For some reason, foreigners are able to play live music in bars and clubs with zero permits or permission from the government. This is strange to me because this is not the way that it is in most of the world. I was in a shitty punk rock band that could barely string together 10 songs and our guitar player once got arrested and actually went to jail (just for the night) for playing guitar in a bar where he wasn't even being paid to do so.
Apparently here in Vietnam anyone can play live music, even for pay, without any fear despite not having permits to do so. Last night I took the little lady out for a bit of food and what turned out to be my favorite local band called "The Langers".
I was originally sat by myself with my dog because I have been in a sort of anti-social mood lately. Mostly this is because I have been in a bit of a rut about how it seems to me that all of us get together just to drink and our venues are boring and I don't understand why we even bother. We have loads of nice beach bars but everyone just goes to some hole in the wall with zero view and construction noise all around. But this place is different because it has a nicer ambiance and the food there is actually pretty good.
here's Nadi at our original table. Don't worry, she is not lonely but I had to put her on that side because my side of the table is a long bench seat that is connected to all the other tables and one of the couples nearby had a smallish child with them. In case you don't normally read my writeups Nadi bites children unprovoked and I don't know why she does this but it is too late for me to alter this behavior.
Later on some people I know came by and said "there's not enough space for 6 people here dude" and I responded by "I have no idea what you are talking about, I'm not here to meet you guys."
That sounded more rude than I intended it to be so Nadi and I relocated to a different larger table which unfortunately had zero back support and was just a big picnic table style of seat. The sacrifices we make for friends eh?
What makes the Langers so special is that they are actually talented musicians which unfortunately is not an attribute that a great many of the local bands, and especially the local bands with foreigners in them, are capable of. Not only do they play all their pre-planned songs extremely well, but they take requests and sometimes they pull up the notes on a tablet that they all have so that the people playing can quickly learn the notes before they begin the song. They never screw up, but will sometimes point out that "this is the first time that we have ever played this, so bear with us." There were a couple of songs where you could hear minor mistakes, but nothing bad enough to accuse them of being sloppy. I really admire the ability of someone to just briefly look at some notes, and be familiar "enough" with the song to have a go at playing it even though they have never played it before.
I guess I feel this way because I have been in multiple bands and despite having impeccable rhythm, I normally had to seriously work on songs before I could play them. As far as playing something reasonably correctly the very first time I read the notes, you can forget about that action.
This was a great finish to me and Nadi's day because it started out rather humdrum. I was in my place in the afternoon lamenting the fact that I don't feel like there are really any good restaurants here as I was doomscrolling the Vietnam equivalent of Uber Eats and just not wanting any of it.
Nadi got excited about whatever the hell this is in that take away container... for me it was just abstinence and I wouldn't say that I enjoyed it at all. It was just a "get in my belly" sort of thing. Sometimes I wish I had Nadi's attitude towards food but seriously, Vietnam doesn't do a good job on food despite doing exceptionally well on almost everything else.
There is very little chance you are going to ever hear the Langers if you are not local. All of these guys have other jobs because they are not widespread enough to make a living doing only this. Therefore they never tour and never play anywhere outside of this city. You may get lucky if you visit here someday though because the 3 dudes in the band seem pretty content on staying put here for a while.
