A Mysterious Case of Whiplash Caused by Head-banging and Air-guitar

On a typical Friday night, I make the rounds for hiphongkong. I was going to swing by the MO Bar to have a cocktail at the Mixology event that we endorsed. There were special guest bartenders that flew in from New York and Sydney especially for the event. These liquid magicians are the future of cocktails. I went on the first night and was amazed by the cutting-edge concoctions being served up by the master mixologists. Who knew there were so many innovative new ways to get drunk?! I even ate a tequila-infused marshmallow and cosmopolitan caviar!

There were a few ex-restaurant owners, DJ’s, singers, bar owners (like Benedict Ku-owner of Volar) and a lot of media friends like Angie Wong (food writer) and Johannes Pong (catty columnist extraordinare). We were all united in the search for the perfectly crafted cocktail that tastes great, gets you buzzed doesn’t leave you with a bad hangover.

Hopefully we can start an awareness trend in Hong Kong bars so owners will realize the importance of a really well-made cocktail. Lotus gets my vote for the best margarita and Executive Bar wins for the best martini and scotch in town!

I headed out instead to the 72 Hours event. It was a 3-day pop-up shop held in the UFO Gallery in conjunction with Kanchan Couture. They were having an art/fashion happening called ‘White Night.’

Everyone had to come in white t-shirts and we drew and painted on each other just like we were blank canvases. We even got to spray-paint each other in neon colors! Kanch was bravely wearing these AMAZING shoes that she got at On Pedder. Hopefully she didn’t get any paint on them!

Afterwards, I headed over to Cliq for the Casio G-shock party. I love G-shock watches and I knew it would be a groovy event since local homies 24 Herbs were performing and the PR was being handled by A-Vibe. The place was packed despite the rain and I was stoked to discover a great new act! Around midnight- people started pushing toward the DJ booth as a performance was about to take place. I angled my way toward the front and as I arrived, I saw a female drummer dressed in neo-hippie regalia and a guy with black wayfarers who was the spitting image of Daniel Wu (well at least with the glasses on). The band’s name is Quan and the singer is Quan Yeomans, a Eurasian guy from Down Under that’s been living in Hong Kong. Quan was formerly of the Brisbane based band called ‘Regurgitator’. Anyway, I didn’t know what to expect but by the end of the set, I was Woot Wooting, jumping up and down, head banging and dancing away- and so was the rest of the crowd!

The energy of the performance was infectious. The music was a cross between spoken word, gangsta free-style rap, hardcore, R&B, 80’s and electro-dance. How it’s possible to mix all those genres is beyond me but the music was catchy, danceable and really fresh! During the performance, someone from Casio realized Quan was not wearing a watch (Horror!) So he came up and slapped a cool red G-shock watch onto Quan's wrist.Then at one point Quan yelled “Do you guys want to dance?- Just because you’re in Hong Kong it doesn’t mean you can’t dance!!” Personally, I'm sick of Hong Kong audiences that are completely non-responsive- So Hell ya! Amen brother!

See all the party photos here:
http://www.hiphongkong.com/galleries/party_photos/casio_g_shock_shock_world_tour

More Quan videos on Vimeo. Shout out to Awon and Hannah. Hahaha! Love it!

I caught up with some other people who happened to be in Wanchai afterwards. I can’t stand Wanchai, but it was late and I said-Why not? We ended up at Spicy Fingers where a middle-aged Filipino guy was belting out ‘Give it away’ by the Chili Peppers. There were girls with blinking bunny ears, a troupe of female Swedish tourists, hordes of older men with pants that were too high-waisted for their wide, flat butts and me- playing air guitar and channeling the spirit of Angus Young from AC/DC. Well come on, after all we were in Wanchai and isn’t this where you can let your hair down with no one passing any judgement on you?

A far cry from Quan and the uber-cool crowd!

The next morning, I woke up feeling like I had a massive workout and a mild case of whiplash on my neck from all the dancing, head-banging and air-guitar. Good thing there are all these cheap massage places everywhere and my masseuse managed to knead the kinks straight out of my neck! Ahhhhh….

The cause of my whiplash...
 

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