Friday, January 29, 2010

Banjo Jim's

You honestly can do anything in New York City. Tonight I went to "Ukulele Cabaret" at Banjo Jim's. First of all, with a name like "Banjo Jim's" you can't really go wrong, can you? Secondly Ukulele Cabaret!!! Need I say more. Let me break this down for you. Ukulele Cabaret basically occurs at 8:00 on any given Friday night at the wonderful Banjo Jim's. All one must needs do is sign up and you can play your little heart out and rock away to about three songs. To be honest I thought it was one of the coolest things ever-no lie! Now don't get me wrong, not all of the people were great, I went with some new friends and we only stayed for about four performers, but for the most part they were really interesting and dare I say good!
The first one was an older gal, probably about 40 who played some tunes from the early 20th century. This is not as dull as it sounds. There is something very intriguing about someone playing the Uke and singing about how "a bug is going to get you."
The second performer was really talented guy. He played Dragostea Din Tei, by O-Zone. Normally I'm not really that guy who, you know, loves Romanian club music, however, when it's played on the Ukulele, who doesn't like a little numa-numa here and a little numa-numa there?
The third guy was aight, I can't say I really remember that much about him, which may not be a good sign seeing as I was just watching hime about four hours ago, hmmmm maybe playing the Ukulele is not his calling in life.
The last guy, well it was his first time. He was some dude from Brooklyn who just started playing about two years ago-or so he said. I think he probably could have used a little more practice, but hey, you've got to give him props for trying. Maybe next time he'll remember to sing a little louder so people can hear him.
Wow, this is a really long post for such a blogging skeptic. Anyways, the moral of the story is, if you are ever in the Big Apple on a Friday night and can't think of anything to do(because lets face it what is there to do in New York City on a Friday night?) you should check out the guys over at Banjo Jim's, on the corner of 9th St. and Avenue C. in the East Village.

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