mile radius, and East Gate (where I live) is under a mile from the bar street.
• There's no cover - you just walk right in.
• Cab fare is like peanuts. 

My first night at a club (starting at Jellyfish), I also went to Paname (next door), MUSE, and later that night, BABI II and another place I believe is called SOHO. All this after the screamo show at Little Bar, so I was pretty exhausted. But from here, I'm going to break it down by bar, since the scene is a lot different from the clubs on Tai Ping Nan Jie.

Mooney's Bar
My first real weekend actually began on Thursday (March 3rd), even though I had class Friday morning and afternoon. I went with a bunch of French students from my dorm to a place called Mooney's Bar in the beautiful Shangri-La Hotel (*****) for Ladies Night. I must say that within the first five minutes, I could tell that this was laowai hunting ground. Business men in white t-shirts, in a dark bar, hiding behind dark sunglasses to dull their invasive stares. After being there twice since, I honestly have no desire to return. While at first excited by the diverse crowd, that element alone is not enough to redeem the bar's elemental failures. Every night I've gone, the cover band Peachy has played - while decent, and the first time enjoyable/extremely amusing, dancing to the same 20-or-so random songs (like Cranberries - Zombie, Lady Gaga, and Evanescence) grows tiresome. The DJ, while I savoured recorded music during my next visit, is quite trite. I know I'm in a certain time, place, and crowd that wants to hear certain things, but geez. Not a place to go every night - and as for me, never again.    

Jellyfish
This place was actually quite cool the first night I went - typical nightclub atmosphere (as in darkness broken by persistent neon beams of light) but a more lounge-like layout. The music was very good - or at least good as in familiar. I got extremely excited coming in because Ciara was playing, and the DJ took requests and mixed them quite well... so if only I could remember his name. It took a while for people to start dancing, but eventually the floor was filled with spastic, rhythmless laowai movements. I also met this awesome dude named Donald here, and that's how I wound up going to MUSE later too. It's also worth mentioning that the only other time I poked my head into Jellyfish, they were only playing techno. 不要。  


Paname
...definitely caters to an older crowd. My second visit, Ken and Donald kept commenting on how the bowling club/PTA meeting must have just gotten out. The first time, I moved back and forth from Jellyfish a couple times - originally having a primary interest in Paname, it failed to hold my interest at all. At least the first night the music was old-school good (my parents' era to 80s). When I came back, expecting better, the music was all the utter crap made within the past two years, and the DJs straight-out ignored any requests. So, I couldn't stay more than 20 minutes... And you can't just blame the DJ for sucking - definitely blame the club for picking them, too. 

Tai Ping Nan Jie: MUSE, BABI II, etc.

This is the same place mentioned in a previous blog about the children being forced to sell flowers. It's also about half a mile from my dorm, and you can find a shit-ton of good cheap food right across the street from the row of clubs. I'm going to describe my experiences by the date.

4 March Friday  
Again, same night I saw the show at Little Bar and hopped between Jellyfish and Paname. After meeting and chilling with Donald for a while, he invited me to go to Muse; since I'd been too afraid to go alone, and too embarassed to go with anyone from the 留学生宿舍, I jumped on the chance. I was absolutely surprised that the clubs were ALL free - no door fee, no coat check. You could just traipse right on in, give the coat check people your phone number, and you're good to go. If there was a dress code, I'm not sure - it might not have mattered for us. MUSE is probably one of the most interesting places I have ever seen - it's like it's straight out of a movie. One day I'll take a picture of the outside so you can get a gist, but the interior is like a giant white cave. Fucking awesome.

People were staring as soon as we walked in to the club - I saw no other foreigners until much later, but when I did they were sharing the dance-stage with us. And speaking of which - there is no room/place to dance in this club, except for on two 5x15' platforms at opposite ends of the room. And, irritating scented fog is constantly being emitted from the DJ-booth onto the tiny stage (to which I responded - “AHHH! We's being gassed!") Throughout the night, people expressed wonder over our movements and several drew back in... fear? Dancing in China is contact-free, as was I. Except for in Mooney's, everyone I've seen dances about two feet apart. Also, several times throughout the night, we were shuffled offstage so go-go dancers and (the same) cover singer (I've seen at several other clubs) could perform. One of the girls sitting near the stage made a sour face, and tried to move her date(?)'s hand towards my waist - to which he responded by recoiling and stuttering about how the Chinese do not do such things. So I consider the girl's gesture extremely rude, especially in such a cultural setting. We were then invited to their date-less table near the stage, where we were offered small glasses of this clear brown stuff that both smelled and tasted (and felt) JUST like iced tea.

After we got bored with MUSE, we retrieved our coats, etc. and went across the street for some food. Keep in mind that this was at about 3-4 in the morning, my time, and these people were running full-steam. A bit after 4, everyone else hopped into a cab and I wandered home, peeking into several other clubs on the way back and noting a couple I'd try to return to the next night.

I'll continue on 5 March Saturday later - need a break! And I'll probably blog about my karaoke experience while it's still fresh in my mind.