Joy Luck Club

We’ve got a few bars around town with live music. JZ Club is the one that’s most talked about. They’ve undoubtedly got some great music. Even if jazz isn’t your thing, the club itself is a place worth going to. The building was beautifully restored. Cocktails are like no other. Then you’ve got hard-hitting rock and roll at You To Bar. The music at Traveller [sic] Bar is a bit mellower. Of course a few of the hotels do the hotel music thing. Hill Street and Friend’s Bar do some eighties lounge stuff as well. Occasionally The Shamrock will put something on in between sports.

Enter Gavin Munroe. He started playing at the Maya Bar sometime over a year ago. His music was loud, and often out of key, but Wednesdays at the Maya Bar quickly became the highlight of many peoples’ week. Then he started playing with the Holey Moley’s at the now closed Paradise Rock. People flooded there on Fridays. He was out of key. Drinkers loved it. Now after being venue-less for most of our quiet summer, he’s back on the scene at Joy Luck.
Joy Luck is new, and they have a standard menu of drinks. The layout affords a band ample room to play if amps and drums aren’t a necessity (sorry Neil Peart). Televisions and a big screen put the sports into view for just about every patron. The pool table is often occupied with people who can play, and friends of the owner make it a place that looks like it has been around longer than it actually has. Gavin’s playing on Friday and Saturday nights, and if our intuition is any good, Joy Luck will start filling its chairs. He does a strange mix of anything from Brittney Spears to REM. Punters sing along maybe if just to try to get Gavin back on note. Jokes aside, Gavin puts on an entertaining evening that people go back to. The only drawback to Joy Luck is its location on the west end of Wen’er Xi road. But then again, if you’re a west-end Hangzhouvian, that’s a good thing.