Scopin' Out Chow Fun

Went to Chow Fun Restaurant to scope out the P.A. system and pass out flyers, also to catch a show headlined by singer/songwriter Scott Tang, who recently released his new CD. I also met up with some friends of mine - Dennis Diaz, who performed earlier with a band, also with other folks like Kiyoshi Graves and an old high school aquaintance named Ian Dukes, who showed me his vintage Jamerson-style Fender P-Bass with flatwound strings and foam mute (nice...) Tang performed and Dennis played bass for him, to my surprise. Tang is a wonderfully gifted songwriter but his vocals are rather weak. He wrties beautiful lyrics (I loved his song on a sinking hotel in Venice) but all that pitch-bending in his voice drove me up the wall. For an encore he did an impromptu version of New Order's "Bizarre Love Triangle," which I thought was appropriate, since New Order's Bernard Sumner also does that pitch-bend thing with his voice.