Friday night jazz at Ikea

Corbett | November 17, 2006 9:02 PM

Friday night I had to stop by Ikea to grab some items for a tenant moving in Monday. Trust me, you never want to go to Ikea in Beijing over the weekend. Oh my god. What a zoo. Thousands of people crooning "hao shuuuuuufuuuuuu" while sitting on every available space, even under the covers, sleeping. The Ikea staff have now covered all the fake toilets with plexiglass...

Anyway, so there I am, manuevering through the store with the driver and Aunt Lui. We turn the corner, and [what's that?] there's a jazz band, playing to an audience of cafeteria diners, with cafeteria trays. The cafeteria in the Beijing Ikea holds about 600 people, and it was full. People on dates, people with laptops, little kids, grandparents, and even a few hotties. (Note to guys: Ikea - New place to score numbers.)

The jazz band of course was what caught my interest, so I suggested hanging around for an upscale cafeteria dinner (baked salmon anyone?). I got a table up close to the singer, wearing the requisite singer attire of leopard skin boots, tight black pants, and a rhinestone belt. (Why is it all singers shop at the same store?) And the band was pretty good. Actually better than most of the jazz bands I hear in Taiwan.

They played the standard schmaltz gig tunes, weren't too loud, and people seemed to really enjoy it. But what a weird combination. Someone tried to go trough an emergency exit door and set all the alarms off, but the band plowed right through no problem. A little cafeteria worker was busy collecting trays and wiping tables down. People pushed carts laden with items named from forgotten Lord of the Rings characters. I slurped my spaghetti, endured yet another performance of "The Girl From Ipanema" and mulled over the tough gig aspect of it, and decided it was sure better than playing piano in the dining room of a sauna, or trying to flog an album to shoppers in the produce aisle of a store in Tainan.

Category: Mr. Asia

Comments (0)

---

Add a comment

---

---

Name

Email Address

URL

Remember personal info?

Comments

Captcha:

Type the characters you see in the picture above.