Last Saturday night a couple friends and I made the journey to Club Evans in Hongdae to hear the jazz fusion group Crystal Rain. They’re promoting their first CD that has been recently released.
I have no idea what their names are because it’s all in Korean, but this is what the Babel Fish online translator spit out:
That’s not really helpful, but it is funny. We reached the Club minutes before the band was set to go on stage and the whole joint was packed. All the tables were crammed full of eager listeners and the bar was crowded with customers jockeying for a drink. For a minute we thought that we just might leave, but then decided to stay near the back wall and stand.
As luck would have it one of the waitresses spotted us and ushered us over to a window with a big enough ledge where we could sit down. It was perfect.
The band hit the stage and began to jam. The singer started off patchy, but soon her voice warmed up and she was definitely easy on the ears. The band hit us with jazz fusion ballads and even a hi gear jazzy version of Alicia Keyes If I Ain’t Got You. The songs had a definite lounge vibe and only a couple of up tempo songs peppered the set.
The band was perfect. There’s nothing like live music, especially a jazz inspired band doing their thing. The only thing I was missing was the brass and that would’ve been the icing on the cake.
If you get the chance to hear Crystal Rain live don’t pass it up. I give them ***!