Prologue
I introduced Jabin Law, an independent singer/songwriter from here in Hong Kong, in a previous essay, but I think he deserves a full article about him, for I promised him a review (which has not materialised) on his double-album Ahistorical.
Perhaps a reflection on a concert I attended instead.
Life under the mask mandate
It was a scorching Sunday afternoon in June. It felt unbearable adhering to the mask mandate in such weather. You cannot remove your masks unless you’re doing “rigorous physical exercises”. Also, the social distancing regulations forbid live music events at bars. Or any type of gathering. Unless they attend pop concerts at the Coliseum or commute by the Mass Transit Railway (MTR).
We were just going to Jabin’s private performance in the living room of our mutual friend’s place. This was what we could do to watch a show “legally”, in the form of a small family gathering.
Around ten of us were sparsely congregated outside the MTR station, already drawing some attention from concerned onlookers as we started walking together. Some over-enthusiastic Hongkongers like to poke their noses around “illegal activities”, such as young people gathering and not wearing masks properly (sometime in 2019, wearing black clothes came to be considered suspicious).
Fortunately, we didn’t look conspicuous enough to get us reported or confronted. (We marched to the venue in a 4-4-2 soccer formation.)
How many things can one do in a living room in Hong Kong?
Including the hosts and the performers, we were all packed in an approximately 200 sq ft (18.5 sqm) living room. The size of the living room didn’t surprise us. Our living rooms can be way smaller. New “nano flats” in Hongkong can be as small as 200 sqft, including an open kitchen, a bathroom and a balcony. And are still sold at 6 million HKD (around 760,000 USD). What surprised us was that 15 people sat quite comfortably in the diamond-shaped living room, facing the “stage” with the backdrop of a corner of Victoria Harbour. My wife was the luckiest audience member – she took the massage chair.
For a musician with an extensive discography: three albums, two double albums and one live album, we expected Jabin to choose from his own catalogue some tracks that would suit the cosy mood of the living room. But we were surprised again. He decided to sing just covers in his one-hour performance. He explained that the audience had listened to most of his songs in other shows; it would be boring just to listen to the same set-list in this special show.
This reminds me of a quote from the book I’m reading, Beach House Burning, by James Reagan: “[The country singer] personalizes these songs because they’re all so general in [the audience’s] emotion window that [they have] no choice but to nod along with him.” Although we might not think the same way, the singer had his own considerations: perhaps he didn’t want us to appreciate his songs just because we know them well.
Poor reviewer as I am, I regret not having made notes of the covers he did. Now my memories failed me. All I remember was that Jabin and Belinda harmonised two Beatle tracks “If I Needed Someone” and “Here, There and Everywhere” – I added a third harmony under my breath.
Because of the immersive nature of the experience, the details didn’t matter much – what mattered was the vibe, at times warm, at times nostalgic, and at times fun. In the frame capturing just a corner of the living room, so many things were going on on.
At this moment, the living room became more than just a stage – the whole place transcended into a performance; Jabin was singing; Belinda, munching chocolate; Rocky, taking pictures; Jason and Isaac started their chess tournament. The rest of the guests were drinking the watermelon lemonade the host prepared, serenaded by the show in front of them.
When Jabin finished his set, he went back on his “promises” and sang a couple of originals. Upon the audience’s request, he sang “Morning Song (See You Soon)”, which resonated with the mood of the room perfectly:
“So here’s the morning song
But you can sing it in the evening too
This cannot be wrong
It’s promised by the sun and the moon
See you soon”
He sang to the setting sun; he also sang this as a curtain call: this performance was Jabin’s last show in Hong Kong for some time, for he’s leaving for the UK to “learn to fly”, as the host told us jokingly.
I knew Jabin would be leaving, but not for good, as he explained. So I came to this show not just as an audience. Though I didn’t say it in front of him, I attended the show as a friend, as a gesture of sincere gratitude for his music and energy sent in my way, and as a wrap-up of our music journey since I first met him in around 2014.
The Power of Three
At different times, my wife has asked me, “Why do you like Jabin so much?”
There is a saying: if you hear about someone or something three times in your life, you’ve got your mind set on them. “The power of three” has a cumulative emotional effect that reinforces a person’s curiosity and desire to pursue something meaningful or simply fantastic.
My brain may be fabricating some stories just to make this point: I heard about Jabin (at least) three times before he made me his fan. The first time was when a good friend, a frequent show-goer, recommended his music to me, saying “you both are quite alike”. Later on, I found out we both like playing finger-picking guitar, listening to similar music, doing lots of solo stuff while leading a band… I decided to see his performances and immediately fell in love with his music.
The second time was at a show we both played at The Wanch, the legendary music venue at the outskirt of Wanchai, a district often frequented by the US Navy when their carriers visited Hongkong, where they would get into drink and trouble, visit striptease bars and take ladies of the night back to their hotels. The Wanch was away from that part of the underworld, so that we could focus on performing our original music without having to do requests. Now the US Navy fleets will no longer be allowed to visit Hongkong (following the 2019 protest and the US signing Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Acts of 2019).
Life went on anyway. It was already hard for bars to survive in the absence of the Navy; especially now that we have Covid and thus (almost) no tourists. The Wanch, having been on Jaffe Road since 1987, shut down in August 2020. All the memories I have about the place – the empty and full houses I had performed in, the free beers I had had, the cigarettes I had smoked, The Beatles’ nights I organised, Zoe seeing my first performance, my late father seeing my performance one last time – can no longer be revisited physically.
The third time I heard about him was when I planned a farewell show for myself as I headed to Sydney to do my PhD. Another friend, who had been very active in the local busking scene, recommended the name again as he helped me organise the show. I still keep his setlist, including “Let It All Begin Again”:
“They said I sounded so much like Nick Drake
I told them I – I don’t know who he is
Is he a writer, a gambler or a dreamer
The sun is up, the moon is down
My friend
Let it all begin again”
He doesn’t sound like Nick Drake, in my opinion. He sounds like Jabin Law.
Then we went on. Jabin took off, released several albums, and played a few festivals and exclusive concerts. I took off (literally), did my PhD in Sydney and came back
We met again. By then, I had become a more dedicated audience member than an enthusiastic performer. But one time, I invited him to my place for dinner, and he promised: “let’s jam sometime.”
And that “sometime” took over a year.
Epilogue
We finally played together in the living room, as the private performance had officially ended. He let me play his Epiphone Texan FT-79 Acoustic, and keenly explained that this was the exact model Paul McCartney played on “Yesterday”.
I was able to play a few Beatle tunes with the guitar, as a qualified “Beatle jukebox”, but my fingers were too rigid to improvise, in stark contrast with Jabin’s slender fingers, which pulled off some ridiculous blues and jazz licks as we did some three-chord jams, with Isaac and Jason (the chess masters I mentioned earlier) on piano and guitar.
This was an incredible moment for me as the elder one in the group. It had been a while since I’d been accepted by a new social (music) group and spent a day together, in person. It’s something that we have all needed for a long time – human touch and socialisation. This is especially so for people like me who don’t have a strong family bond or children. And keep having friends leaving Hong Kong.
