Well after having to fall asleep to the sound of gunshots right outside our window we once again get woken up by the hostel staff telling us we had to leave the premise so they can do their mandatory "cleaning fest". So we once again escape out into the blazing hot city dazed and confused but this time we feel a little more confident after our previous nights excursions. We go over to the "nice side of town" to some cafes in order to try the "wonderfully cheap and amazing coffee" that our over enthusiastic roommate couldn't stop talking about. Once we arrived bibles and journals in hand ready to spend a day relaxing we sat down in some of the comfy looking seats and ordered some of the cheapest things on the menu. Unfortunately every place in Armenia, and vehicle that drives by is playing obnoxiously loud, and bad I may as well add, American pop music. So Jef couldn't focus to read or write so we decide to leave and our bill is way over the price of what we ordered. It turns out that certain areas of cafes charge you a ridiculous amount of money just to sit there. So Jef's anger level is rising but I wanted a milkshake so we went to the neighbouring cafe just to get servers that seem to want to get hit by a car to not look us foreigners in the eye and or serve on us. It's weird that we don't stop getting stares from any random person on the street but when it comes to those that we want to notice us, servers, they would gladly look the other way at all costs. Anyways, I guess this story is not to interesting since I do eventually get my awful chocolate milkshake and I leave unsatisfied and Jef leaves pissed.
We go back to the hostel and meet up with our buddy David again, who is opening for a local show in town so we decide to go check that out. He was super nervous talking about how he couldn't remember his lyrics, and he is in a New York band back home, so I was getting a little nervous for him but Jef and I supported him all the same. We were at a local bar/club that was built in order to host shows since you could see the stage no matter what floor or area of the club you were in. It was pretty crowded and we made friends really quickly with a couple of local fellows and some others that were in the bands. Then David took the stage, just guitar in hand, and he was incredible! He absolutely blew Jef and I away. He sounded a lot like the lead singer of The Format or from one of mine and Jef's favorite bands Buster Blue. After his set a local Armenian band came up and we disliked them from the beginning. They were super showy and the music was not very good, none of it was unique or stood out and the lead singer kept stopping the rest of the band mid song to tell them that were playing wrong and then she would restart. After that band came the main band who we met before the show. They are from New York as well and the stand up base player went to Chico! They definitely stole the crowd and were probably one of the best bands I have ever heard. Very folksy, the lead singer\band name is Sima Cunningham and her little brother (the stand up bass player) is a scrawny little white guy with a Jew Fro and was just dripping with bluesy soul.
We stayed out pretty darn late that night, we went to couple local bars after the show with Sima and her band and David. We went to one bar where everyone sits on floor pillows and the walls are covered in tapestries and everyone gets up and dances in the middle. It was wonderful and packed full. We then walked back with a drunken David who talked of moving to California and living in our tree house (probably just false hopes).
That night was a good night...and we slept soundly absent from the sounds of gunshots.
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