So This Is Le Baroque …

New visitors of my site must have thought that I am quite a party animal – Attica, The Arena, and now Le Baroque. In fact, the Le Baroque visit was totally impromptu. My guitarist Jason has been talking about this new colleague of his for a long time (till now becomes ex-colleague) but I have yet had the chance to meet this “potential drummer” of ours. Being impatience that my band progresses much slower than I wish to be (quality of masculinity!), I took the initiative and asked Jason to introduce me to CW over email. Come to think of it, I don’t normally meet strangers without a course. But before I get into that, I have to share a phone conversation I had just an hour or two ago.

I woke up this morning felt like having a home delivered McDonald’s breakfast. So I called the hot-line. After waiting on the line for quite a bit …

Her: Good morning! This is Mc Delivery. Can I have your contact number please?
Me: (In my low and masculine voice coupled with the just-woke-up husky texture) Morning. My number is 6XXX-XXXX.

She paused, presumably looking at her screen …

Her: Is that … Ms Wong on the line …
Me: (Do I sound like a Ms Wong?!) Erm …
Her: (Giggle)
Me: (Speechless)

After that shocking survey I took, that was not funny.

Her: (Giggle) Can I take your order please? (Giggle)
Me: Sure … “Ms” Wong who is still sleeping wants a Egg McMuffin meal and …
Her: (Giggle)
Me: Mr Wong wants to have a Big Breakfast meal please. Thank you.
Her: (Giggle) Would you like … (giggle) … an apple pie for one dollar? (Giggle)

Not funny, so not funny. Stupid customer relationship system. Cynthia must be the one who placed the first order and from then on, my home number is now tagged to her.

Now, back to Le Baroque, all I know about CW from Jason is that he is an American, musically talented, and is now stationed in Singapore. And he plays drum! Okay, I have been hunting for a drummer for ages short of camping outside studios and nab any good drummers coming out the door. Perhaps that is what I should do. Cold calls, cold meetings, whatever it takes to make some progress. Ya baby. Do it like a man! Oh wait, I am a man.

I wanted to check out some places with good music. Jason recommend Le Baroque at Chijmes over the phone. So CW and I headed over to Chijmes. The thing is, it is actually fun to meet new friends. When we arrived at Le Baroque at 7.30pm, one of the waitress told us that the band would not start playing till 10.30pm. I thought we would have missed the band performance. I mean, how long would a meal and a few glasses of beer take between two strangers? Surprisingly, we left the bar just before midnight. The band was actually quite good though the music played was like back in the 70s or 80s. They have 1-for-1 beer selling at S$12 each (so S$6 for one) before 10pm.

CW is going to join us for a jamming session and this coming Tuesday, instead of jamming at my humble home studio, we are going to visit a real one with a real drum-set. I am so excited because it is my first. Stay tuned!