Charming Kazbar

It's always been hard to find a place where we could jam to Arabic music and practise our bellydance moves. Kazbar, a Middle Eastern theme bar and restaurant, provided the venue for one of our first haflas. I recalled good food and great atmosphere. So when we heard that Ghram is now the resident dancer at Kazbar, we were only too happy to show up and jam a little with her.

Last Friday was only her first full week performing at Kazbar but she had already built rapport with the customers.

In her dancing, it's easy to see her love for the music, the art form and performance. Which translates into a most charming performance.

Ghram will be performing every Wed to Fri at Kazbar through the whole of December (except the last week when Kazbar will be closed for the holidays). Angelina will perform in January.

Bellini Room Official Opening

Looks like last week was a soft launch. Might pop by tomorrow if I have time. Anyone else going?

St James Power Station

As we approached St James Power Station, the music blasting out from Movida, the world music bar, didn't sound too good. Thankfully, it sounded a lot better when we entered the club. The band was not playing, but the size of the room and the decoration impressed me. We decided to check out the other clubs before returning later for the band.

The Belllini Room feels like a luxurious lounge, with stripes and floral wallpaper. I especially liked the wall lined with Belvedere vodka bottles. The band and singer were good, playing a mix of jazz and blues. There were plenty of beautifully dressed people. One member of the audience even got up to sing 3 songs. We learnt later that one of St James' owners had invited his friends, including members of the Ferrari Club and a couple of actors, to party. So jamming is not the norm here. Nonetheless, it's a good place to relax, enjoy music, and people watch, if you're so inclined.

The Gallery Bar next door is good for chilling out without missing the action. With full-length glass windows along both sides of the corridor, and you can watch the action in Movida on one side, and Dragonfly on the other. We could see that there was a live performance in Dragonfly, and wanted to join in the fun. Unfortunately, it was full house, and there was still a long queue past midnight.

Returning to Movida, the band was playing rousing latin songs and the salsa numbers saw at least 5 couples on the dancefloor at any time. I joined in the dancing when they started playing Shakira's songs. The band members were also very sporting, coming off-stage to ask someone from the audience to sing a few lines, or pull people on stage to dance. It was great fun.

My only gripe was that I couldn't even say what kind of music they were playing when the band took a break. Retro? It's definitely NOT world music. They were playing Aretha Franklin's Respect when we walked out to Bellini to chill, 'cos the music was just not danceable. (Strangely, that's also when the half-filled dance floor started filling up. Can Singaporeans only dance to retro music?!!) Please... if you really intend to be a powerhouse in Singapore's nightlife, leave the retro concept where it belongs - in the past.

Having said that, I would definitely return to St James again, because the live music is good. And if you get tired of dancing in Movida, you can always chill in Bellini Room or Gallery Bar. Hopefully, they would improve on the music between the band's sets.